Do you know the number to poison control?

I do! Fortunately it's in the front of our phone book....

Today I wasn't feeling good (I'm still not, but that's another story) so I took a nap. John woke me up before 4 because we were supposed to meet his parents for their church's "Western Round-Up" dinner. About 5 minutes later, he came in and yelled, "Get up, we have to go to to the hospital!"

Munchie (27 months) walked up and handed him a Prilosec with white marks on it. Daddy asked, "Where did you get this?" Aidan went and got John's pill sorter and handed it to him--empty. John asked where the rest where. Munchie pointed to his mouth. There were 9 or 10 Claritin and 2 Prilosec unaccounted for. John normally keeps his pills in his backback---with a pad lock on them. Today, the were high on shelf by our desks. Munchie is a climber.....

I called poison control. (Last time I called them, Munchie had decided to eat Hair conditioner!) The person who answered wasn't too concerned at first, but she put me on hold while she checked. She came back and told me that 2-4 would not cause alarm, but since it was more than double that amount, he should be seen. She called ahead to the hospital.

Chewie (9) was freaking out. "Is he going to be okay?" he kept asking. I wanted to reassure him, but I was scared too.

John tried texting his parents, but they didn't respond. He dropped me off at the ER, and took Chewie and Crunchy to the park. He unloaded the kids (including Chewie's wheel chair and Crunchy's carseat) briefly told his parents the story and rushed back to the hospital.

Since poison control called ahead, they were waiting for us. We went right into a room. Munchie had fallen asleep right before we arrived. The staff told me to keep him awake. They gave him charcoal to neutralize the medication. First she put some in chocolate milk. He drank it pretty well, but didn't finish it. Next she tried Coke. That went a little better. But he was very tired.

We were told we would have to be monitored for 4 hours. Munchie was doing fine. After a while, they brought him a tray and he ate very well. He never did go to sleep. They released us after about 3 hours of monitoring. (He was going stir crazy in the room!) He fell asleep on the way home. He's sleeping with us so we can keep an eye on him.

Moral: Keep your meds locked up AND keep poison control's number handy!