The Phamily Blog

If I told you I was sure I hadn't lost at least five years off of my life this week, I would surely be lying. You can't make this stuff up, folks...you just can't!

I have shared before that Gabby has "issues" with choking. As with a lot of children with Ds, she has a very weak oral tone. I haven't helped matters much by throwing all of her food through the food processor, thus giving her less opportunity to work at chewing. We actually have an appointment set up later this week (I think) to meet up with a feeding therapist. HALLELUJAH!

Anyway, let's get to the root of this lovely ambulance ride...

It was early evening on Sunday. I was watching Gabby scoot around on the kitchen floor. She stumbled upon some brownie crumbs. I saw them there on the floor. They were tiny and I had no issues with her sneaking some in her mouth. All was fine and dandy, and I picked her up and proceeded to make her a bottle. As I sat down on the couch to feed her, she took her first sip and began to cry. I immediately thought the milk was too hot and had burned her. She continued to cry and then began to gag. I recognized immediately that something was in her throat and she was trying her hardest to get it out of there.

Panic began to set in. I have called 911 on two other occasions (or is it 3?) and as she turned red in the face, I picked up the phone and began dialing once more. I tried to remain calm as I scanned through my memory, trying to remember the techniques I had just learned in my CPR class. The 911 operator came on the line as I applied back blows to my tiny girl. Nothing was helping and I was scared out of my mind. My one and only comfort was that she was coughing which is what you want to encourage.

Finally, I could hear the sirens. It seemed like an eternity but they finally turned that corner and I immediately felt better knowing there was help coming. What's comical is that the whole time this was going on, I assumed Nguyen was out in the garage exercising. I thought he would see the flashing lights in our front yard and come running out but he was nowhere to be found. Turns out, he was in the bedroom playing video games the whole time. Oops. He was confused as to why I didn't yell for him, but I truly thought he was outside. Poor guy felt terrible.

Anyhow, the EMT's took a look at Gabby and could tell she was definitely having some trouble and asked me what hospital I would like her taken to. I was a little shocked that we were going anywhere..I thought they would just make sure she passed whatever was in her throat and they would leave. He asked me where her car seat was and proceeded to pull it out of my car. At that point, I went inside and informed my poor husband that I would be leaving in that ambulance that was parked in our driveway. Imagine his bewilderment!

Nguyen followed behind the ambulance and I had the pleasure of accompanying my screaming/gagging/choking/baby. Poor girl was so scared and being restrained in her seat inside of this foreign vehicle was not helping matters. She continued to freak me out as she coughed up a nice wad of bloody mucous. That was fun. The EMT reassured me it was no biggie...she had just irritated her bronchial from coughing so hard and it was "no big deal." I am so glad he was calm because seeing my poor baby with blood flying out of her mouth was terrifying.

Once we were about half way to the hospital, they let me take her out of her seat and hold her. I, of course, had to be restrained to the gurney, but it was fine. She fell asleep shortly after and never made another attempt at coughing again. She had completely worn herself out.

Everything after that was pretty uneventful. They did a chest x-ray just to make sure nothing was in the lungs. All was good but the doctor did tell us to be on the lookout for pneumonia. Apparently if she had swallowed something plastic and it went down into one of her lungs, it could develop into pneumonia even six months down the line. I highly doubt what she swallowed was plastic, but time will tell guess. I honestly think that the little bit of brownie might have been bigger than I thought and once she took her first swig of milk, it became lodged. I'm just so happy everything turned out okay.

I pray that that was our first and last ambulance ride. Why do I doubt that will be the case? Ha!

Last night, my girl developed a lovely little fever with chills. This is another thing that absolutely freaks me out. I wish I could be calm, cool, and collected but seeing your tiny baby so uncomfortable, teeth chattering, and fidgity is worrisome. Am I the only one that panics about febrile seizures? Hypochondriac, I know.

She ended up being fine once the motrin kicked in. She even woke up this morning with some spunk.

Today we were scheduled to have a cardiology check-up but I cancelled this morning. Now it's raining and we're making it a lazy day which is JUST what we all need.