Emergency Room Visit

Had to rush to the ER Thursday afternoon. I woke up that morning with a sinus-headache that was painful to the point of distraction. Since I had to look after the girls, I took some Tylenol. Left the bottle on the bathroom counter & didn't think anymore about it.

That afternoon, I was settling both Elizabeth and Annie down for a nap in my bed. After both the girls went down, I also dozed off. Woke up a few minutes later to the phone ringing. I got up to answer the phone and was met by Annie coming out of our master bathroom, holding the bottle of adult tylenol with red dye all over her hands. The pills weren't spilled on the floor, no pills were half eaten. A single pill lay on the floor of the bathroom. She must have climbed up on the toilet, to the sink-top, across the sink, and grabbed the bottle. Also safely and noiselessly climbed back down.

I asked her if she'd eaten any, and she said, "Yucky Bottle." Not a direct answer to my question, but through deductive reasoning, how would she know the bottle was full of something yucky tasting if she hadn't at least tasted it?

Put a call into Poison Control. They said based on her age and weight, if she had consumed 4 tablets, she would be facing a serious overdose. Since there was no way to be certain that she hadn't eaten any pills, we had to treat it as a worst case scenario. I needed to take her immediately to the emergency room.

Called Husband, quickly gathered up the girls and went to the hospital. Husband was hot on my heels through the ER door. Annie was sent to triage very quickly.

The steps to treat a potential overdose of tylenol:
1. Drink activated charcoal to absorb the stomach contents & pass through the digestive system with nothing being absorbed into the body.
2. Take a blood draw to test Tylenol levels in the blood
3. Pump in IV fluids to make sure the body is well hydrated
4. Take an EKG of the heart to check for normal function
5. Take an x-ray of the esophogeal area to make sure no pills or tablets are still waiting to drop into the stomach
6. Take a second blood draw 4 hours after the Tylenol was first consumed to make sure there are still no traces of Tylenol present in the body.

Annie had to drink 60 ccs of activated charcoal, a black, sticky, chalky, sweet mixture. She cried and Husband and I coaxed her to swallow all but a few drops. The technicians then wrapped her in a sheet & held her arm to insert the IV and do the first blood draw. She cried and they put in the IV. She cried as they splinted her arm so that she could not bend it and pull out the IV. After this the technicians left the room. Annie put her head on my shoulder and dozed off. She wasn't deeply asleep before the technicians came back to do the EKG. She cried while they did the EKG. Again the technicians left for awhile. Annie perked up then and we were able to feed her a little food. The technicians came back & took her for an X-ray. She cried. They returned her to the room & the last technician came in to do the final blood draw. She cried while they did a second needle stick to draw the second blood test.

The ER doctor came, said neither blood draws indicated that any Tylenol what-so-ever was present in her system. The EKG was normal, and the X-ray was clear. We were free to go.

Annie DID NOT EAT Tylenol, but gave us a good scare. Fortunately things are now back to normal.








I'm so mad at myself for not being more careful.