Poison Control

Micah:  Want candy!
Me: No, you can't have any candy.  Go play in the toy room.
Micah:  Awwwwww

He wasn't happy with me but he did what I asked and went to go play (or so I assumed).  In the meantime, the older boys wanted to go to the shop where Joe was working.  I called Joe and stayed on the phone with him while the boys walked back to the shop.  When I was sure Joe had sight of Noah and Jonah, I hung up the phone and went in search of Micah.  I thought it strange that the door to the toy room was closed, and when I went to open it I could not.  Someone (Micah) had pushed the desk in front of the door blocking the entrance.  The boy's toy room is linked to their bedroom by an adjoining bathroom so I walked through their bedroom to enter the toy room another way.  As I got to the other door, I was greeted by Micah with a look of pure guilt all over his face.  I bent down to ask him about the door being blocked and I could smell grape candy very strong.

Me:  Have you been eating something?
Micah:  Yes
Me:  What did you eat?
Micah:  Candy
Me: Show me what you ate.

Micah leads me into the toy room and I see an empty box of Tylenol sitting in the corner.  It was the meltaways for children 6-12 and he had chewed through the paper backing to devour eight tablets.  I immediately picked up the phone and dialed poison control.  Having three boys, I sort of know the number by heart.

Poison Control:  This is Poison Control, how may I help you?
Me:  My two year old just ate half a box of Tylenol.
Poison Control:  'Mam what is your name, address, and telephone number?

Now I understand why they ask all of that stuff.  They need to know in case they have to send out an ambulance or in case we get disconnected...but I always feel like such a bad Mom as I am admitting who I am and what I have allowed my child to do.  I also wonder if they aren't secretly pulling up my file and saying, "Oh, it is her again!"

Anyway, turns out there is a rather large margin of error that is allowed when dosing out Tylenol and they told me that Micah was going to be just fine.  In the back of my mind I was sort of thinking that at least he (and we) would at least get a good night's sleep...but once again I was wrong.  Turns out that an overdose of Tylenol actually makes a two year old hyper.  He did not go to sleep until after midnight and was wide awake at six the next morning.

As for poison control, I am really glad they are there.  It saved me from a trip to the ER just to calm my nerves and assure me that my child was going to be fine.

Assumptions

Late last night I heard Noah moaning and groaning in his sleep. I got up to check on him only to find him tossing and turning in bed saying that he did not feel good. I gave him a dose of Pepto and left to go get the thermometer. When I got back to check his temperature I asked him if he was feeling any better. His reply?

"Huh uh, my ears still hurt"

So the lesson for the day is two fold...don't assume you know what is wrong with your child without asking and Pepto does not work for an earache. At least I did not have to call poison control this time!

Come On In 2010!

I am so glad that tomorrow is a brand new day and the start of a new year. The last day of 2009 sure has not gone quite the way I planned.

To start off with, Micah did not fall asleep until 2:30 this morning. Today was my work outside the home day and I was supposed to get up at 5:00 so that I could get everything packed and everyone dressed to be out the door by 7:15. Somehow, the alarm did not get set after Joe left for work at 3:30, and I woke up at 7:02! Thirteen minutes is simply not enough time to pack lunches, nurse Micah, fix bottles, shower, dress three children, give everyone their meds, dress myself, and get supper in the crock pot. I finished up and walked out the door at 8:00, only forty-five minutes late. I called my boss on the way to the sitter and left a message saying that I would be in a little later than usual. When I got to the sitter, she met me at the door saying that her child was sick with a fever and she thought he had the flu. LOVELY!

I gave up on work for the day, packed all of the kids back into the car and headed home. Both Noah and Jonah were upset that they did not get to play at the sitter's house, so they were not in the best of moods. During Jonah's nap time, Noah and I experimented tried out a new recipe that turned into a disaster. Not only did we waste perfectly good ingredients, I ended up with chocolate strung from one end of the kitchen to the other.

After Joe came in from work, things calmed down a bit. We went to my Grandmother's house to have supper (my crockpot chili from this morning) and shoot fireworks. By the time we got home it was time for bedtime routines and once again meds all around. The kids have been sick for some time now. It seems as soon as they get over something, they come down with something else. I am dispensing thirteen prescription medicines among my three children twice a day.

I was telling Joe that I don't know how I have managed to keep all of the kid's medicines straight for the past few weeks when I realized that I had just given Noah one of his medicines twice. Not only had I given it to him twice, but I had given him double the dosage amount each time. This meant that my child had just ingested four times the amount of medicine that he was supposed to have.

1-800-922-1117

Does anyone recognize that number? It is the poison control hotline. I memorized it when Noah was a baby after he drank a bottle of formula mixed with Christmas tree preservatives. (Long story for another time!) Anyway, I spoke with a very nice lady who took all of my information and told me that Noah would be just fine. He just needed to drink plenty of clear liquids to dilute the meds in his system. I gave him one glass of juice and three glasses of water. Did I mention that I give meds at bedtime? I am assuming that I will be changing sheets in the morning.

So the last day of 2009 has definitely not been my best. Come on in 2010...it can only go up from here!