The details

This is a really long post. It's really just for my own memory so you certainly don't have to read it. Once again I want to thank everyone for their well wishes.

Sunday at 9:50 am, my mother found Jackson with two open bottles of pills in her bedroom. Ativan (an old rx from 2005 used as a sleeping pill) and melatonin (a natural sleep aid). She cleaned up the pills sincerely thinking that there was no way he would have eaten any. He spits out things that actually taste good let alone a bitter pill.

At 10:00 Jackson started to act groggy and was mumbling and not walking steadily. She called us at home simply saying that he was acting funny and that he had gotten into some pills and wanted to know what we wanted to do. We told her to call poison control. She called back saying that they said to get him to the ER. We said we'd meet her there.

At that point I called Chris's mother to rush over to my mother's house so she could help get the kids into the car. Chris and I pulled into the parking lot at the same time as our mothers. I got out of the car to help get him out. I really didn't expect to see him the way he was. My mother rushed to get him out of his carseat and threw him over her shoulder. He was all floppy but his eyes were half open. He saw me and said in the most pathetic little voice, "mommy". I stood in shock while my mom ran in with him and Eileen was screaming at me to run with them. Eileen and Chris parked the cars and came in with Maddie.

There was absolutely no waiting. We were brought directly into a room where the doctor was waiting. Every time someone else would ask what happened and what he took the person would gasp in horror. It happened with a few different people until finally I yelled "Why is everyone doing that??? What does that mean??" At that point the doctor came to me and explained that the ativan was making him sleepy and it was important that he didn't go to sleep so they were going to give him an antidote. The other issue was that he was vomiting even though ativan is known to suppress vomiting. They especially didn't want him to fall asleep and not be able to protect his airway if he vomited again. They were trying for a while to get an iv in but he was so squirmy (a very good sign) that they had to try THREE different locations before finally getting one in. Then they weren't able to get blood from that iv so they had to also draw blood from another location. The poor kid was screaming his head off but you could tell he just wanted to go to sleep. Plus they had given him zofran to help with the vomiting which can make you sleepy. After all the poking was done he ended up falling asleep. They gave him 4 doses of the antidote and still wasn't waking up. He needed to be transferred to Children's Hospital in Boston to the ICU but he couldn't be transferred asleep and vomiting unless he had a tube down his throat. Luckily the 5th dose woke him up but he still couldn't be transferred because we needed to wait for a paramedic crew so they could administer the antidote again if necessary. The crew that initially came were EMTs and couldn't give him the medicine. There was even talk of a helicopter.

The paramedic crew eventually made it and packed Jackson up. He was awake but not talking. His vital signs were all OK and being continually monitored. I rode in the front of the ambulance. He vomited again on the ride in. My mom and Eileen brought Maddie to Eileen's house where Courtney met them so she could take care of Maddie. Chris went home real quick before heading into Boston.

The crew brought Jackson and I directly up to the ICU where a whole group of doctors and nurses were waiting for him. I knew if he saw me he would cry for me to help him (which he had already done on a few different occasions) so I tried to stay out of sight. He was such a good little boy. He just sat there looking around while they connected all of the monitors they needed to. He had a blood pressure cuff on his leg with a wire, an O2 sensor on his other foot with a wire, three leads on his back with wires, and two iv tubes. Chris came in and as soon as Jackson saw him he started crying. My mom and Eileen came shortly after.
The rest of the day was spent catching vomit and making sure he didn't choke on it. By the afternoon the doctors said it was ok if he fell asleep especially since he was being monitored. He was pretty cranky and not able to get comfortable with all the wires. Eileen got him to sleep finally with her famous rendition of Too Ra Loo Ra. It was around 3 at that point and none of us had had anything to eat all day so we went down to the cafeteria. He slept for a few hours and during that time was when the fun began for the rest of us. Enter DSS.

We were all interviewed separately and even though we knew we had nothing to hide it was still nerve wracking. I felt like no matter what I said they didn't believe me. Not that they made me feel that way...they were VERY nice. In the morning it was determined that no further investigation was needed which was a nice relief.

Sunday evening around 9pm our mothers had already left. We were playing Life on the iphone when we heard an adorable little voice blurt out "PUPPY!!" We went running over to the crib where we found Jackson sitting up. He said "Hi Mommy! Hi Da-ee!" We had a small conversation about what I don't remember. All I remember is crying tears of happiness. It was the first time he spoke since the morning and I knew it meant he was getting better. After a while of being awake he started to get aggravated with the wires and was crying for us to take them "off". The nurse was able to find this random animated puppy movie and he absolutely LOVED it. Overnight whenever he woke up he would ask for it to be on. I didn't go to sleep until 4 and was woken up at 6:30 when Jackson woke up. It was so cute because every time he woke up from a nap (that's really all he was doing) he was in such a good mood and being so silly and cute. At that point he hadn't vomited all night so the nurse suggested we try some juice to see if he could keep it down. He only had a few sips and threw up twice. They ended up giving him more zofran at that point which made him tired again but too uncomfortable to get to sleep because of all the wires. Chris and I took turns literally wrestling with him while he screamed like I've never heard him scream. Nothing we did would calm him down. At that point an x-ray tech came in to take x-rays to see if there was something inside of him that was making him vomit. Well, no way in hell was he going to calm down to lay on the x-ray pad and stay still. Chris and had already been listening to the screaming for over an hour and with very little sleep we were at the end of our rope. The x-ray tech was NOT nice. She had absolutely no compassion whatsoever and once she told Chris that she would have to use restraints to get the x-rays done he lost it! He was yelling at her telling her to leave them alone and that the x-rays could wait until Jackson calmed down. There were a few f-bombs. It wasn't pretty. She didn't give in though and somehow the x-rays got done. I don't even know how because I left the room I was so upset. After she left we still couldn't get Jackson to calm down. It was probably another half hour and it was eating me up inside that no one was trying to help us. No one came in to see WHY he was crying. I went out into the hallway and yelled "WE NEED HELP IN HERE!! I don't understand why no one is concerned about what is going on in here. We're obviously not able to handle this situation!!!" Of course a heard of people came running. I spoke to the nurse if it would be possible for them to take care of him because obviously whatever we were doing wasn't helping. She said of course and that they deal with crying babies all day long. Luckily I convinced Chris to leave the room with me. We went down and got some breakfast. When we got back up I asked the reception to call and see how he was and he was already asleep. We dealt with the same screaming for over an hour fit two more times while at the hospital and once again when we got home. His voice was all scratchy.

At some point during one of the later crying fits I asked the nurse if he could try some crackers and see if he could keep them down. She said yes so I asked Jackson if he wanted some crackers. His crying came to an immediate halt and he said, "Yes." The kid chowed on crackers! He was shoving them in his mouth and saying "More cackers!" After a while he started to cry again so the nurse suggested we take another break so she could deal with it. We went back about half hour later thinking he'd be asleep but when we got back he was laughing and flirting with the nurses while they fed him pudding and milk and crackers. I was so mad that we went in though because the second he saw us he started crying again!!!! I think at that point Chris was able to get him to go to sleep by playing Too Ra Loo Ra on the iphone. Luckily he kept all that food down and when he woke up the nurse started his discharge. Once she unhooked the wires from him he was able to get down from the crib and she brought in trucks and balls for him to play with. Chris's mom had come in to visit so she was there to help us get him ready to go.

Once we were discharged Chris went to get the car while Jackson and I walked around the lobby and of course he wandered into the gift shop. I bought him a little model car that he said he wanted and I bought a little horse figure for Madison. He cried most of the way home because something had set him off. We stopped at my parents' house to pick up Maddie. He was OK when we were there but when it was time to get back in the car he started screaming again and cried the whole way home and even after we got home for a long time. Chris and I were just dead at that point. I don't even remember how we got him to stop at that point. He went to bed fairly easily while Chris fell asleep with Maddie in our bed. I fell asleep on the couch. Jackson woke up at 1am and slept the rest of the night on the couch with me. 6:30 we were all up and Jackson was totally back to normal. No more crying fits thank god!!!!!

I guess that's it. A horrible experience with a very lucky outcome.