The $130 Hershey Bar

Yesterday was one of those days-- you know the kind you never want to have again?

It started at 2am with Ethan puking up all the nasty popcorn he ate at Target the day before. That woke up the entire family and after settling everyone down again I had to get up an hour later to get Ava to Children's Hospital for her procedure. All went well there, but we had to stay an extra hour because her heart rate wouldn't come out of the 180's. Then, to put the icing on the cake,  last night we got to experience the joy of the $130 Hershey bar--or should I say Ava did.

Wondering what is so special about a Hershey bar that it cost $130?? It was actually a couple miniature hershey bars, ingested by a highly allergic child, that ended in an epipen injection and a lovely night spent in the ER.

I shall never forget the look on Ava's face ( with a chocolate bar in her mouth) of sheer pleasure as she realized we'd been holdin' out on her. And I'm sure she'll remember the look of terror on her mother's face as I scooped her up and frantically tried to remove chocolate from her face and mouth.

We'll spare you all the details of the next 15 minutes- basically Bendaryl- Flovent- Ventloin- two panicked parents- a couple calls to my sister for advice (Thanks Debbie!)- and finally when she began to cough so badly that she was no longer breathing- an epipen.

And in case you were wondering- it WAS a movie like effect! I stabbed the pen into her leg and held it for ten seconds- at the end of which she began breathing somewhat normally. Though I hope to never have to do it again- it was amazing to see the immediate and drastic change.

We called our neighbor to watch the boys and headed to the most ghetto, white trash ER known to man. Unfortunately, it's the closest one to us, and Ava was so pale and sleepy that we didn't feel we could chance going to a bigger hospital. There was "no room in the inn tonight" and she was placed on a bed in the hallway- where Mom and Dad spent the next three hours getting a white trash education as she was doped up on Xopenex, oral steroids and oxygen.

My favorite was the lady next door. Apparently she got hungry and her shave head, ponytailed boyfriend asked the nurse if she could have something to eat. The nurse said, yes, but nothing salty - no salt." Ten minutes later he shows back up carrying a huge bag from Taco Bell! Sometimes you just have to laugh out loud and apologize later! When they repeated to the nurse what she had said- she shook her head and walked off. I guess some people just can't be taught! We won't mention the lady that came in off the ambulance because she threw up once and didn't feel good--and then proceeded to coo over Ava. Or the lady next door who's pain scale was on a 10, but was well enough to argue with the nurse over why she was drinking Gatorade when she wasn't suppose to.

So now you know that a $130 Hershey bar is not as great as it sounded-- I don't think I ever want to try one again. And if you're not dying - never go to a backwoods, white trash Emergency Room. You may come out worse than you went in!