Three Mizes + Two

I picked Erin up from school on Wednesday afternoon. They were good so the teachers were handing out peppermints.

We got in the car and were about a mile and a half from the school. Erin made a weird noise in the backseat and I looked back and she had tears coming from her eyes and croaked that she was choking. I had forgotten about the peppermint and thought she just swallowed some water wrong. I told her to take another tiny sip and it immediately came back up. She croaked peppermint and I knew it was stuck.

I wheeled the car into a parking lot and jumped out. She wasn’t blue and could talk so I knew she was getting air. I will never forget the terror in her eyes. She was crying and I was trying to calm her down. I didn’t want to try to fish it out in case I got it more stuck. I had her drink a little more water and the water came back up. I told her we were going to have to go to the doctor and she immediately started crying again and told me she didn’t want a shot. I told her they wouldn’t give her a shot and she asked if they were going to cut her tummy open. I reassured her they wouldn’t.

We drove to the Urgent Care about 2 miles away. I was constantly turned around watching her and nearly killed us with my driving. We pulled up and ran in and they told me they couldn’t help us there that we needed to go to the ER. Really? I was dumbfounded. As I turned to walk out the door the woman asked if I wanted to call 911. I told her yes.

At the urgent care they took us to the backroom and put her on the oxygen monitor. She was getting plenty of oxygen so they had us wait there until the ambulance arrived. Queue the train. Yes, the ambulance got held up by the train we could hear. It seemed like it took forever but I think it was only about 10 minutes. Tommy got there right before the ambulance.

Erin was eerie quiet and really still. I think she was scared. I kept asking her if she would breathe and if it had moved down. She would shake her head. The paramedics arrived and assessed her. They asked if we wanted to go to the nearest hospital or up about 5 more miles to the other hospital. St Luke’s has a Texas Children’s ER in it. I had no idea. So, we opted for that one since we’ve had such great luck with Texas Children’s.

The paramedics had me get her car seat out of the truck. They put it on the stretcher and strapped her in that way. Erin was smiling some at them and talking a little so they decided we would run w/o lights and sirens. Tommy followed us and was able to keep up. I’m not sure if the ambulance ride was completely necessary but I wasn’t sure I could have driven us to the ER without having an accident. My driving to the urgent care was bordering on erratic.

We got to the ER and they took us in immediately. The doctor walked in within seconds of us getting there. She examined E and thought that with something to drink she might be able to get it down without them having to do an x-ray. So they got her some Gatorade. She was able to keep it down as we thought it might have moved in the ambulance. From there they kept us for about and hour and a half and had her drink the whole can of Gatorade. The doctor was pretty convinced it had gone down and that she was feeling a scratch in her throat where it had been lodged. It made perfect sense to me. They let us go with explicit instructions to return if she started throwing up again.

All was fine and she told us she was hungry on the way home. We stopped at Carrabbas and got her some spaghetti. It seemed nice and soft. She ate it like a prisoner and wanted something else. We managed to get her full and off to bed we went. And yes, when she asked to sleep with me Tommy and I both jumped at it. He slept on the couch upstairs and Erin slept with me in our room.

We were all 3 exhausted. That was a very traumatic experience. I had never been in an ambulance and I’m pretty sure I never want to be in one again!

We have a Triple Crown winner!!!

We had the party yesterday so we could watch the horserace. What a great day.

We got the pool and super slide out for the kids and Tommy brought out the corn hole boards. It was a regular redneck paradise!

My sister and I waited patiently for the horserace to start. Once it was about to happen we called everyone into the living room. Lee brought hats for everyone so we all put our hats on. I called the kids in from the playroom and they put on hats too. My sister and I did our regular thing where we jump and holler and run in place rooting him on. It was so exciting to actually see a horse do the impossible.

The kids loved it too. I think they may have been bitten by the horseracing bug. They were cheering the loudest. I like that they actually got to watch a Triple Crown race in their lifetime. They may not ever remember it or they might recall the whole fun scene. Just happy they experienced it.

Here are a couple of shots of the day…