Male1: A lot of kids seem to have allergies to peanuts and some other kind of foods and they carry around this thing called an epi-pen. Can you something about this and why some kids will carry it?
Male2: Over the years, we have seen that there are some patients when they are exposed to certain foods, peanuts being one of the most notorious can have very severe allergic reactions known as anaphylaxis. If you are allergic to a food like peanuts and anaphylaxis occurs, it can be a life threatening condition. The symptoms of anaphylaxis would include hives, breathing difficulty, swelling of the throat and perhaps feeling faint and having an abnormal heart rhythm or blood pressure. These types of symptoms are truly emergencies and need immediate medical attention. An epi-pen is a device which carries adrenaline. It is a device that looks like a pen and will automatically inject the adrenaline into the skin once this pen-like device is placed against the skin with only a small amount of pressure. The advantage of adrenaline given in this fashion is that it allows the medication to enter into the body very rapidly reversing these life-threatening symptoms I have just described, so if anaphylaxis is a risk in you because of your severe allergy to these foods, then having an epi-pen on your purse at all times will allow you to administer this emergency medication and prevent a life-threatening event from occurring.
The thing to remember always is that the medicine that you are giving in the epi-pen is very shortlived. It lasts only about 20 minutes in your body, after that it is gone and so the medicine buys you time. once you use an epi-pen, you need to seek immediate medical attention so that if as the drug wears off, symptoms start to come back, you have a physician available who can continue the treatment in the proper fashion.
Male1: Sometimes, it might be wise to even have two epi-pens because if they do not get to you and the kid’s symptoms are persisting, sometimes, they even give a second dose now, I have heard.
Male2: We generally have a patient have two epi-pens available. Twenty minutes is not a very long time and if it—and symptoms, as I said can recur once the first adrenaline shot wears off. So having two epi-pens available is an excellent precaution so that if you are not yet in medical attention, you have a back up dose so that you can prevent that serious event from returning.
Male1: If your kid has some difficulty in swallowing as his history, it would be proof to parents not to be afraid to give it until it might be life-threatening.
Male2: Absolutely. One of the most common problems we have is that even when we have identified the child as being at risk, and even when we have prescribed the epi-pen to the parent, the parent when the time comes is too nervous or scared to actually give the medication. There is very little, if any, downside risk for giving a dose of adrenaline to your patient. If the side effects of tremor, nauseousness, heart rate will go a little faster, remember, I said, it wears off within 20 minutes. So if you have a child that is having a severe allergic reaction and there is any question in your mind, it is always better to give the dose of medication, call your ambulance or go to medical attention immediately and then follow through in that fashion.
Male1: The storage of this is important too. You do not keep it for years, so you should be careful how you store it too?
Male2: As with any medication, an epi-pen has an expiration date. Never hold an epi-pen beyond the expiration date. Always get a new one once the expiration date comes. There are also very clear cut descriptions of the temperature range with to store the epinephrine. We need to avoid extremes of temperature by all means and it is clearly written on the device. For example, you never want to let that epi-pen sit on your car on a hot summer day. The medication will no longer work once it has been sitting in that type of temperature for any length of time.
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