ER trip :(

So I guess I forgot to post about our late night New Years Day trip to the ER. Probobly because I was partly traumatized myself and pretty much embarrassed since I usually consider myself a good mother. But here it goes anyway....

We had got home from Lacy's house and I was sitting in the living room talking to Mallory on the phone, Josh had gone into the computer room to pay some bills or something, and Maddie was doing her usual run around the house, make a mess of everything bit. Well I heard some rattling so I told Josh to see if she was in the kitchen. (She has gotten into the Marshmallow Matties before (which is the off brand of Lucky Charms) because we dont have anywhere high enough to put that big fat bag of cereal. So he goes in and finds her NOT in the kitchen, but in the bathroom on the floor. She had dragged her potty chair up to the sink and got the bottle of Tylenol down. Either she is really strong or the last time we used it didnt completely shut the lid, because she had the lid off and was playing with them. Well I checked her teeth and tounge and due to the short amount of time that she had the bottle open, didnt think she had eaten any. (She never has been one to put things in her mouth anyway) However, just to be safe, we called poision control to ask their advise. Well she had me count the pills in the bottle (the big bottle of 225) and so I told her there were 194 accounted for. She said we should take her to the ER because for Maddies age and weight any more than 4 could be lethal. So we end up going for precautionary reasons, better safe than sorry.

Well it was horrible!!!!

They put an IV in her hand and drew blood to test the Tylenol level, and while we were waiting for the results the nurse came in with a huge bottle of activated charcoal and proceeded to fill a surenge with it....She struggled for about 15 minutes trying to force it down Maddie, then said we were more than welcome to try if we thought it would work better. So even though I am extremely upset at this point watching my daughter squeal and grit her teeth to prevent anymore of that black chalky substance going into her mouth, I thought I better try. Josh said it was much better than the alternative which would have been to put a tube down her throat. Well we finally got the first serenge emptied, and the nurse said we had 7 more to go....WHAT???????

Her poor face, neck, and hair was already stained black from what she had spit out. Her teeth were all stained and I hate to say that she reminded me of the Penguin in one of the Batman movies...not a pretty sight to say the least.

So we fought for about 45 more minutes and were able to get 4 surenges down.....The nurse thankfully asked the doctor if that would work, and since her first blood sample tested 0 for Tylenol he said we could stop until they did a second blood test. So they came in and took some more blood and it once again tested 0.
Then to make me feel like an even bigger idiot or bad mother, as if I needed any help, the doctor wrote on the discharge papers. "Keep all medications out of reach of children" Seriously! Did he think that I put it in her toy box?

So needless to say my instincts were right and she had not had any at all, which I was thankful for, even though I had to put my daughter through all that tourture for nothing. However, it did remind us that she is not a baby anymore and she is smart enough to find a way to get whatever she wants.....

So we are putting all medications up higher, and weeding out the ones we dont need. Also I am going to write down the current count of pills in each bottle so in the event that this situation ever arise again (hopefully not!) I will have a more accurate idea of what was in the bottle to begin with.

I was so super worried that she would hate me for forcing that stuff into her mouth, but she woke up the next morning and said I love you sooooo much....It made me feel better to know that at least she had probobly forgotten what I had done to her the night before. (Even though Josh and I will never forget it!)