A Call to Poison Control

I've never had to call poison control...until today.

Good old Leila...making sure I get all the experiences of motherhood.

I found her in the music room with a little open bottle.  She was pouring the contents all over her arms and legs like lotion.  She loves lotion.  I washed her off and didn't have much fear.  Then she started to cough like crazy and I could smell the oil on her breath.  I took a better look at the bottle and called poison control.

The conversation went something like this...

Poison Control:  "This is poison control.  May I help you?"

Me:  "My daughter just drank some valve oil."

PC:  "Valve oil?"

Me:  "Yeah, for instruments."

PC:  "Oh, ok."

Me:  "On the back it says that it contains petroleum and can be harmful if swallowed."

PC:  "Uh huh."

Me:  "And she's been coughing a lot ever since."

PC:  "Well, it looks like valve oil is only bad if it went into her lungs.  Which if she's coughing probably means it went into her lungs.  You should take her to the emergency room because even a drop in her lungs would spread quickly and could give her pneumonia or perhaps worse."

So, we took a little trip to the ER.

We waited cause the ER was slow, as it usually is.  The doctor checked her lungs with a stethoscope and said that it didn't sound like much was in the lungs.  Meaning, most likely everything was fine and her body would clear up on its own.  But they wanted to do an x-ray just in case.

Again, we waited.  Eventually Leila fell asleep.  The whole experience must have made her tired.

(sorry, I just realized that if you were skimming this post, it looks like Leila was in a coma or something, its NOT how it looks, she just fell asleep)

They woke her up for the x-ray.  It was so sad. They had to put her inside a "tube" looking thing with her legs dangling towards the ground and it forced her arms in the air so they could have her hold still the entire time.  Being pregnant, I had to stand far away behind a wall.  She cried.  Then it was over.

We went back into the room and waited some more.

Eventually Leila started to say "Go.  Nana's."  She wanted to leave.  We sang songs, counted things in the room, found different colors around the room....and eventually, we were told we could go.

But she's on watch for the next 24 hours for worsening symptoms or respiratory problems that come up.