Tuesday, June 19, 2007

I Am an Idiot

I seriously did one of the absolute dumbest things ever this weekend. I will preface this story with everything turned out fine, but I am still pretty shaken up over it.

Around the middle of last week, Jonathan developed a cough. Not a particularly bad cough, but bothersome in that it interrupted his naps and woke him up at night. As the cough was his only symptom, I did not see any reason to take him to the doctor unless it progressed. We tried elevating the end of his crib and also some of those plug in menthol things. Neither really worked so on Friday, I rummaged through the area where I keep his medicines and came across a prescription cough medicine from December. I thought "perfect" and Bryan and I gave it to him a few times this weekend. It seemed to help a lot.

So on Monday, I took the medicine and a doser with me to Jonathan's school. You have to fill out and sign some paperwork that basically says it's OK to give your kid whatever kind of medicine it is. As I was filling out the paperwork, I had to refer to the bottle to see the name of the medicine. That is when I noticed my error.

The prescription was in my name and not Jonathan's. And it was the prescription cough medicine that I was given when I had pneumonia in December. And it has codeine in it.

Immediately panicked, I tried to remain calm. Jonathan was obviously OK, so I told him goodbye, took the medicine with me and walked out to the car as quickly as possible. I called Bryan and he, sounding calmer than I felt, told me to call the pediatrician. I did so immediately. They directed me to call the pharmacy where I'd gotten the medicine. I did and the very nice pharmacist was able to look up the prescription. He asked me Jonathan's age and weight and put me on hold while he calculated the dosage. After what felt like ten minutes (although it was probably more like thirty seconds), he got back on the phone and told me everything was OK, that, actually, Jonathan could have had twice the amount we were giving him per dosage (Note: for some bizarro reason, I only gave Jonathan 1/2 teaspoon at a time rather than the 2 teaspoons indicated on the label. A good thing, but where was my reasoning?). I thanked him profusely and got off the phone.

Then I immediately burst into tears. How had I made such a stupid mistake? Given, Jennifer and Jonathan have the same number of letters, but are not otherwise similar, so how did I let this happen? I am honestly not sure how this medicine got with Jonathan's medicines to begin with as I keep the two in completely separate places. I just cannot believe that I did not check the name on the label before I gave it to Jonathan. Also, I just can not get past the "what if" feeling, as in what if it had been worse and Jonathan now needed a kidney transplant or something?

I am happy to report that even with all this, Jonathan is fine. I ended up taking him to the doctor yesterday afternoon, a little bit because of my snafu, but also because the cough had not gotten any better over five or six days. Turns out he was just coming out of a sinus infection and going into a double ear infection, so we are now on the "pink stuff" for the next ten days. When I told the doctor about what I'd done, he assured me that Jonathan was not harmed in the least, which made me feel a teensy bit better, but overall I still feel like a boob.

So from now on, I am taking all of Jonathan's prescriptions to Target since they will color-code them for me in case I forget to check the label again. Not that I foresee that happening again in the next million years, but you can never be too safe. One of the other attorneys in my office tells me that I will find this funny at some point (her children are 18 and 21), but I suspect that is going to be a really long time from now...

10 comments:

Kara Lewis said...

Awww . . . you are a great mom! Shit happens, as Forest says, but you are doing a fabulous job and raising a fabulous kid.

Janice said...

Oh no, I am so sorry that happened! You are a great mommy and handled it really well and knew exactly what to do! This is definitely one of those mommy moments that I know can happen to me. We've all done something stupid at one point or another. Let's just hope our kids won't remember and decide to milk us for money because of it when they're older. :-P

Shana-Lynn said...

Oh my! I am so glad he is okay Jennifer. Don't beat yourself up though, it was a mistake and he is okay, things happen. You are a wonderful mommy and were right on top of it when you noticed the error.

Would you mind if I added you on my link list?

Jonathan's Mommy said...

Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments. Shanna, that would be great to be on your link list! Feel free to add me!

Alicia said...

We all feel like boobs every once in awhile. Don't beat yourself up. It's just one of those times where you need to pick yourself up, brush yourself off and move on. No harm done (except maybe to your fragile mommy psyche.) I once put off taking Coleman to the doctor when his eye had become swollen. Ended up that he had cellulitus and was in the hospital for 5 days! Talk about a "bad mommy" moment! I beat myself up for along time before I just had to realize that I'm not perfect. We all make mistakes. Just be happy that he's ok. Oh, and you're not an idiot. :)

supermommysquared said...

Don't feel bad! I have a feeling that every mom has a similar snafu, but from experience it doesn't make you fee much better at the time. After all, us perfectionists are way harder on ourselves than necessry. Hailey's last ear infection may have been treated earlier if I had noticed instead of assuming she was "just cranky" the day before. You are great mommy!

Anonymous said...

Don't beat yourself up. He's fine, and it was a mistake anyone could have made.

I picked Kory up from his grandparents once after a weekend at their place ... even though his grandmother is a nurse she neglected to tell me that he'd been throwing up for two days! I felt like the world's worst mother when I took my dehydrated toddler to the ER for fluids ... and given my age at the time, you can imagine the looks I got.

Anonymous said...

Just think how I felt when hot coffee was flipped on Victor's bare stomach on Mother's Day of 1972, and Vic had to take him to the hospital with 2nd degree burns
or
we all felt when Vic ran over Bryan's foot with the car, so Bryan went to Kings Island in a foot cast!!
Love, Nana

Wendy said...

Don't worry- we all make mistakes, and we will continue to do so!! This momy thing is a constant learning situation!! What matters is that he is fine!!

Andrea said...

I am so glad everything turned out fine. I don't think you are an idiot- you just made an honest mistake.