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Honey is Sweet Scorpion stings - 2007-01-03 I'm grateful for: Neil moving out, one day at a time; Hans is all right; Incredible neighbours. Whew! I thought I wasn't going to be able to add an entry - I kept reloading the page and getting told to try again in a minute. Ugh. But anyway... I just got home from the E.R. It was a long and full day with many important bits, like Neil leaving to stay in Jerusalem, at least for the next two nights, and possibly longer, and not getting to the zoo, and buying Hans new boots, but it all gets lost in what happened later. John and I had driven up to Malki and Shlomo's, they live in Bareqet, to visit, and deliver some produce (lots of fresh fruit and veg gets given to us every week here), and talk about knitting and taxes and yam recipes. We had only been there a few minutes (and gotten a skinny on the taxes from Shlomo) when the phone rang. It was Havva calling to tell me that Hans had been stung by a scorpion. Okay, yikes! Ask the pertinent questions, is it swelling, how is his breathing, heartrate? What colour scorpion, yellow, was it a big one? From Malki and Shlomo's it is at least an hour to get home, and Hans has to be taken to a hospital or someplace to be checked by a doctor. I advised Havva on a couple of neighbours with cars she could ask for help, but it turned out neither of them were answering their doors (some of our neighbours turn in rather early). By this time John and I are on the highway driving at almost half again the posted speed limit. What now? Do we call for an ambulance or a taxi? The problem is, where we live, the ambulance or taxi will take almost as long to get there as we will. I phoned John's friend David. David had a suggestion - actually two. His neighbour, Yoni, has a car and speaks English. Then another neighbour, Dvora, is a possibility, but Yoni will know where to take him. So I phoned Yoni, explained that I was new on the moshav, and that David had given me his number. Told him my son was stung by a scorpion, and he didn't even wait to be asked, said did I want him to drive Hans to hospital. Oh, Gd bless our neighbours here! I didn't know it at the time, but when he got off the phone with me, he phoned a friend of his, a dr. and asked him where to take Hans and what to do. Then he got in his car, drove to my house and picked up Havva and Hans, and took them to a nighttime emergency care facility in Netivot. Havva let us know what was happening (thank Gd for celphones) so we drove straight to Netivot. We actually arrived just as Hans had been released from the nighttime care facility because he had to be taken to a real hospital. Yoni was still there when we arrived (Gd bless him), but took off as soon as we were there and could take Hans. John did get a chance to thank him at least. We're thinking cookies tomorrow. I hope he doesn't have any dietary restrictions. The doctor said Hans was fine, but had to be taken to hospital to be kept under observation for eight hours. The reason for this is that sometimes scorpion victims will take a sudden turn for the worse after a few hours of seemingly doing okay. John drove us, himself, Havva, Hans and me, to Be'er Sheva, to Soroka hospital. Soroka is the biggest hospital in the country, serving pretty much the entire Negev. So, they know about things like scorpion bites. Good news for us, because they were able to tell us Hans only needed to be observed for four hours after the sting occurred. They wouldn't allow us all in, so John slept in the waiting room, and Hans and Havva and I hung out and talked until about 1:30am, when they let us know he could go. So, home again, exhausted, Hans with a swollen bump like a bee sting, but otherwise okay. Havva is crashed out, having made plans to go into to work tomorrow, tell them what happened, and hopefully be able to turn around and come right home again. John is not going to work tomorrow at all. And me? Well, the laundry won't wait, scorpion sting or no scorpion sting, so I guess I'll be working tomorrow. Hopefully there will be several batches of cookies. And ketchup. We need ketchup. Don't worry about it not making sense. It's almost 3am. I just don't make much sense at this hour. Briefly, we talked to the lawyer today - he's heard nothing from the old landlord. No idea what to do, but unless there is some kind of miracle or money forthcoming, I have an over 2000 shekel check that is going to bounce. Or be refused. Whichever. That is scary - even if it's not our fault. Must go and sleep. Maybe I'll write more on everything tomorrow. Maybe not. Who knows? I'm listening to my clock ticking 0 bleats so far:: Yesterdays : Tomorrows ::
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