Scorpion Sting

So Friday was one of the worst/scariest days ever. Everything was fine until about 4:30 in the afternoon when Colton started fussing and grabbing at his leg, Weldon and I looked but didn’t see anything so we just thought that his clothes were bothering him and stripped him down to his diaper. After a while he was still fussing so we gave him some Tylenol because he is getting one of his bottom molars in and we thought that might be the problem. As time went on he got more and more agitated and at about 5:30 Weldon noticed that his hands were shaking, I thought it was just because he was so mad, so we ignored it for a little while and just did everything we could to make him happy but nothing was working. By 7:00 he was just screaming and was inconsolable and his hands and legs were shaking pretty bad so we decided to take him to an urgent care up the road. As we were getting him dressed we noticed that he had a mark on his leg where he was grabbing earlier that looked like some sort of a sting. When we went to the urgent care we told the doctor that he had been crying non-stop since 4:30 and that we thought maybe he had been stung by a scorpion because Colton never cries like that, he hardly ever cries at all. The doctor checked his ears and said they looked fine, then checked his throat and said it looked a little red (duh, he had been crying for hours) so he decided to give us antibiotics for his throat and numbing drops just in case his ears were hurting him. Weldon and I were pretty mad because we knew that wasn’t the problem, so we left and took him straight to the ER where as soon as we said scorpion sting they got us right back. He was examined by several doctors and he defiantly was exhibiting signs of a scorpion sting like shaking, eyes jerking back and forth, and being unable to calm down. They put an IV in him and it took four people to hold him down because he was thrashing around and jerking so bad. The nurse wasn’t able to get his vein the first time so she had to stick him twice. By this time it was about 11:00 and Colton had been screaming for six and a half hours and having some one jab him didn’t make it better. They then gave him some pain medicine/sedative, but because of the poison in his little body he still was unable to relax and hold still, but at least it helped with the crying. At this point they decided to transfer us to the Children’s hospital because that was the only hospital that has the anti-venom. I rode with Colton in the ambulance and Weldon drove the car all the way across town where we all arrived at about midnight. Once there they gave him some more pain killer/sedative and we consulted with a toxicologist who said that yes it had to have been a scorpion and that if we wanted to we could give him the anti-venom which would work in about 30 min, or we could stay there for about 24 hours while they kept giving him pain killers and sedatives and wait for it to wear off. The only catch was that the anti-venom hasn’t been approved by the FDA yet, but the toxicologist reassured us that it has been administered hundreds of times and so far seems to be fine with no side effects. We opted to try the anti venom. It was amazing, within 30 min, like they said Colton was completely fine. No more crying or jerking or pain. At this point the sedatives were able to kick in and he was finally able to fall asleep. Weldon and I still had to wait about an hour just so they could make sure that he was ok, then after we woke him briefly to make sure that he could eat and drink just fine we let him go back to sleep and got our discharge papers. By the time we got home it was 4:00 in the morning and we were exhausted. We were really lucky though because with the exception of the urgent care doctor, who was more concerned with making it home for dinner then he was for his patients, we had really great nurses and doctors. After we got home we all got in bed (we had Colton in our bed to keep an eye on him) and went to sleep. The next morning at about 7:30 Weldon got up to use the bathroom and noticed that our roof was leaking from the apartment above us so we had to call the landlord and weren't even able to sleep in, Colton slept until about 9:00 though so that was good. About the time that Colton woke up, Weldon was in the kitchen and looked on the floor next to the wall and saw a huge scorpion. He caught it and I took some pictures of it. We really hope that it was the one that got Colton and that he was alone. He got his just reward though, Weldon took him out side and put rubbing alcohol on him and set him on fire to watch him sting himself to death. The fire didn’t burn so good, but the scorpion drowned in the alcohol anyway. It was a bark scorpion and supposedly they are the most poisonous kind around here so we are really lucky that Colton only got as sick as he did because it could have been much worse. He is totally fine now, in fact the next morning you wouldn’t have known that he had even been stung, except for the bruises on his hand from the IV. We got bug spray and sprayed the house and went to Walgreens and got a black light that we use to check the house as soon as it gets dark because we do not want to go through that again! Any way so that was how we spent most of Friday, here are some pictures of the scorpion and Colton’s little bruised hand (sorry they’re not very clear, he didn’t want to hold still) Weldon also got a picture of Colton in the hospital after they gave him the anti-venom on his phone so I will see if I can figure out how to put it on the computer.

This is the scorpion in the bottom of a wide mouth mason jar, look how big he is! ( you can tell that it is a bark scorpion because it holds its tail curled and to the side rather then out behind it or over its back. Another piece of trivia… bark scorpions are the only scorpions that climb)

This is our very dead, semi burnt scorpion next to a matchstick so you can get a better idea of the size, you can even see the stinger. Poor Colton, that had to have hurt!

Like I said it is pretty blurry and you can’t see how dark his bruise really is, but you can kind of see each place that the needle stuck him.

This is a picture of Colton in the hospital after they gave him the anti-venom when we woke up up to make sure he could eat and drink, he is pretty drugged up though. They had to make sure his hand with the IV on it was wrapped really good and then put a sock over it to keep him from pulling it off, it didn’t stop him from trying to bite it off though! That is a blood pressure cuff on his leg.  About two seconds after this he went right back to sleep.

Any way this is a warning to any one else with babies who live in scorpion territory, Watch out! get a black light or spray for bugs or do both because I cannot tell you how scary it is to see your baby like that! Also… modern medicine is a miracle!!