Lauren. Gah.

Lauren ran over a classmate on Thursday.  She was incredibly upset.

To those who have personal experience with young children in electric wheelchairs, you know that many kids react extremely to wheelchair accidents.  Lauren is one of them.  She got so upset, was so beside herself that she was taken to the school nurse because she was aspirating her tears/secretions and struggled to breathe.

That's Lauren.  She wasn't safe to take the bus and so I picked her up from school.  I think that when she runs over someone, she hates the fact that she's in wheelchair just as strongly as she blames herself for the accident.  Does that make sense?  She's a perfectionist, so making a mistake is upsetting.  And I could be wrong here, but I get the sense that while she embraces her powerchair as her "legs", she is ultra-aware how different her chair makes her from her peers.  And she resents it.  I don't know, I'm all new at this.  Maybe I'm wrong.

In any case, her hysteria around this accident (after 2+ years in the public school system, this is her first incident) caused such tears, such an increase in secretions that she may have aspirated.  Now her lungs are junky, and they're never normally junky.  On top of that it seems she's caught a stomach bug, because she hasn't kept anything down for the last 24 hours (exactly....24 hours).  And we're out of town.  Which reminds me, the Numero Uno thing I don't want to ever have to do is take an SMA kid to an E.R. in another town.  Sorry, Other Town--I'm sure your facilities are great and all, but we are too complicated to subject you to us.  Be thankful that I'm holding out until we get back home.

On the other hand among the few things I technically cannot do to my kids is start an IV.  And that's what she'll need if she's not drinking water by tomorrow, so.  Here's hoping UMC's IV team has had their 5 Hour Energy shot and brought their A game, because she is not an easy stick.  REALLY hoping this doesn't have to happen, but I am famous for thinking my kids are fine without professional intervention when they are not.

She hasn't upchucked in over two hours though, so we may be in the clear.....here's hoping.