This is not my first call to 9-1-1. A few weeks after Carsanne was born, Reagan got sick with the croup. It happened all of the sudden and in the middle of the night. Jay had just left out of town that day. I know he was worried about leaving me so soon after the baby was born. All the grandmas had left and it was my first night home alone with kids and new baby. Reagan and come and got in bed with me and started to cough. 5 minutes later - she wasn't breathing at all. I can still remember the look of panic in her eyes. I rushed her into the bathroom and turned on the hot water hoping the steam would break it up but it didn't work. She would take a gasp of air followed by almost a full minute of no breathing. So I called 9-1-1. I stood outside in the cold night air waiting for them and that actually helped quite a bit and so when they got there she had improved some but not enough. They put her on oxygen and determined she needed to go to the hospital. I'm like.....OK, how do I do this? New baby, nursing, ambulance ride..... So, it was determined that Jayme (15) would go with Reagan in the ambulance, I would drive behind with Carsanne - and Bryan and Andrea would stay home together. (Sometimes with having 5 kids I feel a little like a freak show trying to juggle them.) When we got to the hospital, Jayme sat on the bed with Reagan. She started with a huge coughing fit that made her barf all over Jayme and her new Ugg boots. I started to cry. Jayme is such a trooper. I don't know if at 15 I could've handled this. The doctors were great - some steroids and some oxygen and after just a few hours, Reagan's symptoms had subsided and we were able to be discharged. The discharge attendant came in and didn't know what to make of the situation. Jayme on the bed with Reagan, me sitting there nursing the baby.... "Who is the mom here?" was the look on her face. I quickly jumped in with the insurance information and informed her that I was the parent of them and Jayme was my oldest and had come along to help. Poor Jayme. She hates how people first think that she is the mom to one of her sisters. I guess I get it - in today's society it seems more normal for a 15 year old to have an infant than a 40 year old. But, it could be that she is just such a big help that when people see her helping out they think she is not a typical teenager helping out a sibling so she must be the mother. Oh well. I tell her not to worry about it. That the people who know us know she isn't an unmarried teenage mother. But, it still bugs her - and me too. We were discharged and home by 4am. Not much sleep but at least everyone was OK.
Reagan made her first call to 9-1-1 when she was about 8 months old. She was sitting on the floor in the family room next to me while I was folding clothes. I had given her the phone to play with and wasn't really watching what buttons she was pushing. As I'm folding the clothes, Bryan walks in with a really nervous and upset look on his face and right behind him was an officer. I looked at Bryan and mouthed the words, "What did you do?" I'm thinking to myself - what has my son done that has gotten him into so much trouble that a police officer would escort him home and just walk right into my house to speak to me. The officer asks, "Did someone here make a call to 9-1-1?" Not that I'm aware of....... Bryan did you? No, I was just outside playing basketball on the driveway. Where are Andrea and Jayme.........? Then it hits me....... I pick up the phone off the ground and sure enough - 9119991119118118911 had been pushed. Well, I'll be....... I told the officer that my baby had mistakenly dialed the number while playing with the phone. "If it's alright with you ma'am, I'd like to take a look around to make sure everyone is OK." Of course, it's alright with me. He was making sure that everyone was OK because as he explained, there was no communication on the phone when the operator picked up and they needed to make sure there wasn't a distressed person in the home. I understood. I was embarrassed but understood. Obviously, everything checked out fine and I had to apologize to Bryan for assuming that he had lit the neighbor's house on fire and was being reprimanded by the police officer.
Even though this may seen like a complete list of calls to 9-1-1 - it isn't. There was another in June of 2007. The kids were in their swimsuits. Bryan had a buddy over. Just as they were about to go out, I heard some thunder and told the kids to wait it out and make sure there wasn't a storm about to hit. I was in the guest room. I had pulled out my scrap booking and was talking to a friend on the phone. All of the sudden...... there was a huge blast and a large ball of fire flew off the front of the house right above where I was sitting. I told my friend that I thought my house had just been hit by lightening and that I needed to hang up and go check it out. Everything seemed OK. I walked around the outside and couldn't detect any damage at all. So, I walked back into the house. The kids were a little shaken and I calmed them letting them know all was well. I walked back into the guest room and the first thing I noticed was the light didn't go back on. By this time, it had begun to pour rain outside and the sky had gone dark. I walked across the room and stepped into a puddle of water. Uh Oh. I looked up and sure enough - water was leaking in through the ceiling and then - the smoke detectors went off. It didn't take long for me to put 2 and 2 together. I ran through the house yelling to the kids - let's go! This is not a drill! The home phone wouldn't work so I grabbed my cell phone. I threw the kids in the car, still in bathing suits and didn't even think to grab shoes and as I was doing this, my call to 9-1-1 sounded something like this.....
"9-1-1 what is your emergency?"
"My house, my house is on fire."
"Where are you calling from ma'am?"
"I'm in the garage - I'm getting the kids into the car and getting to safety."
"Where is the location of the emergency."
"MY HOUSE. It's on FIRE!"
"Yes, where is the exact location of the emergency."
"I don't know exactly. The attic somewhere....it was hit by lightening." By this time, I had the kids in the car and had reached the mailbox and saw my address - then it hit me all at once, cell phone - location of the emergency. She needed my address. "Do you need my address?"
"I need to know the address of the emergency so I know where to send the emergency vehicle."
"Oh.... OK."
Yeah - so I was a little too freaked out to actually understand what she was asking. I thought my information would pop up on the screen when I called and they would know where I am. I thought she wanted to know where in the house I was calling from so that when the roof caved in on us - they would know where to look for us. (Darn over-active imagination!) To make a very long story short because this post is really about me calling 9-1-1 yesterday because Carsanne was choking...... No major fire damage, the smoke detector shorted out because of the water that was coming in from the hole in the roof. About $50,000.00 in damages - all replaced and repaired due to "replacement value" on my insurance police. Much better to have "replacement value" than "actual value." Don't go cheap on insurance! - I'll save that for another post too.
Yesterday, I called 9-1-1 on my cell phone but knew to tell them my address. They came and checked her out. She was still having gaging and choking episodes and we couldn't see the obstruction nor could we get it out. I learned a few things during this experience. Don't turn them over and whack them on the back. Apparently, that can do more harm than good if it is a toy or sharp object you want them to remain still as long as they are getting in air and try to encourage their gags and gravity to get the object up or out. If it doesn't come out, you stabilize them and get them to the hospital for x-ray and extraction. I also learned that it is OK to feed them and give them something to drink - again, if they are breathing. This will help induce the gag reflex and hopefully help to get the item up and out. I learned that the EMT cannot just use some kind of sucking mechanism and get the object out if the baby is breathing. They only take action if the baby becomes unconscious. So, basically they sat there and asked me what I wanted to do while Carsanne would try and eat and gag but the dang thing wouldn't come out. Well, I sure as heck can't leave it in there. And I don't exactly want to put her in her car seat and drive to the hospital where I would be somewhat unable to help her if she had a serious problem so.... once again I was thinking I would be getting in the ambulance to go sit in an ER and see if someone could get the foreign object out of my baby's throat. Augggggghhhhhh!! Carsanne was so tired. She was yawning and trying to go to sleep but gaging.... I decided to try and nurse her and see if that did anything. At first she would just gag and throw back her head and then I switched sides. She gagged really big, latched on, started to suck and slowly drifted comfortably to sleep. Hmmmmmm, I guess she got it down. I guess she is OK. So, I was ready to send the EMT on their way. Then I noticed something sticking out of Carsanne's mouth. It was a clear piece of plastic about the size and width of my thumb. I showed it to the EMT and he said, "Yep, that would choke an infant for sure." I felt so relieved. But, also a little guilty. I think it was the safety seal of a bottle of Tylenol I had opened Sunday night. I thought I had thrown it away but, obviously, I missed the trash can. Oops.
So, all is well. Carsanne finally gagged up the thing that she was choking on and was comfortable and asleep. Another successful visit from our neighborhood emergency service providers. One good reason to pay taxes!!
This is my favorite picture of baby Carsanne. She is so dang happy all the time! So grateful she is OK!
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