That picture scares me. I don't get it.

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That's Kari's son, Spliggle, after he was given activated charcoal. And yes, it was scary; the ER is like that.

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So how many horror stories would you like to hear?

My son Tim was hit by a truck?
My oldest son, Rick, swallowed phenobarbitol?
My son Jim cut his leg open on a playground slide?
Or the time Rochelle came racing down the hall headlong into an open door and cut her head open?

I could go on. I won't.

Looking back almost 50 years, I think the pheno was the scariest although Tim's encounter with the truck ran a close second.

The pheno was my son's medicine and was on a very high shelf in a childproof bottle. Somehow my oldest daughter climbed up and knocked it down. The cap came off, Rick knew it was his medicine and swallowed enough to cause serious damage.

The pheno was for convulsions so when he started convulsing and passed out, I headed for the e.r., never thinking about pills. When they asked, I ran back home to check and sure enough, there was the bottle.

He slept for almost 48 hours but other than that was okay. I wasn't.

Reading Kari's post gave me flashbacks.

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Yes, Spliggle was given 60 cc's of activated charcoal to neutralize the Exedrin he swallowed. Surprisingly, he loved gulping it up. The picture was taken right after he finished off the syringe.

He is doing great today.

Of course we are now getting a locked toolbox in which to put all medications. :)

Thank you for sharing our story, Susan.

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Mine isn't all that exciting except that I called the triage nurse an effin bit*h. I took my infant in there with an ear infection that was causing a 105.4 degree fever. The nurse didn't even give us a chance, just assumed we were those too-overprotective parents who take their children in for a runny nose.

When I told her about the ibuprofrin every two hours with no reduction in the very high fever and she replied with a question as to why, exactly, I was bringing my child in for an earache, I lost it.

Keep in mind this is my first child, was my first experience with a 105 degree fever, and my daughter was unresponsive. Yes, I was scared, but I was still making good decisions and did not deserve her attitude.

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My scariest moment..last year my daughter was making tea, she ended up turning the entire pot onto her self getting 2nd and 3rd degree burns. I got her into the tub and got her shorts stripped off her, saw it was far worse than I could handle and we rushed her to the er wrapped in a towel. They took her right back, got cool towels on it and then slathered silvadine cream all over it. Bandaged her up and sent us home. We had to go see her regular doctor for further treatment. Thankfully through much silvadene cream, bandages and tape and diligance a month after she was almost completly healed and she didn't scar! The burn was down her right side onto her thigh. It was the scariest thing I have ever been through. I was so scared she was going to be scarred for life. Her dr. kept reassuring me that as long as we took care of it like he said she wouldn't scar. It's something that I hope to never have to endure again.

As for making tea, we use the coffee pot now!

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I've told the kids we're allowed only one visit to the ER per year. We've already had ours for this year (http://www.bloggingbaby.com/2007/01/08/vacationing-in-the-emergency-room/).

Last year was Jared's Strep Throat (while on vacation, of course) and the year before that was Jared's broken arm.

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I'm with those who would rather not remember. Remembering all those moments will just increase the number of moms on nerve pills. And scare non-moms out of ever having kids.

The thing is, you never know what idiotic thing your kid is going to come up with, even after you think you have prevented every possible accident.

However, I always used to laugh at the old "wimpy woman" stereotypes where women were portrayed as being completely incapacitated at the sight of blood. Hello? The entire human race would have died out by now if that were so.

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It is 3 am. Ds wakes up. I go to put him back to bed, when he trips on a toy. He hits his face on the edge of his bed right on his eye. I am not wearing my glasses so i can't see a thing. But i feel his face is already swollen and his cheek bone is huge. I run to get my glasses, dh is awake because the sound of him falling wakes him up. I am panicing because I was sure he broke his cheek bone. Ds is screaming. I look at his face and he is getting a black eye and his cheek is massive. My mother who lives next door knocks on the door because it woke her too!
We get to the er and the Dr checks him over and nothing is broken ( I think I nearly passed out when my adrenaline dropped back to normal) No broken teeth just the muscle is swollen.
that was terrifing.

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SKL, when my son cut his leg on the slide, the e.r. doctor asked me if I was one of those women who fainted.

I said no and he handed me the scissors to cut the thread as he stitched.

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My daughter, who was three at the time, fell at her day care and split her bottom lip open. I took her to the ER and it was such a bad experience for her. She was so traumatized about getting stitches and being restrained that she was afraid to get her stitches out at the doctor's office. I got all but one stitch out myself and the other refused to budge, so she went nearly 6 mos. with a lone blue stitch in her the middle of her lip. My crazy boy, however, has never gone to the ER. Crossing fingers and knocking on wood!

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