On Wednesday, I picked up a little desk calendar from Barnes and Noble that gives a whole year (365 days) of German phrases and cultural items. After the events of last night, I couldn't sleep, so I cleaned my way past midnight into my birthday. In my overtired, somewhat cynical frame of mind, I picked up the calendar and flipped to the September 23rd day. It read "Lass dir keine grauen Haare wachsen." The literal translation being "Don't let your hair go gray." Huh. Interesting considering I had just completed my middle child's fifth visit to the ER (second this year, which I could not remember why we went the first time this year until a friend reminded me that I sliced the child's eyeball with my fingernail). Heavy sigh.
At this point, as I have worked out the details of what happened in my mind, I should probably explain what exactly happened. It began while I was skyping with Keith. Caelan walked in, once again frantically pawing at her mouth saying "It tastes tewwible" and I'm sure it did. I asked her what she had in her mouth and she handed me a small travel tube for Advil. I wouldn't have been as frantic if it only had Advil in it, but I knew that it also contained two Imitrex pills that I take for migraines. I asked her how many she swallowed. She said two. I asked her what color they were. She said white. Advil isn't white. Imitrex is. As an adult, I can take two in a 24 hour period. I can take the first one and then wait two hours before taking the second. She took two at the same time. The child doesn't even weigh 30 lbs. My first concern was to get her taken care of and figure out the steps to disaster later. Not even a full week ago, I put Poison Control on speed dial. My irritation knew no bounds when I called them twice, was told by recording that it was in fact Poison Control and to press one for English. I did this twice. I pressed one. And the call was disconnected both times.
I know from personal knowledge that the pill goes into effect between 15 and 20 minutes. I couldn't imagine how fast it would work on a three year old who took both pills. I called a friend and she arrived at my door as I was on the way out. The hospital is four blocks from my house. I'm not sure that's a good thing or bad, but at least it's there for Caelan. To look at her, she never appeared to be bothered by the medicine. As a matter of fact, I think some of her trauma room antics made the nurses nervous. One nurse put up the side rails so she wouldn't fall off the bed. Hahaha. They couldn't know that that was an added bit of fun for her to swing on. The nurses/doctor checked her heart and lungs frequently, but everything stayed normal. A few times she laid down on the bed and said her head hurt, that she was tired or that she felt sick, but then a few minutes after she said these things she would pop back up like nothing was wrong. It's the moment as the parent when you want to hug the child for being well and shake the child for taking the pills and worrying me sick.
After an hour and a half, we were discharged, the nurses and doctors all expressing to me the importance of keeping medicine away from my children. I was still trying to figure out how she got the medicine in the first place. It was not my full container of the prescription and because I'm pregnant, I have not carried the medicine around with me in nearly six months. I probably haven't taken it in seven or eight months. When I'm not pregnant, I carry the small container of Advil in my purse with two Imitrex in it, but this container hasn't been in my purse for months. Interesting. So, after much thought and personal investigation, this is what I've come up with. I know for sure that she ingested one Imitrex and about 1/3 of another one because I found the chewed up pieces in Caelan's bedroom floor. It was recognizable and maintained enough shape that I know it was not Advil.
Now, how did she get it? I found the closet door open in my bedroom and the purse I carried in the spring in the floor of my closet. It had been hanging up. I should not mention that it was hanging up high, because that's irrelevant to Caelan. I'm thinking she was after gum and found a container holding 'mints' or some other such tasty candy. I completely overlooked the pill bottle when I cleaned out the purse. It was in a small zip pocket in the side. What can I say? I haven't thought about it in months, and now I have a reasonable explanation. I supposed we'll see if there are any gray hairs... but that calendar is a 2012 calendar, so maybe it's advice for the coming year. Yeah, that sounds good.
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