Greyson and the Scorpion

One Sunday when we first had moved to the state of Bahia, Greyson got stung by a pretty big scorpion...

It was all quite exciting. Greyson had gotten ready for Sunday School fairly early and the rest of us were hurrying up to get out the door in time. All of a sudden I heard a shriek and went to see what was the matter.

Our neighbor was getting ready to move and had been throwing out all kinds of old stuff. People here frequently just throw out stuff with no trash bags and make a pile on the side of the road. They hope the trash people will pick it up and whoever else happens to come by can also have a little look.

Well, Greyson looked a little too closely. He had given a swift kick to an old bucket only to see a big scorpion fall out of the bucket and sting him on the foot.

And here we were on our way to Sunday School!

Quickly Uncle Byron looked up scorpion stings on the Internet while I reached for my Where There is No Doctor book. We decided: there was little risk of death because of the sting, no where to go fast to get any anti-venom, and Sunday School was about to happen without us. So I gave Greyson some Benadryl, got some ice in a bag for him to put on the sting..., and off we went.

Greyson never cried that I can remember but after a while he started talking funny. We found loud later that scorpion stings frequently make the tongue go numb. I ended up giving Greyson the ice to suck on instead of putting it on his foot. By the time we got home from church he was mostly talking right again and was quoted as saying that he wouldn't be kicking any more buckets for a long time.

courtesy of Shutterstock

Moral of the Story:

If you are thinking about kicking a bucket,

First you better look to see what's inside!

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