Adrenaline is better than coffee to really get the blood moving in the morning.
All six of us have been a little under the weather. I don't think it is the flu, but it has not been much fun. Kari and I have not been getting much sleep. I was up most of the night coughing and shivering and when I wasn't shivering I was sweating.
Rylee climbed in bed with us around 4 a.m. and around 6 a.m. I got up to give Rylee and Reagan some milk and turn on the child pacification device. So with Dora off on another adventure I went back to bed. At 8 a.m. I was back up. The twins were up and starting to fuss. I sent Reagan upstairs to open their door and I headed for the kitchen to start coffee and get breakfast going. On the kitchen floor I found an empty jar of Vitamin C. The cap was missing and the bottle was empty. I felt a cold stab of fear shoot through my body. I knew it was Reagan. And I figured that she ate them all by herself.
I scooped the bottle up and confronted Reagan, who was halfway down the stairs with an arm load of stuffed animals. "How many of these did you eat?" I asked her.
"Nuffing." she replied. Her eyes got big and she paled a little, knowing that she was caught.
"I need to know how many of these you ate." I said.
"Nuffing." she said, sticking to her story.
"HOW MANY OF THESE DID YOU EAT, REAGAN!" I yelled, losing my composure a little.
"I didn't eat." she said.
"THESE COULD MAKE YOU SICK, REAGAN. I NEED TO KNOW HOW MANY YOU ATE!"
I guess that I wouldn't make a very good interrogator. I had obviously intimidated her to the point that she was not going to give up anything. I was very angry and more than a little scared. This was the third day in a row that she has gotten into something that she wasn't supposed to. The first two times it had been chocolate bars and Ho Ho's. She had gotten off with a warning and promised not to do it again, but this was another matter.
I picked her up, carried her to the kitchen and sat her on the counter. I scanned the area for evidence that she may have gotten into anything else. I knew that the kids vitamins with iron could be bad if she ate all of those. I didn't find anything else.
I said "As soon as we are sure that you are okay you are going to get a spanking."
She frowned a little more. Kari was up by this point, roused by my hollering. She got on Google to look up Vitamin C while I dialed poison control. I was fairly certain that you could not overdose on Vitamin C, but Reagan had eaten almost a whole bottle and I was a little worried. I grabbed the magnet off of the refridgerator with the poison control number on it and I dialed. I got a fax machine tone. I hung up and dialed again. "This is the Texas poison control center. Press one to continue in English." I heard a recorded voice say. So I pressed one.
"Poison control." Came a male voice.
"I have a three year old female who just consumed a whole bottle of Vitamin C. I don't know how many pills she took, but I think the bottle was pretty full. They are 100mg tablets." I said, noticing that my voice was quavering a little. I still wasn't sure how bad that might be. There was no reply. "Hello?" I said. Nothing. I may have said a naughty word here, but I don't remember.
I dialed again. I got the fax machine sound again. I hung up and dialed again.
"This is the Texas poison control center. Press one to continue in English." I heard a recorded voice say again. So I pressed one.
"Poison Contr...Click!" I heard and the line was dead again. (I know I said a bad word there.) I was beginning to get a little frustrated.
Then I recalled that we had problems the last time that we needed to call poison control. At one point when the twins were still infants and on what must have been a dozen different medications we double dosed one of them by mistake. It makes me wonder if there would be trouble calling 911 with our IP based home phone.
So I got my cell phone and dialed again. I pressed one to speak in English.
"Poison Control." Came a deep voice with a southern drawl. He sounded bored.
"I have a three year old female that has consumed a large number of 100 mg Vitamin C tablets." I said.
"What hospital are you with?" he drawled.
"I uh, I'm not..." I stuttered.
"Oh, you at home?" He asked. He still sounded bored.
"Yes." I replied.
"What is your name?" He asked. I told him.
"And what is her name?" He asked.
"Reagan...Spencer. Reagan Spencer."
"Do you have the brand name of what she took?" He asked. I told him the name and repeated the dosage.
"I don't have that particular one on my list. Let me look at the general list."
"Okay." I said.
"There is no limit for Vitamin C." He drawled.
"Okay, good." I said with a steadier voice. I had been pretty sure that would be the case, but a nagging doubt had been lingering in the back of my mind.
"It may irritate her bowls a little and it could cause her stool to be an unusual color." He continued.
"Okay, thank you." I said.
I gave Reagan a long lecture and a spanking. Then I gave Rylee a lecture.
"But I didn't eat any." She said, just a little indignant.
"I know you didn't, but I want to be sure that you understand. And you need to come tell me or Mom if any of your sisters gets into anything like that. It could make them very sick or even kill them. Do you understand?" I said.
"Okay." She said. I put her down and she skipped back to the couch where Reagan was sulking.
I reflected for a moment on how bad that could have been and shuttered.