Kiernan's big bad adventure

On Monday I got home from work and felt all proud of myself because I remembered my hands-free for my phone, which meant I got to talk to David on the way home for lunch. When I walked in the door Kiernan grabbed at me and started chewing on the first available item. This time it was the earpieces from my hands-free. My guess is that the adhesive on the earbuds was overwhelmed by pure unadulterated baby drool.

We had lunch and then I went back to work. I was there that I discovered thisAs you can see one of these earpieces is not like the other...
"Ut-oh! I bet the baby has part of my hands free," is what I think as I send Kathryn's Mommy (who is watching Kiernan for the day) the following email :

From: Melissa Kuehnert - QIAGEN
Sent: Monday, December 07, 2009 1:49 PM
To: 'mes123css@xxxxxxx'
Subject: somewhere on the floor

The earpiece from my phone headphones must be

Somewhere on the floor

Would you tell me if you find it?

Melissa Kuehnert
Production Associate

---

QIAGEN - Sample & Assay Technologies

QIAGEN Sciences
Synthetic Nucleic Acid Group

19300 Germantown Rd
Germantown MD 20874
USA


Tel: (240) 686-7802
Fax: (240) 686-4967
melissa.kuehnert@qiagen.com
http://www.qiagen.com/

Cervical Cancer Protection: The digene HPV Test
http://www.thehpvtest.com/

Very shortly after I hit send the phone in the lab rings. My boss answers and calls me over to the sound of Kiernan screaming. My heart just dropped. I started shaking. Kathryn's Mommy said that Kiernan seemed to have something in his mouth and that she couldn't get anything out, but that when she laid him down for his diaper change he started choking and crying.
I ran out of the lab and sped home. Picked up the two of them and drove over to our blessedly near emergency center.

After some question and answer and a few tests Kiernan got an X-ray that revealed something round in his esophagus that was too big to go any lower and also too big to come back up by itself. David arrived not too long after the X-ray. Kiernan had gone from constant crying to distractable until he swallowed. The poor bean was making the most painful gulping swallow sounds and every time he did one of those he would start crying again.


Unfortunately, nothing could be done until 6-8 hours after he had eaten so we spent a few miserable hours waiting for time to go by. Sadly too they wanted to prep him before the ambulance came to take up to Shady Grove. This meant an IV.

His hands are just so little. It was painful and long and 2 veins blew and his hand spouted blood. On the 4th try a vein finally threaded. They gave him an arm board so he wouldn't bend on that side. He was scared out of his tiny gourd. he clung to me and sobbed and sobbed, and even after he fell to sleep he was still sobbing. It broke my heart a bit I must say.






The staff was very kind and brought us warm blankets and apple juice and turned out the lights and closed the door so he could sleep. They propped me in a bed so I could comfortable hold Kiernan and left us alone for the next 45 min to an hour until the ambulance arrived.

Kiernan had stopped crying by this point and seemed to be more comfortable and/or exhausted. David got the car seat out of my car and they strapped it to the stretcher. They had a hard time getting Kiernan in because of the arm board.

We rode to the hospital without incident and were wheeled straight down to Endo where we met the Dr. and the nurses and the anesthesiologist. Everyone was very kind. The ambulance guys even went to find David and brought him down. Kiernan was moved to a crib/operating tabble and a number of sensors were fixed to him. Then he was laid back and a tiny greenish gas mask was placed over his nose and mouth. The mask freaked him out and, as with the IV session, i found myself restraing my son as he tried to thrash about. The staff said it was good that he was crying so hard because it made him take deeper breaths and would result in a quicker unconsciousness.

We were shuffled out into the waiting room where my Mom was waiting for us. We sat and talked and played Sodoku and pretended complete confidence in the outcome. I wore out my virtual knees with prayer and we joked about how this was going to make a great story when it was all over.

Before, After and Normal.

A nurse came out and gathered a few of us from the waiting room. She led us back down to the ER area and I saw another woman holding my very unhappy confused baby. To my credit I did not run or knock over anyone in my haste to hold him again. They brought us a reclining chair and more warm blankets and were solicitous in every way.

Even though we had room #309 in Pediatrics reserved the Dr. said that if Kiernan could handle some clear liquids with out throwing up or showing adverse reactions that we could take him home that night.

We gave him a glass of water. He was clearly very thirsty as he hadn't been aloud food or drink for so long. He took a big mouthful and made a very unhappy face when he swallowed but he went right at the cup again and emptied it and had another to boot. We took him out of his hospital gear and put him into his pj's and went home.

Wheew!

We took Tuesday off and continued our recommended 24 hour observation of the patient. He was fine. His throat was scratchy and he napped a good deal but he was happy.

Thank God.