K just had his birthday a little over a week ago, and I will be posting pictures soon but before I do that I have been wanting to post this post, I sucked at documenting things like this but just wanted to make sure that we will remember this forever, so I apologize for this lengthy, poor written few paragraphs...
On Thursday morning, May 17th, 2012, at 11 am., I put on a swim outfit on K as we were getting ready for a swim at the pool. We were still at home, at first he was fine, just playing around on the floor as I was also getting changed. As I picked him up, all in a sudden, he screamed and cried in pain. At first I thought maybe I pulled his muscles or something, from the way he expressed his pain physically. Not knowing what's going on, I had this really strong impression to remove his shirt. (And as with our knowledge in my church, the impression that I am talking about was the Holy Ghost... and actually it told me in my mind, loud and clear.) As I did that a big scorpion (about 3 inches long) crawled out of his shirt. I was in horror, because I knew it was this that caused my baby's pain. I started panicking. I hit it with the hardest thing I could grab in my reach, a hardcover Dr. Seuss book, probably like 20 times, while still with K in my one arm, with E standing afar off starring at me, I stopped before I freaked my 2 kids off, and until it didn't move a bit anymore. I didn't know too much about scorpion bites, so I called Tino (and it was my lucky day he was free at the moment to pick up my phone call). He just knew that the venom affects infants far more worse than adults and I needed to take him to the ER right away. I left E with my neighbor, so I could take off with K. (And E was a trooper. As soon as I told him what had happened, he told me he would stay with our neighbor because I had to take K to the hospital.) My hands and my body was shaking so badly, and I was breathing like I had just finished an Insanity workout, and I had to try really hard to calm down so I could get K to the ER as soon as possible, and safely.
I felt so horrible when as I was rushing him to the John C. Lincoln Pediatric ER. During the car trip he was vomiting, screaming and crying, and making scary noises that I didn't even know what he was going through because he was in his car seat rear facing. When I carried him out running to the ER door, his eyes were twitching, his was having spasms and was already getting unconscious, and I could hear that he was having trouble breathing. I was trying really hard to not to show him my fear but tears ran down my cheeks and I screamed at him, "Stay with mommy, K, Stay with me, mommy is taking you to the doctor! You will be ok!" (I never thought that kind of words would have to come out of my mouth to say to my children, especially to a 10-month-old baby.) I thought I was losing him right there. In the back of my head, I was like, "We have just been all thinking about his birthday in a little over a month! He hasn't even have his first birthday yet! Not now! Not like this! Not because of a scorpion!"
As we arrived, they quickly started him on IV (it was hard too to have to watch that big needle being injected into his little hand) and gave him medication to calm him down (and other things, I couldn't even remember), then they started him on the anti venom (and eventually he had about 3-4 doses of the anti venom medication). I was holding him in my arms and there were 5-6 nurses and doctors surrounded me trying to work on K. He was in a really bad shape still, he was crying, and was really uncomfortable. I wish I could take his place to be stung. After 15 minutes or so he was finally a little more settled and they asked me to lay him down and they continued to work on him. His breathing continued to sound funny and seemed to get worse, they explained to me that the venom had protein that caused his airway to be swollen and so he was having difficulty to breathe, so they had to intubate him. (It got more complicated as it was so swollen that even the smallest tube didn't fit in.) At that point, he was put out and they paralyzed him. And Tino excused himself from work and drove over to the ER to see us, about half an hour later.
It was a hard 2-3 hours wait at the ER, but at the same time I was so consumed with the situation it also felt like the time went by way fast. In the meanwhile, they even considered transferring him to the Children Hospital for intensive care if he continue to have trouble with his breathing. After different tries from different doctors, and methods, and time, and he was finally stabilized. He was starting to waking up after about 3 hours and he coughed the tube out (less procedures for the nurses) and he was kicking and moving his little body around. We were so glad to see that he was doing fine.
I stayed with K overnight at the hospital for observation. We were sleeping on a regular hospital bed, and it was a very difficult thing to do sharing with a 10 months old baby who was overly tired and still uncomfortable. He actually almost felt off the bed, too. (And we would just go right back downstairs to the ER??) I think his throat was hurting from intubation and we did not sleep that night at all and he was up and ready to get going 4 o'clock in the morning, but at least he was happy.
It was certain quite an expensive experience, but we learned an extreme valuable lesson. It was incident like this that bring us closer together as a family. It also reminded us how Heavenly Father is always there watching over us, and we just have to listen to the prompting and act upon it. It definitely changed my feeling for my baby K. Not to be confused, of course I have always loved him, but I became even more in love with him. And seems like (and I know) he knew that, too. It make us appreciate life and just glad to be alive and try not to take things for granted.
This was taken after he was stablized. I wish I had the mood to snap a shot at the beginning.
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Just woke up, still drowsy from the medication, with droppy eyes.
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4 o'clock in the morning, our cute little bud exploring at the hospital playroom.
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8 o'clock in the morning, Daddy and big brother came, while waiting for K's pediatric doctor to check us out.
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We love you, K. And more happier news coming up...
p.s. My neighbor did confirm to me a few days later that the scorpion that stung K was indeed... dead. They took care of it before Santino got home, so for a while I kept wondering if I had took my revenge on it or not. I used to feel sorry for having to kill them, but that feeling is... gone!
On Thursday morning, May 17th, 2012, at 11 am., I put on a swim outfit on K as we were getting ready for a swim at the pool. We were still at home, at first he was fine, just playing around on the floor as I was also getting changed. As I picked him up, all in a sudden, he screamed and cried in pain. At first I thought maybe I pulled his muscles or something, from the way he expressed his pain physically. Not knowing what's going on, I had this really strong impression to remove his shirt. (And as with our knowledge in my church, the impression that I am talking about was the Holy Ghost... and actually it told me in my mind, loud and clear.) As I did that a big scorpion (about 3 inches long) crawled out of his shirt. I was in horror, because I knew it was this that caused my baby's pain. I started panicking. I hit it with the hardest thing I could grab in my reach, a hardcover Dr. Seuss book, probably like 20 times, while still with K in my one arm, with E standing afar off starring at me, I stopped before I freaked my 2 kids off, and until it didn't move a bit anymore. I didn't know too much about scorpion bites, so I called Tino (and it was my lucky day he was free at the moment to pick up my phone call). He just knew that the venom affects infants far more worse than adults and I needed to take him to the ER right away. I left E with my neighbor, so I could take off with K. (And E was a trooper. As soon as I told him what had happened, he told me he would stay with our neighbor because I had to take K to the hospital.) My hands and my body was shaking so badly, and I was breathing like I had just finished an Insanity workout, and I had to try really hard to calm down so I could get K to the ER as soon as possible, and safely.
I felt so horrible when as I was rushing him to the John C. Lincoln Pediatric ER. During the car trip he was vomiting, screaming and crying, and making scary noises that I didn't even know what he was going through because he was in his car seat rear facing. When I carried him out running to the ER door, his eyes were twitching, his was having spasms and was already getting unconscious, and I could hear that he was having trouble breathing. I was trying really hard to not to show him my fear but tears ran down my cheeks and I screamed at him, "Stay with mommy, K, Stay with me, mommy is taking you to the doctor! You will be ok!" (I never thought that kind of words would have to come out of my mouth to say to my children, especially to a 10-month-old baby.) I thought I was losing him right there. In the back of my head, I was like, "We have just been all thinking about his birthday in a little over a month! He hasn't even have his first birthday yet! Not now! Not like this! Not because of a scorpion!"
As we arrived, they quickly started him on IV (it was hard too to have to watch that big needle being injected into his little hand) and gave him medication to calm him down (and other things, I couldn't even remember), then they started him on the anti venom (and eventually he had about 3-4 doses of the anti venom medication). I was holding him in my arms and there were 5-6 nurses and doctors surrounded me trying to work on K. He was in a really bad shape still, he was crying, and was really uncomfortable. I wish I could take his place to be stung. After 15 minutes or so he was finally a little more settled and they asked me to lay him down and they continued to work on him. His breathing continued to sound funny and seemed to get worse, they explained to me that the venom had protein that caused his airway to be swollen and so he was having difficulty to breathe, so they had to intubate him. (It got more complicated as it was so swollen that even the smallest tube didn't fit in.) At that point, he was put out and they paralyzed him. And Tino excused himself from work and drove over to the ER to see us, about half an hour later.
It was a hard 2-3 hours wait at the ER, but at the same time I was so consumed with the situation it also felt like the time went by way fast. In the meanwhile, they even considered transferring him to the Children Hospital for intensive care if he continue to have trouble with his breathing. After different tries from different doctors, and methods, and time, and he was finally stabilized. He was starting to waking up after about 3 hours and he coughed the tube out (less procedures for the nurses) and he was kicking and moving his little body around. We were so glad to see that he was doing fine.
I stayed with K overnight at the hospital for observation. We were sleeping on a regular hospital bed, and it was a very difficult thing to do sharing with a 10 months old baby who was overly tired and still uncomfortable. He actually almost felt off the bed, too. (And we would just go right back downstairs to the ER??) I think his throat was hurting from intubation and we did not sleep that night at all and he was up and ready to get going 4 o'clock in the morning, but at least he was happy.
It was certain quite an expensive experience, but we learned an extreme valuable lesson. It was incident like this that bring us closer together as a family. It also reminded us how Heavenly Father is always there watching over us, and we just have to listen to the prompting and act upon it. It definitely changed my feeling for my baby K. Not to be confused, of course I have always loved him, but I became even more in love with him. And seems like (and I know) he knew that, too. It make us appreciate life and just glad to be alive and try not to take things for granted.
This was taken after he was stablized. I wish I had the mood to snap a shot at the beginning.
.JPG)
Just woke up, still drowsy from the medication, with droppy eyes.
.JPG)
4 o'clock in the morning, our cute little bud exploring at the hospital playroom.
.JPG)
8 o'clock in the morning, Daddy and big brother came, while waiting for K's pediatric doctor to check us out.
.JPG)
We love you, K. And more happier news coming up...
p.s. My neighbor did confirm to me a few days later that the scorpion that stung K was indeed... dead. They took care of it before Santino got home, so for a while I kept wondering if I had took my revenge on it or not. I used to feel sorry for having to kill them, but that feeling is... gone!
14 comments:
Oh my goodness!!! Crazy scary!!! I'm glad Kaian is okay. Bo really wanted to do his residency in AZ but I wouldn't let him because of the bugs there... hahaa.
I'm glad you got the scorpian. I probaby would've done the exact.same.thing. Actually I think I would've hit it like 50 times.
I think you handled the whole situation like a pro! you go girl!
He is SUCH a cutie!
ps...YAY for ER doctors.:) (that's what Bo is)
You poor thing! Living with scorpions is hard--especially when you have young ones! And never feel bad killing them. They are evil. Miss you guys!!
Oh wow Polly! I am so glad Kaian is okay! How horribly scary that must have been. You are right, it's so wonderful that we can receive promptings and that Heavenly Father is watching out for us. So glad everything is okay. Love you!
What a scary story Polly! I can't imagine as a mom what you were going through. Thanks so much for sharing. So Happy kaian is good and you are all safe. We sure miss you all!
WOW......you've got a mother bear instinct you never knew about, huh?
Glad to hear he's better. Darn bugs.
Good job hearing and heeding the voice.
That sounds like the scariest thing ever! I'm so glad everything turned out okay. I've lived in AZ most of my life and I've been lucky enough to never have seen any in or around our house. But I might be walking around with scorpion spray hooked to my belt if I were you!
By the way, we're heading up to the Mesa temple on the 21st. It'll have to be a quick trip because I'm still nursing, but if you don't have plans, maybe we could meet at the temple and go do a session together...
Wow, that sounds so scary! He was so blessed to have you nearby when it happened so you knew what did it, and that you were in tune with the spirit to help him. I'm so glad he's okay
Oh Polly, I am SO glad Kaian is fine. I know the feeling. I just dislike bugs so bad. I dislike spiders, scorpions, even ants. Whatever thing that could hurt my family in an enemy of me. I had a similar situation in Temple with Ian. Thank goodness Scorpions in Tx aren't as dangerous as in other states. However the feeling of fear is not pleasant. Happy birthday to your baby. I miss ya my friend.
I am So glad that baby Kaian is okay. I'm sorry you have to experience that, I can't imagine how hard it would be for you to watch your baby suffered. Jeff has been talking about applying internship at Phoenix Airport and I was open to the idea, I think I change my mind now after I read your blog entry. =)
Take care yourself and your cute little family, miss you!
Oh my Polly, I am so grateful that Kaian recovered well! What a horrifying experience! It may have made me cry, because as a parent, you never want your child to have to suffer like that. I echo all of the previous comments. I strongly dislike bugs!!! I don't have any appreciation for them. Way to follow the spirit, kill that scorpion, and save your baby!
Oh my Goodness!! Polly, I am Sooo sorry you had to go through something like that. That is every parents worse nightmare, having to take your child to the ER. I am Sooo Glad that he is doing better and is fine now. I am Sooo Grateful for the Gospel in our lives and the promptings we get as we are living worthy and doing what's right to receive them. Love you Polly!! Wish we lived closer! <3
Polly, I am so sorry that Kaian and your whole family had to go through that traumatic experience. Oh my goodness, I can't even believe it. That was so scary. I'm so so so glad that he is ok, even though this post is super late.
How are you doing? It's been forever since I saw you. We miss you guys! We are going to have to get together sometime.
Take care and give hugs to Eli and Kaian for me!
Thank you for all your comments and supports!! And sorry that we might have scared some of you to let your husbands having a job here :P. I hear that not everywhere in Arizona get scorpion infestation in a home like ours, even some families in our ward said that they never ever seen one in their houses. We do feel very very fortunate to have our baby Kaian very much alive to this day and he is a super hyper active baby boy, and we know we can't complain. :) On the side notes, I miss you all and I will try to be more diligent in blogging and visiting yours to keep in touch.
polly, so scary! i am so glad he is ok! and thanks for the story as well. it's good for all mom's to know what a scorpion bite can do (i had no idea) and it's nice to hear that the spirit prompted you about where to look. thanks for sharing. --heidi
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