Episode 2 "That Was NOT Candy"

I don't plan on making this blog a daily thing, but I will say that I will be writing often. If not as an outlet for my creative energy, then as a warning for other parents, couples, and just people in general, to give you an idea of the twists and turns of life. Granted, some of these things may not happen to you. Even so, what harm is there in being prepared? I wish I could have been prepared for this MAJOR episode in my life.

My Dad, Mom, little brother and little sister live in Las Vegas, NV. My dad works in construction and needed to take a week-long class in California in order to get a new job. I don't get to see my parents often so I try to take every opportunity I can. Not to mention, Jenna absolutely adores her "Pompa" as she calls him. So we went to see him as much as we could during that week without impeding his studies. It was on our very first visit with him that I had the worst experience of my entire existence.

The date is June 13, 2011. The time, approximately 6 pm. We are at my Grandparent's house visiting with my dad. Now my grandma makes jewelry and takes medication. Not to mention she has a lot of collectibles and such that Jenna could easily break. Jenna is the type of 2 year old you would expect - A mini tornado. And my husband is the kind of father you would expect - oblivious. Just kidding. But for the most part I am the parent that is chasing Jenna down. Yep, you know what I mean.. "Jenna, get over here" and "Jenna, don't touch that", over and over and over with the help of my Grandma, always the parent, while the "men" are having a conversation. How this is accomplished over my constant squawking I have no idea but I am none-the-less impressed. Some day doctors will realize that "Selective Hearing" is a medical condition that requires shock treatment.

As most parents know, when your 2 year old is quiet for any amount of time longer than a minute, they're either asleep or doing something they're not supposed to be. While the men were talking, I took a quick listen to see if I could hear where she was. When I didn't hear her, warning bells started going off in my head. So I called out to her while walking towards the rooms to find her. She responds with "I'm right here Mom!", as though it should be obvious, while walking out of my grandparent's bedroom. I do a mommy-scan of her little body and instantly notice her clutched hand. I ask "Jenna, what do you have in your hand?" And she opens up that little palm of hers and says "Candy." Now we're back to the title! That was NOT candy. Sure enough my darling, little Angel had one of my grandma's diabetes pills.

Now, we're going to stop right there for a second. I know you're thinking, "Well how did she get the pills?" or "Why weren't you watching her better?" or even better, "She opened up the pill bottle? I'm impressed!" But before you go and start formulating your own conclusions as to my parenting ability or my daughter's ability to grasp the mechanics of a childproof pill bottle, let me explain to you how she got the "candy". It's quite simple really... my grandma has a pill divider. So she has her pills separated by day and even time of day. They're little plastic compartments with pop-open tops. And although she isn't a Baby Einstein, my daughter does love her M&M Minis... But despite the con of easy access, one good thing came out of the pill seperation. We were able to find out very quickly which pills Jenna had taken. Because, yes, 2 pills were missing. And this happened in the time span of about 2 minutes. So, short of following her every move 24 hours a day, it was very hard to have prevented this, without some kind of preparation. (Quick note: With small, disaster-prone children, whenever you go to someone's house, make sure pills, breakables, and anything of the sort is put away and locked up) And if you still question my parenting, well......... Bye. Leave now. Because no matter what I say, you will continue to judge, despite the fact that I spent 8 hours playing with my daughter in the ER. For those of you who are still reading, well, here is what you can be prepared for if you suspect your child swallowed any sort of medication that they weren't supposed to.

Since this is my first child, I had no clue what to do. So, I did the only logical thing I could think of. Call her doctor's office and speak to the on-call nurse. When I told her what had happened she said I needed to call Poison Control and proceeded to give me the phone number. At this point I felt a little flutter of panic in the pit of my stomach. With shaky hands I dialed the number to Poison Control. I explained to him the situation. We suspected Jenna ate the pills. There were two 5mg tablets of Glyburide missing. And she is only 2. Without hesitation he informed me that Jenna needed to be taken to the Emergency Room immediately. He takes my information, I hang up, and walk out to the living room to tell everybody the status of the situation. At this point I am on auto-pilot. I can't panic. I just know that I have to get to the ER as quickly as is safely possible.

Once I get to the ER, I tell them the situation and they admit us immediately given Jenna's age and the severity of the situation. According to the guy at Poison Control, the pills we suspected she ate are to lower blood pressure. How bad can that possibly be, you ask? Well, they were adult doses and 5mg is enough to lower a child's blood sugar drastically. And we thought she had taken 2. So yeah. It was pretty bad. Three things had to happen now. First, blood had to be drawn for testing. And as you might know, children don't like that too much. Jenna was screaming bloody murder. And I was starting to panic. Juan had to hold her because I was shaking so badly. The second thing, her finger had to be pricked every hour for *8* hours to check her blood sugar levels. And the third, and in my opinion worst possible thing to happen, was that she had to drink charcoal. Yes, charcoal. Like the stuff you use to grill hamburgers. From what I understand, it was supposed to absorb the medication. But, as you can imagine, Jenna didn't think it tasted very good. So much so that they had to try to force feed it to her.

It took 4 nurses and myself to hold her down. Not only that, they had to strap her to a board and wrap her in a blanket. Boy, that adrenaline sure is something. Because that still wasn't really enough. The had sucked the charcoal drink into 4 syringes to try to force her to drink, and we only managed to get half of one. They tried the plug the nose thing so she would open her mouth, but she found a way around that. Smart kid... The charcoal was what really got to me. I was in tears. My 2 year old daughter is strapped to a board, with black stuff spewing from her mouth, tears streaming down her face, and I felt like it was my fault. I almost lost it at that point and broke down. Tears were now streaming down my face, but then, they decided to not try to force it anymore, and just check her blood sugar. If it ever went lower than a 90, we would try again. Thankfully though, her blood sugar levels never dropped into the danger zone and we were released at around 2:30 in the morning. This was a learning experiences and sometimes, bad things have to happen in order for you to get the message. Believe me, not only did I get the message, loud and clear, Jenna now knows that she can't just be grabbing whatever she wants, so I don't have to look at her and say "That was NOT candy!!!!"

This is though... I'd give you candy for breakfast, lunch, AND dinner if it meant we would never have to do that again...

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Mom & DAdventures

Well, I can say with utmost certainty that I NEVER realized just how insane and hard parenting can be. I'd like to think that my husband and I are great parents to our 2 year old girl Jenna. She's happy, healthy, smart, and just an all around joyful child. But sometimes, things beyond our control happen that call into question whether we really are quite that great. Take for instance the episode we had with her that I've dubbed "Lost: Jenna's Great Adventure".

Having been out of a job for a while, I was on the computer filling out online applications. This process is made easier for me when I have music on at full blast. So I have headphones on and am almost completely oblivious to the world around me. I say "almost" because I am using my peripheral vision to keep some grip on reality. And it is with these peripherals that I notice my husband trying to get my attention. So I take out one headphone and ask him what's going on. And his words are "We can't find Jenna." I'm not one to immediately panic so I make a systematic search of the house and backyard since the doors to the front yard are closed and Jenna doesn't know how to open them. Well, it suddenly became obvious to me that although Jenna doesn't know how to open a door knob, her older cousin who she had been playing with does. So I ask her if they went to the front yard at all. And sure enough, our fears are soon realized that yes indeed they were in the front yard. And not only that, she had come in to use the restroom and left Jenna out there. Alone. Without telling anyone.

Let me pause for a moment here and say that not once did I blame my niece for anything so I wasn't angry. My niece is an only child and older (I think about 8) and I don't believe she understood that although she can play in the front yard and behave responsibly by not wandering off, a 2 year old doesn't have quite the same capability. Of course after Jenna was found I simply told her that next time to please tell someone where they were at and to not leave Jenna out front where she could wander off. By the look on my niece's face she was torn and berating herself on the inside for what she had done and I tried not to add to that in order to keep from further traumatizing her.

Now, back to the story at hand...

After my niece told us what happened, my husband was in a near frenzy. He hopped in the car and started driving away to search for her. My father-in-law and niece went another way, my sister-in-law still searching the house, just in case. I decided that would be a good time to phone the police but I was first going to call my husband to let him know I would stay on our street for when they arrived. As I'm walking down the street trying to reach him, the phone just ringing and ringing, I see a pink and purple outfit in the distance... and I hang up and start running! I knew it was my baby. And sure enough it was. With a man trailing behind her. Initially I was shocked of course. I didn't know the man, but a split second later I realized, who knows how long she'd been lost for? If he were to be a kidnapper, they'd be long gone by now. So relief and gratefulness washed through me and out of my eyes in the form of tears. By this time Jenna has spotted me too and with a joyous cry of "Mom!" she runs towards me. I squeeze her into my arms and tears are still running down my cheeks. She gives me a confused look and says "Don't cry Mom." As if it were that simple. To her it was one big adventure. To me it was one of THE worst moments and feelings in my life. And I've had some pretty bad ones. Juan has found us by now and is pulled up talking to the man. We both thank him and I start walking home with Jenna in my arms. I can't put her down. My fear of losing her was that great. Imagine how surprised, and not to mention awkward, I felt when the man started walking in the same direction...

Was he following us to see where we lived? Was he going to call Child Services over a simple mistake? What the heck was going on? Well, we stop in front of our house where everyone from our little search party has converged to welcome Jenna home from her little outing, and are now staring curiously at this man. As it turns out, he's our next door neighbor... whom we only manage to say hi to once in a while, never stopping to commit to memory what he looks like, or even what his name is. And so, he didn't recognize our daughter. All he knows is a little girl was knocking on his door and putting her fingers in his mail slot going "Helloooo!". He had an idea that she was ours but when he tried to find out she wouldn't go. So he says he followed her for 2, yes 2!, blocks before trying to lead her back down our street. At least we taught her to stop at crosswalks and wait for the light...

Now, I know that none of this is our fault and we didn't fail as parents but you still question it. And if you think this is crazy and scary, wait until you hear about Episode #2 "That Was NOT Candy".

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The face of trouble.