Friday, July 10, 2009

Don't Panic!

This morning Justin got stung by a baby scorpion! I was upstairs when Justin started screaming his head off and saying "That just hurt my leg!" I ran downstairs to where he was at the very bottom of the stairs, scooped him up, and saw a little scorpion right where he was. Luckily, Dave's shoe was close so I could take care of it. Justin said he was watching it and it crawled up his leg and stung him. It was so scary! The first person I called was Dave, who rushed home to help. Then I called Justin's doctor and then I called poison control, all while trying not to freak out or cry. It was difficult! After talking to the experts I was able to calm down and Justin had stopped crying so I could tell he was doing better. I took him to the doctor just to get it checked out and the doctor said in his 30 years he has only ever seen one child go to the hospital for a scorpion bite. Why is everyone so scared of them then? Apparently, it just hurts like crazy! They did tell me Justin would probably be a little out of it for the rest of the day and that's okay, but Justin was normal.

You can't really see much in this picture other than the redness but the sting is in the middle of the circle. I drew a circle around it in case the swelling got bigger the doctor could see where it started and how much worse it had gotten.Here it is, about the size of a dime. Everyone always says the baby ones are worse.
So in case you ever get stung or are with someone who does here is what they told me to do. First, wash the sting with soap and water. Apparently, scorpions are very dirty bugs and the most common side effect from a sting is an infection. You may need a tetanus shot too, if you're not up to date, according to the doctor. I have to watch Justin for the next three to four days to make sure there is no infection. Second, apply a cold compress to the area. Third, which is optional, give the person an anti-inflammatory. I gave Justin Motrin, which helped with the pain and the swelling. The more serious side effects that you want to watch for are, muscle twitching, excessive drooling, and eye darting. I think if I would have known all this ahead of time I probably wouldn't have freaked out as much. Then again, I probably would have!

6 comments:

Taylors said...

oh my gosh, I would have freaked out too. That thing is tiny! Crazy after living almost my whole life in AZ, I wouldnt have known what to do with a scorpion bite either!

Barbara Wiser said...

Thanks for all the good information on what to do if anyone gets stung...good to know :)

Sorry that happend to Justin...he must of been scared to death. I've heard the sting really hurts.

Steve was stung by a large on in the garage about a month ago. Since he was an adult we didn't go to the doctor or anything, but it hurt like a bugger and his lower leg went numb for about 6 hours or so.

Hugs to you!
Barbara

Julie said...

Scary!!!! We've only ever found one dead scorpion outside our house but I'm still scared to death of them. I learned from your post. . . I had no idea what you should do when someone is stung. I would probably just freak out too. Now that I have the knowledge I will probably still freak out, but at least I can be doing something productive while I'm freaking out.

So glad he's doing better!

Linda said...

OH gosh... ouch!! Poor Justin. I got stung while sleeping in my bed in the middle of the night - yes, it was in bed with me!! I immediately iced it and put tea tree oil on it... the tea tree oil did wonders.

The Hansen Family said...

You are so lucky!! When Brandon was 1½ he was stung by a Bark scorpion and it was the worst expierience of my life. The Bark scorpion's venom attacks the nervous system and with him being so small, his system couldn't handle it. He was literally convulsing from the tip of his toes all the way up to his hair for nearly two hours. He was foaming at the mouth and if you pryed his eyes open, which the doctors had to do several times, his eyes were rolling around in his sockets uncontrollably. It took 3 nurses to hold him down while they taped his arm to a board so that they could get an IV in for the anti-venom. It was a mother's worst nightmare, absoloutely awful.
Luckily he came thrugh it okay but even after recieving the anti-venom, it took almost an hour for his body to begin to calm down. Then, he had horrible reactions to the anti-venom for weeks afterward warranting many visits to the doctor's office.
It's a misconception that it's the size of the scorpion that matters, it's actually the breed. Because Bark scorpions are smaller than most breeds people have come to belive it's the small ones that hurt you. Out of 37 breeds of scorpions in Arizona the Bark scorpion is the only one that can give you a severe reation because it attacks your nervous system. The others can cause different degrees of pain and numbness but you don't usually have to go to the doctor.
Justin's expierience was a lucky one. Brandon's is why people are so afraid of scorpions.

Maylene said...

I'm glad he was ok. After reading the comment before mine, I think I'm even more scared of them. They rank right up there with widow spiders and those giant spiders that can crawl really fast and huge roaches. Gosh I hate creepy crawly things.