Tonight was a normal evening. Kids got bathed. Kids got on their pjs. Kids got their teeth brushed. Kids picked out books to read. Then, the unusual happened...
Jut was downstairs with his mom and I was reading to the kids. All of a sudden, C started screaming. I looked and he had somehow opened my full bottle of Thieves blend essential oils and had it streaming out of his mouth. There was a pool on the floor and he was screaming. I rub a drop of it it under my nose when I have a cold and it burns my lips if it gets too close. I can't imagine the pain he was in since he took a mouthful of the stuff. I yell for Jut to call poison control...should he drink milk or water...drink or throw up? All questions that poison control can answer.
Since Jut didn't have the number for poison control on his phone, he calls 911. The operator can't even figure out what essential oils are...let alone be much help. As I can quickly see that his conversation isn't going anywhere, I run downstairs and call poison control. C is screaming and thrashing. I talk to poison control and he tells me that he'll be fine...it just really hurts him and he needs to drink something, anything to wash the stuff out of his mouth. By the time I am done with poison control, we have a police officer in our house...then there's another police officer in our house...then the ambulance shows up and we have two EMTs in the house. I guess when a child is involved in a 911 call, an ambulance is automatically dispatched to the scene. Lovely. So, C gets evaluated. When the first cop showed up, he stopped screaming because this was all new and interesting and as each additional person showed up, he became more and more intrigued.
So, the EMTs evaluated it. The area around his mouth was fiery red. He sounded extremely phlegmy. He was drooling like crazy. The EMTs recommended that he take a precautionary trip to the ER based on those symptoms...plus he had really started thrashing and carrying on again. They were worried about his breathing and potential reactions like tongue swelling or throat closing. I told them that poison control said it really wasn't a big deal but they still cautioned that a trip to ER would be the safe thing to do based on his presented symptoms. So, C and I headed out to the ambulance and went for a ride. They buckled him in and gave him a little stuffed animal. He was wide-eyed at the new experience.
Now, the funny thing about it was...C was extremely odoriferous. All the responders mentioned how much the house smelled of eucalyptus. We got in the ambulance and they turned on the vents. We walked in the hospital and the nurses commented on how nice he smelled...and how overpowering it was. They quickly got me a gown for C so that we could take off his oil soaked pjs and sealed them up in a bag. When Mom and Dad arrived, they said that they could smell it when they walked into the ER. At least we gave the ER a pleasant smell.
The nurses gave us pedilite and formula...I think C drank about 6 ozs of each...maybe even 8 of the pedilite. He calmed down. They called poison control and shockingly they told the hospital the exact same thing that they told me. That it wasn't anything serious and that he needed to drink some fluids. They sent us home in about an hour or so. Moral of the story: Listen to poison control. They know what they are talking about. Don't let the EMTs scare you into worse case scenarios. However, our EMTs were great and I'm thankful that they were thorough. Better to be safe than sorry.
C was quite the charmer at the hospital. He visited the nurses station and made lots of new friends. He giggled and laughed and threw himself around enough to make the nurses nervous that he was going to hurt himself. Fun times.
He does have a bit of a double ear infection the PA told me. It isn't bad enough to warrant antibiotics yet but if he becomes inconsolable in the next few days...that would be her number one suspicion. Fun, fun.
Now to get the smell out of our house...that might take a few days. :)
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