Fire Trucks are Cool....Until They're Coming For You!

Here's a date for the scrapbook: May 10, 2007. This would be the date of the triplets' first trip to the emergency room. Let me preface this by saying the boys are absolutely fine and healthy! But, alas, the story:



Anthony and I were talking in the office while the triplets were playing and running around in the living room right behind us. As I turn around and peered out the door to check on the boys, my heart absolutely stopped. All three boys are kneeling on the floor playing with a bunch of blue pills scattered all around them. As I run towards them, I notice that Mason has blue all around his mouth and on his tongue. We quickly assess that the boys had gotten into Anthony's gym bag on the couch that contained among other items a bottle of Tylenol PM WITHOUT a childproof cap.



Anthony dialed 9-1-1 and was quickly connected to Poison Control. Less than 3 minutes into the conversation, sirens could be heard getting progressively louder. At this point, there were 18 pills we could not positively account for, though Anthony knew it wasn't a new bottle of Tylenol. The boys couldn't be happier as the giant red fire engine pulled up in front of our house, with an ambulance following closely behind. As all 3 boys stood in the doorway ewwing and ahhing at the marvel of the truck, about 7 or 8 paramedics clad in black converged upon the front porch. Suddenly, the fire truck lost it's luster!



As Anthony and I attempted to reconstruct what happened for the paramedics, the boys began crying hysterically as the men in black attempted to gather their vitals. We soon discovered several more pills under the couch, leaving just 9 unaccounted for. At this point, we decided to transport the boys in our car rather than take the extra time to move 3 car seats into the ambulance.



As usual, the ER was busy and you would think we were there for a routine doctor's exam as NO ONE made any attempt to help us quickly. (Although we later found out one of the paramedics had phoned ahead to let them know our situation and that we were on the way.) Note to self: If you want to be seen quickly in the ER, you better arrive on a gurney!



The next 5.5 hours were some of the longest of my life. Three 2 year olds in a totally non-childproofed room with nothing else to entertain them but the medical paraphenalia lining every wall. At one point, Cole had one of those gel covered suction cups in his mouth....the thought of whose sweaty disgusting body that just came off of continues to haunt me! Note to hospital: Please put childproof latches on your red hazardous waste bins!



As per the Poison Control protocol, the boys each had to drink a bottle of charcoal apple juice that was black like ink. Apparently, it tastes pretty bad too because the boys soon refused to continue drinking it. (though Cole consumed about half of his bottle.) The remainder of the charcoal concoction was orally given by syringe. I suppose this beats having to get their stomach pumped. The boys had blood draws done after a 2 and a 4 hour interval to measure the amount of Tylenol in their system. It took 2 men and 1 woman to restrain Cole to even draw his blood......apparently those NICU days of getting stuck so many times were not such a distant memory for him. Luckily, NONE of the boys showed any levels of Tylenol whatsoever.

The next morning, as I changed Mason's poopy diaper, I completely forgot that the doctor said to expect black poop for a few days. As Ryland stood next to me supervising the diaper change, he pointed to Mason's dirty diaper and exclaimed "Apple juice!" Boy, I'm sure going to have some confused kids for a while.

Needless to say, I am adding more childproofing paraphenalia around the house. Unfortunately, Cole (as usual!) has already figured out the new childproof door handle lock that we put on the door leading to the garage. Cameron was in the garage knocking on the door the other day, so Cole went over and pulled up the Fisher-Price parking garage to stand on so he could turn the deadbolt to the unlocked position, then proceeded to push the childproof lock in and over so he could push the handle down and let his brother in (with no hesitation...as if he had done it 100 times before!)

So this was our first trip to the ER for the triplets....but unfortunately probably won't be our last with Team Triple Trouble, especially with Cole at the helm!