Puking in the Park

Wednesday, July 27:  As planned, we started our descent out of the cool, beautiful Rocky Mountains at 9:45am headed for downtown Denver and Elitch Gardens (amusement park and yes the park really is smack downtown).  Before we left David took some photos of the beautiful Rockies surrounding us.

Our RV (home sweet home) in the foreground

Photo David took from the roof of our RV

Remnants of an Old Mining Operation

The downtown of Central City lies below, it is a tourist town

Thankfully the drive back into Denver this morning is faster and not as stressful as the drive up was last night.  I snapped this photo through our windshield as we exited Central City Parkway.

We arrived at Elitch Gardens just after 11am, the park opened at 10am so we hadn't missed much.  It was supposed to be around 88degrees, very sunny.  Ou plan was to start with the dry rides first before lunch and then switch into swim suits and over to the water park.  Daddy and Rachel headed for the big coasters, while Ellie and Mommy chose the tilt-a-whirl and high swings area of the park.  We planned to meet up later.  After our first two rides Ellie wanted to go on the black spider next.

As we were waiting in line, this one a bit longer (20 min) because it takes so long to load and unload riders, Ellie started to not feel well.  She said "I need to go to the bathroom".  Mom started to get a bit concerned because the look on her face wasn't normal.  Just then Daddy and Rachel showed up and Mom told Dad to take Ellie to the bathroom, while Mom waited in line.  A few seconds later and Mom could tell that Mom should take Ellie to the bathroom.  So I got out of line and took Ellie by the arm and started walking towards the nearest restaurant.  Along the way Ellie said, "I need to lay down" and headed for a park bench.  I realized at that point that she was dehydrated and we had a problem (even though I made her drink water after and before each of the rides we went on).  I made her drink some water and pulled her to standing and told her we needed to get to shade.  She headed for the next park bench and said, "I need to lay down".  I followed her to the next bench and forced her to sit up and drink a few sips of gatorade.  She then said, "Mommy, where are you, I can't see you" even though I was standing right in front of her.  She was white as a ghost.  At that point I yelled to David to come carry her to shade, I was afraid she would pass out.

We got her inside a restaurant and put her down in a booth just as she proceeded to lose all of the water and gatorade in her stomach.  We took her to the bathroom where she lost more stomach fluid.  At that point I told David to go ahead and call for the park medic.  They brought a wheelchair and took Ellie to the first aid clinic.  They checked her vital signs, all were fine except blood pressure was low because she was dehydrated.  They monitored her for about 1 hour, gave her water and some crackers.  Medic told me that while the avg temp was 88, it was closer to 90+ in the park and closer to 100+ in the direct sun.  They suggested we get something more to eat right away and let how she was feeling dictate any future activity.

We got junk food for lunch (what else is there in an amusement park?).  Ellie consumed an Icee and a piece of pizza.  Then she was ready to try a mild ride - we went on the rapids ride and she handled it just fine.  So from there we went to the water park and bought a refillable Icee along the way.  By the end of the day, Rachel and Ellie refilled the 20oz Icee 3 more times.  We had a great rest of the day without incident.  We left the park for the day at 7:30pm just as it started to rain, thunder and lightening.

Would you have guessed Ellie almost passed out earlier today?