We were getting ready for bed last night. Things were going along as usual... until Dave went into John's room and found him sucking on the nozzle of a Purell pump bottle. Yup, you read that right. He snatched the bottle out of John's hand and proceeded to try to sweep any remnants out of his mouth. He then checked the back of the bottle and decided we needed to call Poison Control. I quickly realized we didn't know the number. (Bad parents, bad, bad parents!) So I called 911 figuring that had to be a close second. They proceed to tell me that they can connect me but first they want to confirm our address. (Ah, the wonders of modern technology... she already knew our address based on the number that I called from.) I was immediately on the line with PC explaining what had happened. Shirley (the very helpful employee from Poison Control) wanted to know how much we thought he may have ingested, what kinds of signs and symptoms John was exhibiting and then she explained that it was likely that he hadn't ingested all that much and that we should give him some juice and a snack. She did mention that we should watch him for the next half hour (yay, another late bedtime) to see if he starts to act "drunk". Like what I asked. She described drunk as swaggering walk, bumping into things and tripping over his own feet. Great! She just described what he does all day every day! So I promised to call back if we noticed anything funny and thanked her profusely at which point the 911 operator jumped to alert me to the fact that she had listened to the entire phone conversation and that she too would be available if I needed her. Woah, what service! I thanked her as well. We all went through the requisite info exchange: my name, John's name, address reconfirmation and another round of thank you's.
I got off the phone and poured John some juice and poured some cereal into a
Snack Trap. We all went back to the "campfire" that Kayla had built where she was making everyone s'mores - of course James and John's had rice milk marshmallows she said. All of a sudden the door bell rings. Immediately I knew who was at the door. I open the door and standing on the stoop is a First Aid Squad member. He was responding to a call about a baby swallowing hand sanitizer. Ugh! He then informs us that dispatch thought the squad should follow up in person. He tells us that he lives about a hundred yards away and so he came over on foot but that a bus would be there shortly. Man, did I feel like a bad parent! He took a look at John and realized that he was really fine. He called dispatch and told them they didn't need to have an officer (yes, a police officer) dispatched. Double ugh! About a minute later lights start flashing and swirling up the street and an ambulance pulls up in front of the house. (The twins thought this was GREAT!) A second later an officer appears at the door! He too lives around the corner in the other direction and has a newborn so he felt he had to respond. Next came the Rescue member who had to take our official information and have us sign something saying that we refused medical attention.
So long, crazy story short... John is fine. We think he probably didn't eat much if any at all. On another note, it was a good feeling to know that our Emergency Responders have such a quick response time! Thank you to the Kendall Park First Aid Squad and Police Dept.
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