Party interruptus

So, about that blood in the carpet ...

Well, that's the short part of the story. Betty tore a nail and tracked it all over the house. Some of our party guests got online to figure out how to clean it up. Then they did.

That's that. But don't feel cheated out of a story because the question is: Why were our guests cleaning blood out of the carpet instead of Jerry and I? Well, Jerry and I were at the hospital with Wilder. In fact, last night we spent, between the two of us, 12 hours in two separate hospitals, where Wilder was subjected to all manner of tests, including and culminating in a CAT scan.

Before I go any further, Wilder is fine. Today, he's running around the house -- pantsless, mind you, which is his favorite way to explore a house -- as exuberant as ever.

So here's what happened. The party started at 2 p.m. It was going fantastically. Lots of people showed up. Tons of kids in the pool, having fun, many of their parents with them. Hunter was being mellow. Wilder was having a ball.

Until about 5:30 p.m. At that point, he started to get very cranky. After a bit, Jerry and I came to the decision that he was really tired and needed a little nap. We got him out of the pool and, at that point, he really started to freak out. Lots of screaming, lots of body contorting. We took him to bed and left the room for about 10 minutes. He wasn't calming down, so I went into his room. I talked to him about taking it easy, but he was inconsolable. I mean he was either in a LOT of pain or he was competing for the Super-Mega Tantrum 2008 title.

At some point, I decided I was going to stay in his room until he fell asleep. Something just told me not to leave. I swear, this was like a crystal clear intuition. I just felt strongly, really strongly, that I shouldn't leave him alone.

About five minutes later, things got really scary. Wilder had calmed down briefly, but worked himself up again. It was like he was trying to stay angry and conscious at the same time. I was trying to figure out what was up when his eyes rolled back in his head and he started to throw up. I pulled him out of bed onto his feet. He stood there, barely able to keep himself on his feet, convulsing and puking for another five minutes. He was having trouble breathing. He didn't even seem to be in his body.

At this point, I lost it. I started screaming for Jerry. He came running and Wilder briefly came back to himself, refusing ice cream and still crying uncontrollably.

A few weeks ago, someone sent us an article on dry drowning. Basically, kids get water in their lungs while swimming, yet remain alert for a period of time. After awhile, they start to act strange and then get really sleepy. Parents will put them down for a nap, where they will drown.

Freaky, right? Well, I'd forwarded the article to Jerry and, though we both knew that the statistical chances of this happening to Wilder were very low, neither of us could get it out of our minds. And we were especially freaked because he couldn't seem to stay awake, couldn't seem to keep his eyes open or his head up.

In a flash that now feels like a slow-motion blur, we decided an emergency room visit was in order. Jerry ran out the door without shoes on, still wet from the pool. I quickly enlisted friends to watch Hunter and feed him and, barely able to keep myself calm, drove like a madwoman to the hospital, about 10 minutes behind the boys. They were already in admitting when I got there. Wilder had thrown up twice more and was borderline catatonic when I arrived. Moaning, labored breathing.

They took him back to a room, hooked him up to some monitors and started an IV to take some blood. He came to when they did that, cried out once and faded back out. It was the lethargy that was really concerning the docs (and, obviously, us).

At some point I stepped outside to call our friends and check on Hunter. I was crying on the phone about how out of it he was and how scared I was. When I stepped back into his room, he was sitting up, looked at me and yelled out: "Mama!" An x-ray tech had stepped in to x-ray his lungs and he'd perked up, just like that. Just like someone had snapped their fingers and magically brought him to.

Strange.

So let me wrap this up because this is feeling like a novel ...

We stayed at Doctors Hospital a few more hours. Wilder had low potassium and high glucose and, though he was now acting almost totally normal, the doctors decided to transfer him to Children's Hospital to rule out diabetes or anything else more serious. So an ambulance ride and 12 hours later (I had to go home at about 2 a.m. to feed the baby and Jer stayed with Wilder for the remainder of his tests), he was released with a clean bill of health, the incident unexplained. I guess it was some strange mixture of sun, fun, stress, exhaustion and who knows what else.

Everyone here today is tired, but happy. We're together, we're healthy. There've been lots of cuddles and popsicle requests granted. On that note, I'm off ... my car is still at hospital No. 1 and needs to be picked up.

Love to all. I've got pictures from the weekend to post later.