Last night, Riker made his first trip to the Emergency Room. Around 7:30pm, I was playing with Riker in the living room. I pulled him onto my lap so we could sing a song together and I immediately noticed that there was something wrong with his eyes. His right pupil was huge (I believe “dilated” is the correct term) and his left pupil appeared normal.
I wasn’t sure if I was seeing it correctly, so I grabbed a nearby flashlight to shine in his eyes. Sure enough, the left pupil constricted (as it normally should) but the right pupil stayed dilated. I quickly opened my laptop and did a little Google research…after seeing one too many websites talking about brain bleeding and neurological problems, I started to panic. TJ walked in the door a few minutes later and could tell by my face that something was wrong. I showed him Riker’s eyes and TJ immediately stood up and said it was time to go to the ER.
We were seen quickly in triage, where they affixed a sad little hospital bracelet to Riker’s poor little foot. Once we were admitted to a room to see a doctor, Riker was given a gown (which he kept asking us to take off).
TJ was pretty high strung and nervous as we waited for the doctor. I told him to turn the GOP debate on to help distract him (which didn’t exactly work since his favorite candidate *Perry* didn’t do very well in the debate).
Eventually, the doctor came in to check out Riker. After talking with him, it was determined that Riker was having a reaction to some insecticide that was sprayed earlier in the day (even though the warning label said it was safe to use with kids in the home!). We were told to take him home and monitor him through the night, and then follow up with our pediatrician the next day.
Of course, very little sleep actually took place last night. We put Riker in a pack-n-play in our room (since his bedroom was apparently a toxic warzone), and TJ was constantly getting up to make sure Riker was still breathing and responsive.
When Riker woke up the next morning, his eyes definitely looked better. The right pupil was still bigger than the left, but not as big as it had been. As the day went on, the right eye just kept looking better and better. A visit to the pediatrician this afternoon confirmed what the ER doctor had said. The pediatrician said his eyes look fine (and should both be equal by tomorrow) and that there should not be any lasting effects. It seems that just enough of the toxins got into his body to mess with his pupils, but not enough to have any major symptoms (most children that present with any signs of toxicity in their symptoms also have decreased vision, lethargic behavior, vomiting, etc).
Riker was a trooper through it all, but by the end of today he was definitely tired of people asking to look at his eyes!
Moral of the story: don’t use Raid. Ever.
2 comments:
So Sad to already have a hospital bracelet:( Glad the little man is doing better, and I do mean TJ since Riker never felt bad:)
Eek how scary! Glad he's doing better though and that it was nothing too serious!
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