Monday, June 30, 2008

Strawberries: A cautionary tale

Dear Reader,

Today's post is not design-related. However, I think it's critical to share this with you, as I've noticed many, many entries in blogs recently about strawberry-picking and toddlers.

Please take the time to read this important message. It was an email I sent out to friends about three years ago, when my son was 2.


Hi guys:

I've got to share this story with you... cause it's probably all over town and you'll hear it soon anyway.

So...

Sunday is my day to sleep in... and Tony wakes me about 9 a.m. to tell me he's changing Jude's PJs and sees a rash on Jude’s chest. Jude had a bug earlier in the week, so I call the doctor and leave a message for the nurse to call me back.

As Tony finishes taking off Jude's jams, he notices a bright pink circle on Jude's lower leg (about the size of an orange) with all these little red marks in it that look like broken blood vessels. He lets out a panicked shout for me.

Naturally, we think meningitis, and rush to get clothes on and get in the car. On the way, I call the doctor and tell them we're going right to the ER, but they say come to the office since the office is attached to the hospital anyway.

Tony drops me and Jude off at the door and I rush us into the office, brushing past the behind-the-counter woman trying to get my health insurance info. (Think Terms of Endearment... where Shirley MacLaine is screaming for them to give Debra Winger medication).

So the doc takes us in right away, and we strip down Jude.

Hmmm... he cannot figure out this mark.

He takes a wet gauze and ... wipes the smushed strawberry off Jude's leg ... where it landed after somehow migrating into his pajamas during breakfast.

(Rash on chest was real, but of no note).

We feel we must now move. House is on the market.


Mary

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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

LOL, I was fearing some awful bite or allergic reaction!

SO glad all ended well....other than having to move. *grin*

Courtney said...

ha ha ha can you hear me laughing, all the way from Oregon?

Angie's Spot said...

My heart was pounding at the thought of what it could be! LOL! I've not had an embarrassing moment like that with our doctor yet (notice i said yet), but I'm sure there's one in my future. We still have another 16 years to go until they leave for college. ;-)

Sparklinbecks said...

That made me laugh so hard!

Jenny, the Bloggess said...

Featured on Good Mom/Bad Mom on the Houston Chronicle. http://tinyurl.com/5p8q7b

Nauntie Lush said...

Well, leave it to the HUBBY to freak out over a strawberry stuck to the leg, but not the actual rash/brown recluse spider bite/etc! I bet that this is not the WORST your doctor has seen, and by far the least embarassing moment you will have with him.

Glad it ended well. Take the house off the market. What's a little leg jam? Especially now that the whole INTERNET knows?

Givinya De Elba said...

Wow, great story! What a relief though.

Anonymous said...

This story made me laugh and it might make you feel better if I share one of mine...
My husband and I are RN's-one day when my husband was at work (in the Emergency Dept), my 2 year old (then) son, after a few days of general unwellness, started to vomit brown flecked vomit.Now as the expert I am , I immediately recognised this as what is referred to as "coffee grounds vomit", which is vomit containing clumps of dried blood, and an omen of Something Serious.
Naturally I rushed him to the ER (yes the one with my husband) and assured the triage nurse that it was DEFINITELY coffee ground vomit.Honestly, she was being so pedantic, suggesting it might not necessarily 100% definitely, be that.Come on, I'm a nurse, I know we just need to be seen immediately.
So, enter the doctor, followed by the nurse (my husband).2 year old son by now dancing with excitement on bed at sight of his father, leading pedantic doctor to also query Seriously Life Threatening Condition."had he eaten something looking like coffee grounds?"No, no,I know what I saw and obviously his condition might suddenly deteriorate .You know it can with children, even those laughing hysterically and singing and jumping all over daddy.Of course the fact that this was my husband's workplace just adds a certain poignancy to this story.

So, after a thorough examination we were discharged, me still worrying about what might happen. On the way home in the car, my stomach dropped as I suddenly remembered what he'd had for morning tea- do you know those little canola seed rolls, the ones with the little brown seeds in them, the seeds that look just like coffee grounds?...
My husband has NEVER told the examining doctor!