Last month I did a post about Valerie and the determination she has. I don't know if I mentioned her lack of fear. These two qualities together are quite dangerous. She climbed everything she could as soon as she could when she was a baby and now she loves riding her bike quickly down the hills. From a very young age I have wondered how many times I would be in the emergency room with her, because she is not afraid to jump off the cliff...so to speak.
I am happy to say that we have avoided the emergency room up until this week..........
Monday morning after dance class we ran a few errands and then headed for home. When we got home I told Valerie to go in and change her clothes. I had just planted my flower bed a few days earlier and went to check to see if I needed to water it. Valerie went inside. Not more than three minutes later I heard a scream and crying come from the house. I ran in to see what had happened and I found Valerie in the office with an Epi Pen sticking out of her shin. I tried to pull it out, but it was in there pretty good. She had stuck it right into the bone in front. With a little more umph I was able to get it out. My first thought was to call poison control, but I also knew that the first thing you are always supposed to do when an Epi-Pen is used is to head to the ER. The closest ER to our house is about 30 minutes away. So I decided to get headed there and call poison control on the way. It was then that I realized I had left my cell phone at dance.
So off we went, not knowing exactly what effects this could have on her and hoping they were not bad.
The whole time this was happening questions were running through my head. Why did she get up into the top of the cupboard where the Epi-Pen was stored?? How did she know to pop the back off first before she stuck it in her leg?? WHY???? would she stick a needle in herself????
I figured that the best thing to do on the drive was to not let her fall asleep and keep her talking to make sure she was breathing and coherent. So I started asking her all of my questions. Starting with why did she go right in and get the Epi-Pen? Once she answered the first question it all made a little more sense.
We have been doing the softball routine with Emily for awhile now which means that she packs her bag and leaves it in the office so I can grab it when I come to get her from school everyday. That way she does not have to carry it around with her everywhere at school since it is too big for her locker.
When we returned home form dance Valerie was hungry. She knows that Emily has granola bars in her softball bag for game days when she is gone from 1:00 - 8:00pm and needs a quick snack. When Valerie looked in the bag she did not find the granola bars, but discovered the Epi-Pen. (I had forgotten it was in there, but it is required that Emily has one with her at all times during softball activities.) When the Softball season began Emily and I took out the Practice Epi-Pen (the one they give you without a needle and meds in it so you can teach how to give it) I showed Emily how to do it and then she did it a few times. I can't be sure, but Valerie may have been watching, and she might have even "practiced" herself.
When we got to the Emergency Room Valerie seemed to be doing just fine. We got her checked in and hooked up and every thing looked good. The doctor was surprised that Valerie would have given herself the Epi-pen, so he asked why she did it. she just said, "I don't know." I started explaining to the doctor how she got it and my thoughts on why she did it, and did it correctly. Except for putting it in the wrong part of the leg. Then Valerie interrupted me and said. "Mom, I just followed the pictures on the back." Sure enough there are really good pictures on the back of the pen.
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