I had been over to my morning feed with Pippi, and on my way home stopped off to find something for the kid’s Halloween costumes. On my way home I called Micah to see what he was up to, and he responded, “Just sorting through pills to see which ones Dash took.” Are you freaking kidding me! Apparently, he snuck out of his crib and got into a drawer above his head and got the Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, etc… pill case of my moms. He opened them all up, dumped them out, and went to town on what I am sure he thought was candy. Long story short, nobody thought he would have actually taken them because they taste totally nasty, but he did. After sorting it all out, he took 7 pills in total. Not one of which was a baby aspirin or any of the vitamins she has in her daily routine. Instead, he picked out every little pink/blue/yellow pill — all of which were medications.
I called Carruthy, and he said that most were non toxic, and were fine for him to have ingested. But that one represses blood sugar levels, and that he needed to be monitored. Are you kidding! And we were off to the ER.
I had warnings from Carruthy and Poison Control that he may get very, very sleepy, and that is BAD….and to watch for it. And if he was already showing signs of sleepiness, I should probably call the ambulance.
Here is my boy in the ER waiting room….
Drowsy as can be!
In reality, this boy had to be told three times by the admitting nurse that he couldn’t jump off the chairs, or climb up the fish tank.
(I was filling out paperwork and getting out my insurance card for the front desk, not neglecting him.)
Once in, he finally calmed down enough to weigh in and get into our room.
They hooked him up to everything.
(All of which I was familiar with because Pippi was hooked up to the same stuff five floors up.)
I was dying, because within five minutes, he had bitten off his finger pulse monitor, and ripped the sticky leeds off of his tummy.
Then he got his IV, which the lame nurse had to poke around his arm three times until I asked her to get someone else.
Poor Dash, but he held really still which was awesome.
Micah made it to the hospital, and they both got to wear these fancy outfits to get an X-Ray of Dash’s tummy.
Then came the charcoal (which would stop any medicines from being active).
The nurses told us that it gets really messy, and kids don’t like the taste, and it is a real struggle…..but that he HAD to drink it!
They wanted to know if we wanted to take his shirt off because it stained, and I figured dark blue/black…what’s the difference.
And then it was time to drink.
And my sneaky suspicion came true…
The “chocolate milk” was a MAJOR HIT!
He got all the way to the bottom, and made those slurping sounds with the straw because he was trying to suck up every last drop.
Then he looked up at the nurses and said, “more”!?!?
He loved the stuff.
(I am not totally positive that he has taste buds — first the nasty pills and then liquid BBQ brickettes.)
And then he got five fat syringes filled with Dextrose (AKA sugar water) put straight into his veins.
Let the games begin.
When we got up the the PICU, we were greeted with familiar faces, and I introduced Micah to all of the nurses I knew.
It was a little humiliating, but they were as nice as can be.
They got Dash into a crib, and at first he was a little perplexed.
And then he started jumping like a maniac.
They finally completely caged him in like an animal to keep him from injuring himself as he climbed and jumped and did acrobatics in the crib.
Remember that he is on the ultimate legal sugar rush.
And then, the nurses and doctor (who were all ridiculously charmed by him) basically told us that the cure was to have him eat a ton of sugar.
So forget fruit and veggies….donuts and pudding and Popsicles were the items du jour.
Nonnie came to feed him two scoops of vanilla ice cream.
And Bella brought him his favorite — powdered white donuts.
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I am a little worried that he won’t be hugely deterred from coming to the hospital again, if sugar is the answer to his ailment. The ONLY thing I have in my favor is that lame IV nurse, who stuck his arm with a needle so many times it was sad. I am crossing my fingers that she scared him into never wanting to head back to hospital again. I have always heard that it is important to find the silver lining. In this case, it was difficult. But now upon further thought, I have found the silver lining:
1. The worst IV pricker of all time might have been a blessing in disguise.
2. The PICU is really close to the NICU, so I can attend to both hospital babies at the same time.
3. My child has a serious lack of taste buds, so he probably won’t be a picky eater like another boy I have.
4. This boy’s charm might take him really far in life.
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