Medications and children don't mix!

As if the incident with the burglary was not enough to make me feel like a downright twit, I had to go the whole hog to thoroughly disgrace myself in my daughter-in-law's home.
What now?  You may ask.  Yes, ask that again and I will tell you.

If you have kept up with the rest of my blog updates, you will know that I am a chronic pain sufferer.  Not because I want to be, no - but because I have a cervical vertebral problem that is being medically treated (i.e. with medicine) as long as possible (that is until kidney failure kills me instead the doctors are hoping) - preferably to undergoing surgery which could prove fatal (what doctor wants to perform an operation that could result in total lack of success?).

Enough said about it.  I am on several million types of medicines to see me through each day.  Now knowing that kiddies and meds do not go well together and that the vast majority of overdoses result from kiddies finding grandma or grandpa's medications right there on the bedside cabinet - I was determined this would not happen to one of my grandchildren.

Well aware of the dangers, I kept my medications zipped up in my handbag and placed it right on the top shelf of the nursery where I was ensconced.

 

 

Lo and behold as kiddies do, some came over to play with my grandchild.  It was great, it was fun and they had a ball.  Two played outside and one little girl aged three, played in the nursery alone.

Their play time came to an end and now it was time to dress the Christmas tree.  It was also time for my medication.  Into the nursery I went to find to my absolute horror, my handbag full of pills had been removed from the very top shelf and placed on the very bottom shelf of the cupboard!

Who had moved it?  Tessa, my dear daughter-in-law.  So naive it's frightening.  Alarm bells started to ring as I checked all my medications carefully.  And there it was - an empty pill vial, staring at me.  Glaring at me in accusation.  Fleeting images of sleeping child, child being given emetic, child with burst blood vessels in the eyes from vomiting, child with no pulse - all these images came to mind.

I went through to the Christmas Tree and the kiddies and parents swimming around it.  I announced "8 of my blue pills are missing.  The vial is empty.  One of them is enough to knock me out for a night."  No-one cared.  Certainly not after the burglary incident.  They all thought I was a nutcase and they were not far wrong either.  They continued to place baubles on the tree and I continued to speak to the air "If one of these blue pills can knock an adult out for a night, imagine what it can do to a small child?"  - No response.

"I am concerned for the little one that played alone in the nursery!"  - No response.

"What if...."  A mother said "45 minutes have passed, the children would have been showing symptoms by now".  Another mother gave her toddler an empty vial to try to open and said victoriously "See!  She cannot open it!"

Both mothers agreed they were not prepared to put their children through stomach washes and would wait until they were symptomatic.

Symptomatic?  Where they mad or was I?  "Yes, let's just wait until one of the children's pulses stop.  The Christmas Tree decorations are after all, FAR more important."  That's what I said and then I went to the nursery, closed the door and wondered why I even cared.

I checked and re-checked my handbag and some time after the kiddies had left I found 8 little blue pills smiling up at me from the chemist's small plastic bag inside one of the handbag's linings.  Of course I was embarrassed (especially after the burglary incident I must repeat again and again and again).  But embarrassment took second place.  I triumphantly announced that the little blue pills had been found!  I went to Tessa's neighbours and showed them as well - no need to worry, the pills were not inside their three year old.  They were kind and they were understanding.  After all, I did place my handbag way out of reach of any child.  And on phoning their doctor had learned that my little blue pills were only harmful if more than 12 were swallowed in which case the child could receive an antidote in the form of an injection.

Tessa was not so understanding.  What kind of mother-in-law-from-hell was this that was staying with her?  I couldn't blame her.  I just heard her say "That's IT!!" and I knew that my goose was cooked - or my visit really - was overstayed by a burglary and an overdose.

I went to sleep exceptionally angry at myself.  But as the night progressed I realised that it was TESSA who had been negligent.  SHE had moved my bag - and why?  Why I did not know and did not care except that it had been done and could have resulted in an emergency.

Another drill?  Perhaps.  That's not how Tessa saw it!!
No doubt about it - she was glad to see the back of me!!

Bye-Bye from a crazy Nanna!!!

 

 

On Burglars....

Mid-move had to go elsewhere for a family crisis.  Returned after 10 days to find hubby had unpacked very few boxes so am now inundated with unpacking.  Throat infection did not clear properly and went into my left ear, Eustachian tube and sinuses.  That was the least of my worries, however.
The family crisis got me thinking seriously about post-natal depression and psychosis.  How late can it happen after a birth?  And about verbal abuse - why is it that so often only men are accused of abuse when verbal abuse can also come from the female of the species.  Especially in provocation.  16 days of an action campaign against women abuse - what about the men one has to ask?  It is after all, with the tongue that women fight (am I right or am I wrong?).

So there I was, a guest in my own adult child's home.  Alone with his wife.  She in the master bedroom and I in the child's future bed in the nursery.  I took a muscle relaxant (for my neck) and a sleeping pill.  Nothing usually wakes me up from this combination.

Suddenly, at 2 a.m. I awoke with what sounded like someone (or more than one person) climbing over the garden wall.  "Doomf!!" went their feet as they landed on the ground.  Then the outside light right outside my window went off.  Now I knew that a burglary was in process.  I was waiting for the sound of breaking glass at the kitchen door.  I even thought I heard voices.  Up out of bed I ran down the dark passage and knocked on my daughter-in-law's locked bedroom door.  "Tessa!  Tessa!  Press your panic button!"  No response.  I banged harder and shouted louder, knowing the intruder/s would now definitely hear me.  Finally, Tessa appeared sleepily at her bedroom door.  I closed the door and we locked it.  "Press your panic button" I repeated "There's someone in the garden.  They are trying to break in.  They could be in the house by now!"  Tessa was unfazed.  She batted her sleepy eyes at me "Are you SURE?" she asked slowly "Your son also thought there was someone around and there was no one".  What is wrong with this crazy lady?  She is second-guessing me at a time like this!  "Listen to me Tessa.  I was woken out of a deep sleep.  I took a muscle relaxant and a sleeping pill.  I heard them jump over the wall.  I saw the outside light go off!!"  She pressed the alarm.  It was not the silent kind.  It whirred loudly all across the neighborhood.  She switched it off.  We listened for noises inside the house.  We phoned the police.  They were on their way.  Phoned the neighbours, but no response.  Switched the alarm back on.  Two women alone in the house with a sleepy toddler sucking at her dummy and looking at us in amazement.

 

The policemen arrived - all seven of them.  They searched the house, they searched the garden, they looked for scuff marks on the walls, they found nothing.  They stayed a while giving us security tips and assured us they would patrol the area.  Calmed down, we had some coffee and returned to our separate bedrooms.

Several nights later I lay in the same bed nodding off when I heard the toilet next to my wall and off the master bedroom flush.  It wasn't the flush that shocked me, no.  It was the suction, Doomf! sounds that were familiar.  And I clearly heard the light being switched off.  Yet it stayed on outside my window.  ?????  The night of the near-burglary Tessa did not have the outside light on.  So that explained it.  She had gone to the toilet at 2 a.m., flushed and the plumbing took care of the rest of the "burglar" noises.  She had switched off the bathroom light which had flooded the garden outside my window.  And in the middle of all this I had woken and reacted.  My face was red, yes it was.

It was red when I admitted my mistake.  It remained red until I realised that I had actually through an act of great stupidity actually given my family a 'burglary drill' and that several things were left wanting - a silent alarm to a security company - outside light left off - a table right up against the wall - and neighbours that needed Stay Alert Tablets.