It always surprises me how he will eat styrephone or something like that but he won't eat a bite of rice or chicken. He is so extremely picky but not when he really needs to be. Poison control says get to nearest hospital so I went, no hesitation.
My only mistake is having taken them literally, I went to the nearest even though another ten minute drive would leave me at children's hospital. Instead, I stopped at our local hospital. Which is a great hospital, the twins were born there, just not for pediatric emergencies. In any case, I took him and it was nuts.
They brought him in quickly which I was thankful because he was already starting to act up. Then once in, they wrapped him up in a papoose and immediately IV'd him and took blood. Getting his IV in was rough. It took 5 nurses and myself to hold down this little three year old boy. He is strong but he was now stressed so he was even stronger. He screamed so hard and so loud that he actually burst a vein on his forehead. I too was scared for him now.
The intake nurse came in and told me a story of her "typical" daughter eating her cats medication for seizures. She told me E would be fine, if her daughter survived that, he would too. This woman who didn't know me from Adam tells me just what I needed to hear. Basically, I'm not a crap mom and all kids will do something at one point or another that leads them right to E's outcome, sitting in a hospital scared. (Angel #1)
E's health was obviously important to me but I was also consumed with worry of the fact that he was terrified. He kept saying to me "Mama, I scared." At one point he collapsed on the gurney, laying perfectly still and said "I dead." I blame is sister E for that, she says the craziest stuff when they pretend play and that is one of them. E still has speech but is limited, we had a hard time determining what and how much he ate. I left my mom at home trying to determine what was ingested but blood work determined that they would simply keep him for observation. The nurses warned me that his behavior would become more agitated and aggressive as meds work their way through his system. At one point, he looked like a fish out of water, flopping and jolting about. Fortunately, "Not the Mama" was there to help me with him and kept rocking him back to sleep when I couldn't. (Angel #2)
A friend of mine here rushed to be with us at hospital but when she realized she couldn't help me there, she went to my home and helped my parents with my kids getting them each off to bed. Staying with my mom until she knew E would be okay and that my kids and my mom were asleep and calm. (Angel #3)
Around two in the morning, the doctor gave us the all clear to go home. E lay asleep when the nurse came in to take his IV off. He was tired, cranky and scared so we were relieved when he had finally fallen asleep. And was seemingly asleep for remainder of the night. We didn't want to wake him only to torture him all over again. The nurse was so calm and easy going about it. As she sat on floor slowly unwrapping his IV bandage to remove IV, she talked to us. She shared with us that she will be careful as possible because she didn't want to agitate him any further. She mentioned she was on the Autism Board and that she understood E's situation very well. Making it a point to let me know that these things happen sometimes, especially with little ones like E. She took care with him and was successful in not waking him. She once again reassured us that he would be okay. Told us what to expect and do in the next 2 days and sent us home. (Angel #4)
Over all, I am grateful to the entire staff that helped us get through this. Glad that E was surrounded by caring people at Lex Hospital. In addition, I am extremely grateful for the angels that walk this earth with us. All of these women helped us tremendously by being non-judgemental and super supportive. I have to believe that God puts people in your path for one reason or another. In this case, he sent me the mom that had been through this, the calming spirit in my life and soother to my boy, my sister, a friend to provide caring support and the head nurse that was educated on Autism more than most.
Helpful information if you ever find yourself in this situation:
American Association of Poison Control
1-800-222-1222 Emergency call line
With Love and dedication, anything is possible!
