Another day is over. Today we changed Zevi's dressing all by ourselves for the second time. Everything appears is order, certainly, let's hope we did as clean of a job as we intend to. What makes this change different from the previous one is this: today I did not screw up the Ativan dose. This is of them "all is well that ends well" stories; funny, but only retrospectively.
Last Friday in preparation for the first in-home dressing change we decided to give Zevi Ativan. It is an anti-anxiety drug that has been given to Zevi plenty of times at the hospital. It also has nice anti-nausea effect, so we have a bit of a history with it by now. Since we have been home, however, we have not had need to give it. Unlike other meds that we can doll out in our sleep, this one I had to look up the dose for. In short, I read the concentration instead of the dose and measured what was eight times the amount.
To be sure, at dressing change Zevi's anxiety was right up there - you would not tell he had any meds for that, let alone an overdose. Things did get positively weird about another 90 minutes later, at bed time. Zevi had a bit of trouble recognizing us. He asked once who was there, while pointing at a row of loyal teddy bears. He asked why the toys were flying, then he asked why daddy was. Or why was there a tree, while pointing at the wall. You get the picture - the kid was hallucinating. Both Alla and I were more than a little freaked. Around that time I checked the dose and realized my error. Alla took over by Zevi's bed and I called our awesome nurse. Just as Zevi asked Alla why was there a river down there (on the floor), the nurse told me to get Zev to ER and we were off. By the time Zevi was in the car he knew exactly where he was and where he was going. He just asked when will mama come to the hospital. For my part, I got to do steady 80 mph on I5 while periodically checking on Zevi. Zevi was not longer sleepy and perfectly game to look at cars, call out the lights, count in English and Russian and recite the family tree. In the mean time Alla contacted OHSU and they were ready for us.
Once we got to OHSU ER the story, honestly, gets boring. By that time Alla has called me back and told me to quit rushing - the on-call physician and Oncology assured Alla that Ativan is safe and washes out of the system quickly. The only risk is slowed breathing so we are only going in for observation. We were allowed into our private box in ER very quickly. Zevi was checked over and hooked up to monitors. Having three extra wires attached got him upset and his vitals (heart and respiration rate) were by no means low. Oxygen saturation and blood pressure were perfect. At that point mom arrived and we got to waiting. We stayed in the ER until the 4 hr post-ingestion mark. At that point we were checked over again and sent home. Entire visit was 90 minutes and everyone was asleep in their own bed by ten past midnight.
Dangerous? Certainly. Funny? Possibly. It was to us in retrospect. Will I ever live down the fact that I messed up the dose and got my kid high? Not a chance.
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