Ava got into my medicine organizer and I thought she may have swallowed one or more of my BP meds. It happened right before I was going to put her to bed and check my boards. She was finishing up Lady and the Tramp so I went to the restroom - when baby says give me room, you have to go right then! I came out and she came wandering into my room with my pill case and a handful of pills. I'm alone with her, so I was in a semi-calm state of panic - the "Oh My God's" were rolling off my tongue one right after another. I new I had to put the pills back in the right sections to see what if anything was missing. Sure enough there were a few unaccounted for and I retraced her path from the kitchen - where the pills are kept above the sink in the window sill - to my bedroom - all tile flooring. I found a couple more and put them in and still, they weren't all there. So I called poison control, because I knew with BP meds,it can be a really bad situation on a little person. They urged me to take her to the ER and they called ahead with her name and everything.
They no longer pump stomachs due to possible aspiration of fluids from the stomach. Now they have them drink a liquid charcoal substance that binds to the medicine or chemical to keep it from being absorbed by the body. Naturally she wouldn't drink it and they had to force it down her with a medicine syringe. Thankfully that worked or they would have had to put a tube down her throat to get it into her stomach. She was poked 3 times before they got the IV in her tiny little hand and we had to sit there and be monitored for up to 8 hours. Constant vitals were recorded and BPs at 30 minute intervals. Fortunately, if you can call it that, we were released after 4 hours of monitoring & 5 hours in the ER total, when Poison Control called back to check on the readings and gave the OK for us to leave. We got home at 4 am.
My son had come to the house and found one of the stray pills. He told me where he found it - off the beaten path from Kitchen to my Room - in the livingroom and I began looking and found another this morning myself. Still missing a couple, which I managed to find this evening - one in the livingroom, one just inside her bedroom doorway.
All pills have now been accounted for and I don't have to worry about her finding one on the floor somewhere. The others are now on top of the fridge where she cannot climb to get to them, but where I can see them to remind me to take my multiple doses a day. So she basically went through all of that for nothing - but it certainly was worth the trauma, to know that if she had have gotten one down, she would still be with me. It don't think I could have trusted what I saw Tuesday night, even if I thought they were all accounted for at that time. It wouldn't have been worth the risk at that time. I will be getting some syrup of epicac to have on hand should she, God forbid, ever ingest anything else.
So that's where I've been and why I wasn't around. If you've finished my novella, thanks and I hope you don't think poorly of me as a parent.
Sorry to be MIA yesterday and most of today.
Re: Sorry to be MIA yesterday and most of today.
8/24/07
