Scoripions are horrible, abominable. creatures.

They are a new part of our lives since moving to the desert. One that I could very happily do without. On day two of living in Arizona I was stung on my arm while breaking down boxes in the garage. Owen was stung on day thirty-four while playing outside. Prior to Mr. Mead scorching the earth with pesticide, literally, we were seeing about two per week. INSIDE our home. Those little bastar****'s! This is my home.

The final insult came when they stung Lily one night while she was sleeping in her bed. Take a moment and imagine that! Peacefully sleeping while poisonous insects crawl up from the floor, get under your sheet and BAM, begin an all out assault on you. Now that you are thoroughly creeped out I am satisfied that you can sympathize more fully.

Around three in the morning Lily came in saying her foot hurt. The previous day she had stubbed her toe badly and I was a teensy bit worried that her toe was broken. But being the excellent parent I am I watched her walk, felt it and decided it probably wasn't broken. So when she came in I gave her some Motrin and put her back into bed. She came back into our room about thirty minutes later complaining more and more. I went and laid down by her in to try and settle her down.

At this point I thought she'd kind of woken herself up and was simply having a hard time putting herself back to sleep. I laid there with her as she moved and flipped over and over and over again. That should have been my first clue something was amiss. After about fifteen minutes of her constant movement I thought maybe a bath would soothe her. By this point I was getting concerned that something was wrong and I woke Chad up to see what he thought.

He came into the bathroom and we watched her in the bathtub. She was in constant motion, it was like she couldn't stop moving. We both thought it odd and thought if this keeps up once it's a decent hour maybe we should call the doctor. We tried to lay her down again. Fifteen minutes later she was in our bedroom. I laid her down to try to sleep with us. She was getting more and more agitated. Chad took her out to turn on her favorite cartoon. I tried to fall back to sleep.

A few minutes later Chad came in and suggested I take her into the emergency room. She couldn't sit still for Tom and Jerry! Something was definitely off and now we both recognized it. Chad put her in the car and I got dressed. She was hysterical the entire car trip, trying to move and flip over while strapped in, arching her back. We got to the hospital and thankfully we were the only ones there. We got right into a room and what followed could only be described as a one hour long wrestling match.

She was up on the bed, flipping over and over and over, with no regard for the consequence of falling onto the floor. I was holding her while she was turning and turning all over the place. Then, it progressed and she started having seizures. Okay, officially worried now! This went on for about another hour until a nurse thought that this might be an allergic reaction to a scorpion sting.

"Do you live in a place where you have seen scorpion's?"

"Yes, we've seen about two per week for the past month and a half."


Thankfully the hospital we went to was involved in a research study for a scorpion anti-venom. Otherwise, we'd have to wait for it to leave her system, which can take DAYS. It took five people to get an IV line in her. At this point the only way to describe her is a possessed person having seizures. It was crazy crazy stuff, just trust me on that. Once the IV was placed they moved her over to the neurological observation rooms and began her first of five doses. The antiscorp drug is miracle stuff I tell you! Chad and I are still trying to wrap our brains around the fact that it's manufactured in Mexico.

Within ten minutes we began to see her calming and slowing down. After three doses she fell asleep, never mind that she was surrounded by three doctors a gaggle of nurses. We all stood around her bed watching her, her little arms and legs were still twitching. They gave her two more doses, the maximum dose she could receive. And then, she was back. Back, back to herself, we were so relieved. She opened her eyes and saw Chad sitting next to her bed.

"Hi daddy! Whatcha doin here dadddy? I'm thirsty, wader pwease daddy!"

The moment that you realize everything is going to be okay after a period of uncertainty is an excellent space. They watched her for a bit more and then we went home.

. . .where I proceeded to have what can only be described as a nervous breakdown.


When you are in a crisis, there simply isn't time to address how you're feeling about what is happening. You just deal. Keep moving and suppressing all those emotions that would distract you from your goal of taking care of business. But the aftermath? That is the time for all that to come out. And then, then Lily and I laid down together and fell asleep.