how quickly our lives can change

Two weeks ago we had quite a scare. We spent the afternoon sitting in an urgent care on pins and needles as we waiting to hear if our son was alright. So so scary and something I hope to never live through again, but as parents I'm sure we will.

It was a Wednesday and we had spent the beautiful afternoon having lunch with a friend and playing at a park. We came home around nap time, 2ish, and I quickly wanted to finish a few chores before putting the kiddos down for nap. One of which included changing the clothes in the washing machine to the drier. Simple and quick task - right?! Well my littlest was whining at my feet because he was tired and wanted picked up. So in an attempt to occupy him I handed him the closed container of Tide laundry pods that I use in our washer. I proceed to switch my clothes from the washer to the drier and glanced down at my son to find white soap on his hands and dripping from his mouth. Slight panic but I quickly scooped him up and headed to the sink, doing my best to rinse his mouth out and he begins to SCREAM.

I quickly read the back of the container to see that if ingested I should give them milk or water and call poisoin control immediately. So I do, in the meantime he throws up. The posion control lady tells me to go the ER immediately. After a little further discussion she decides Urgent Care may be the better option, because it's much closer, and we hang up. I rush around to quickly change Preston's and I's clothes, as they are covered in throw up, call Jimmy, call my sister to see if I can bring Lily there, and hop in the car. I call Jimmy again once in the car to let him know which clinic I'm going to and then Preston starts throwing up again, alot. So much so that he begins choking in his carseat. I barely get the car pulled over, hop out of the car, and begin scooping it out of his mouth. He has soaked his clothes, the two blankets I had given him, and his entire carseat. Jimmy yells from the bluetooth phone call to go to the Urgent Care immediately, bring Lily along, and he will meet me there. 

We jump out of the car and arrive at the Urgent Care - they were waiting for us. He's taken back almost immediately and they begin to check him over - looking in his mouth, listening to his breathing, and just examining him. They of course ask me several questions, all of which I could thankfully answer because I was right there. And then they scare me deeply. The Dr proceeds to tell us that ingesting these laundry detergent pods kill children. That because the soap is such a concentrated amount it can burn the child's mouth when swallowed, and then creates legens on the inside of their body/organs that cannot heal, and consquently causes them to suffocate. Crazy, insane, completely freaked out, so scared. He proceeded to tell us that they had an ambulance ready and that if at any point he wasn't comfortable with what he saw, he would be ambulanced down to Blanks Children's Hospital downtown. And then I completely lost it. How could this have happened? How could I have been so stupid? How did I not know how bad those things are? How could I have given him that container to play with?

They told us that we'd be staying awhile and that they wanted to continue to monitor him for a few hours. And so they did. At first Preston seemed out of it, which I don't know how much of it was just due to him being tired and how much was because of the soap. But then after an hour or so he began to play with Lily. They read books and discovered the room we were in and I started to relax a bit, but not entirely. What if something happened when they sent us home? How do we know what to watch for? How do we know he's ok?

After a few hours the doctor told us that he thought he was in the clear and that we could go home. He told us that in the majority of these cases they see the signs within the first hour. I was still nervous to go home unsure of what the night would bring. However, he gave us clear instruction on what to look for and advised us to check on him every hour. Needless to say I didn't sleep much that night. But morning came and he was fine. He's been fine ever since. Amazing.

So crazy to think about how differently that day could have gone. How our world could have been flipped upside down. When I think about those possibilities it literally breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes. He is such a gift to our family - what in the world would I do without him? Children are so fragile, God entrusts us to protect them and keep them safe and what a good reminder that we should never take that job lightly. There's no doubt in my mind that God was watching over little Preston that day and only allowed him to ingest some of the soap. May we always remember how small we are and how powerful and BIG our God truly is.