Put this on the list…..

…….of something I NEVER want to experience again (along with natural labor)!!

Here’s the SHORT story:

Easton Overdosed on Acetaminophen & had to stay in the hospital for 1 1/2 days. He got tortured by many failed attempts to collect blood samples, had an IV for a day, & was such a good boy. He is fine now & his liver is too.

Here is the LONG story:

Thursday morning Brett put Easton down for his morning nap (9:30). He was still whining in his room at 10:00 when I went upstairs to get into the shower. At 10:30 I went in to his room because he was still making noise. When I looked in his crib, I saw Acetaminophen Gelcaps strewn ALL OVER,  and some of them had been sucked on. So we walked downstairs to see who gave him the Bottle of medicine. Come to find out, Avery was trying to be helpful so she gave Easton the ‘shaker’ (pill bottle) so he would stop crying during his naptime.

We weren’t mad….but we let her know she couldn’t give him things without us knowing. I called poison control and they told us we should go to the ER just to make sure he didn’t swallow any. So we went. We got there at 1:00 & they took us right back…..overdose must be a TRUE EMERGENCY….I’ve never been seen in the ER so quickly.

(Picture: trying to eat a cracker without bending his IV arm)

So the doctor came in and told us they would be taking a blood sample to check the Acetaminophen level in his blood, but she said most likely he didn’t swallow any because most babies spit them out because they don’t taste good. I, on the other hand, wasn’t too convinced because he can eat anything and not choke or gag. Plus, the gelcaps were tasteless, & slippery so he could have swallowed them with no problems.

At 2:30, a nurse came in to get the sample. She tried on the top of his foot…..no luck----he was SCREAMING. So they sent down 2 NICU nurses who each tried in both wrists…..no luck----he was SCREAMING. So they sent down someone from peds who tried in his arm…..no luck. So she decided to do a heel prick and just squeeze the blood out to fill up the tube. She had to prick both heels and it took at least 10 minutes to fill up the stupid tube (she spilled it twice)----Easton was SCREAMING & I was crying. She finally got enough to send to the lab & Easton immediately fell asleep. It was so hard to hold him down everytime they tried to get blood. I can handle once or twice, but I can’t handle seeing them dig around for several minutes while my baby is shaking his head no & screaming like I have never heard before! His sad eyes would just look at us like: “Why aren’t you saving me??? You’re right there! Just pick me up”. It was so awful.

(picture: playing with dad)

At 6:00 PM the PA came in and told us his Acetaminophen level was at 100. He said 10 is okay for a baby. That doesn’t tell us how many pills he swallowed, just that he did indeed swallow them, & he was in Over-dose. So the next step was to re-check his levels. If they were going down fast enough, that was good & they would just watch them until they were low enough. If they weren’t going down very quickly, he would need to take and antidote of Acetylcisteine (IV injection (Asist,Parvolex, Acetadote) – treatment of paracetamol/acetaminophen overdose) to protect his liver. So at 6:30 the peds lady came back in to torture my baby. She poked him in his arm and got it pretty quickly. The results showed that his levels weren’t going down fast enough. So he needed the Antidote.

At 8:00 a NICU nurse came in to start an IV. So here we go again! Luckily, she got it on the first try. Brett & his friend gave Easton a blessing & then Brett left to go get the girls from my friend who had been watching them all day. They started a 60 minute dose of Acetylcisteine through the IV and we found out he would be admitted to the hospital because he needed to have a continuous drip of the antidote for the next 24 hours.  UGH!

We finally moved from the ER up to the pediatric unit at 11:00 pm. I got Easton asleep and finally laid down at 12:30. Unfortunately, they check on children every hour so it wasn’t a great night for either of us.

The next day we just hung out. We did have one incident where I let Easton crawl around the room for a minute(I know…..gross, but he was desperate to get down and play) and he pulled his IV apart. He was bleeding all over. Thankfully he didn’t pull the catheter out of his vein so it was easily reattached. I was so happy that we didn’t have to poke him again. (picture: watching a movie with dad)

Brett came to the hospital that afternoon so I could run home, shower, & take a little nap. I got back to the hospital at 5:00 pm and at 6:00pm we had to get lab work done again. He got poked on the top of his wrist twice…..no luck and in his other arm…..success! I didn’t cry this time, but he did .

At 7:00pm we found out his Acetaminophen level was below one (yippee) and his liver function looked good. WE WERE GOING HOME!!!!

Easton got to ride in a wagon out to our car & he LOVED it! He just sat back & smiled the whole time. It was so cute. We were home by about 8:30pm & couldn’t have been happier!

It was amazing how well-behaved Easton was during this whole incident! He sat on our laps & didn’t really pull at his IV, & was just a happy little guy (minus the blood sample torturing). It was definitely a blessing because I don’t know how we would have handled him if he was being his regular self.

(picture: No more IV!!!)

 I never want to have to do that again! We sure love our little Easty & were so happy to have him home with us safe & sound!!