When the kids were growing up, I had my share of heart-stopping moments.
I remember when YK was about 1 or 2, we were having dinner at a restaurant in town. He was sitting on the 'high' chair, pinching raisins from the adults' salad bowl. Towards the end of the evening, he kept fiddling with his nose and started talking in a very nasal sort of voice. It was difficult to pry any intelligent answers out of a little toddler, so we figured he must have shoved something up his nose.
We rushed him to the children's hospital and the doctors attended to him right away. Upon inspection, they found a raisin stuffed deep inside his nostrils. If they couldn't remove it using a pair of tweezers, they might have to operate on him. The doctors bundled him up tightly with a blanket and held him down, wielding a pair of tweezers. By then the terrified boy was bawling his eyes out. It was a heart wrenching moment. I felt completely helpless and sorry for my poor kid. Tears began streaming down my face.
Suddenly the doctor flashed a triumphant smile, holding out a golden raisin for us to see, now plump and swollen from the moisture in his nostrils. Such a huge relief!
Many years later, we ended up in A&E again on a Sunday evening, carrying a little bucket. YK was in the yard, trying to capture a baby snake using a pair of tweezers. The snake retaliated, reared its head and bit him on his palm. It was a shallow but painful bite. Now YK had read alot about keeping snakes as pets. Though it was a tiny one (about 3 inches long), it had a diamond shaped head which meant it could be venomous.
While driving him to the hospital, he started getting worried. I wasn't too worried at first but his fear rubbed off on me. By the time we got to the hospital, I was quite a nervous wreck. That in turn, made him very anxious. The boyish doctor who attended to us was delighted to see us and the snake. (especially the snake)
"Very good! You did the right thing by bringing the snake here." He examined the snake closely and said "It's too small to inflict any venom but it's always good to be careful. I grew up in the village myself and had my share of snake catching. Oh, those days were so fun! You guys are lucky to live in a farm."
Suddenly, all the worries just rolled off our shoulders. "Thanks Doc. What a relief! You can have the snake and the bucket." I said.
PS: That doesn't mean SK didn't get into any trouble. I'll save his stories for another day.
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6 comments:
What do you know? My sister did the exact same thing by stuffing garlic in her nose!
I was stung once by a baby (virtually see-through) scorpion!
Childhood in Africa, you see. ;)
The things that kids get into! With Aly, it'll more likely be with food than with any kind of large bug. She's like mom ya know;)
When I was a kid I had pet snakes and lizards. Now I have them in the wild and I still sometimes chase them. I can imagine your terror in both of these situations. When it's our kids everything changes right?
My wife once saw a kid at the doctor's getting a Light Bright peg removed from his nose. The kid was screaming and they couldn't get it out. Had to send him to you know where...
I was stung by a man-o-war in the ocean once. Talk about painful. I was standing in shoulder deep water, felt a burning sensation on my legs, reached down and pulled up a handful of poison laden ...tentacles(?). The were paper thin, and tore easily, but the poison had already penetrated my legs. They were wrapped all around them.
I'm glad that snake was too small to cause harm. Jeesh, that must have been so scary.
Epi - Now I can laugh about the raisin and the garlic :-) Kids around the world do the sillest things! But that scorpion sting must be really painful. Ouch!
JY- Girls get into different kinds of trouble I think. They don't go about catching snakes or scorpions...
David - Oh boy, that image of the boy with a peg in his nose...I can't get over it! Poor chap. I read in the papers yesterday about this boy in Australia who was standing by the fence and got speared by the metal prong up his throat. It was miraculous that it missed all his vital organs. The gaping hope was big enough to put the finger/knuckle through!
Holly- I've read about the man-o-war. I think they can kill! Jellyfish stings are one of the most painful. Poor thing!
Ah, the kinds of troubles kids get into!
YK - he and his stories always make me smile :)
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