The Sting

One night post-dinner I sent the kids to the backyard to play. It was a nice night, and they were super excited to get outside. Max ran through the back door of our garage first, and Alexis followed as fast as she could. I was coming from behind when I heard her screaming at the top of her lungs.

My mind couldn't figure out what had happened. Did she run into the door? Did she trip and fall?

I zipped to her, and saw she'd been stung. By a mean wasp. Right on her cheek.

Turns out the buggers were in the process of building a new nest right at our door - and right at the level of her face when she tried to run out. Clearly, the wasp was surprised, and instead of flying the other direction, he went right for her. Aggressive buggers.

She was so sad. I was so sad for her. They hurt! But then Max came running back, and went into full blown panic. Screaming and crying at the top of his lungs.

And not because of the bee sting.

Within a short time, her cute cheek started to swell up all the way to the top of her brow line. Her eye was swelling and looked like she'd been hit in the face.

Rewinding to our pre-dinner time would take us to Max watching a show called How It's Made. He (and Mike) love it. It's exactly how it sounds - it shows how all kinds of things are made. The process from start to finish. We've seen everything from ceiling fans to Worcestershire sauce (a word I struggle to pronounce).

But, on this particular episode, it highlighted artificial eyeballs. And, in an effort to show the process, had a guy, sitting in a doctors office, zooming in on his eye socket. The other eye looking around the room while the eye socket was being opened and prodded by the doctor for exact measurements. The next shot is a close up of a mold being made of the socket for the artificial eye. It completely grossed me out.

"AHHHH!!!" He yells. "I didn't know your eye could pop out!" (now holding one eye shut while watching with the other.

"Does it just fall out? Am I going to lose my eyeball?" Sheer panic in his voice, as he's now becoming convinced that this guy on TV lost his eye because it just popped out one day.

By then I'd already turned the channel, but Max then spent the next 1/2 hour asking everything there is to know about the eye and the eye socket, and what the potential is for losing one.

Finally had him calmed down, and satisfied that his eye would not pop out from leaning over too far, looking one direction quickly, or from a napkin brushing up to it and accidentally poking it.

Which brings me back to the bee sting. Where her whole eye swelled shut and she could no longer open it.

"AHHHH!!" He screams. "She's losing it mom! This is terrible! We have to take her to the eye doctor for a fake eye ball! We can't save it!" Mental note to self: when discussing loss of eyeballs with 5 year old over dinner, remember to include bee stings as an unlikely way to lose an eye.

Alexis, who was already upset, sees the emotion her brother has and immediately kicks it up a notch. How could she not? If I saw someone look at me and completely lose it, I'd be more than upset too.

Of course, since we were outdoors during all of this, I can only wonder what the neighbors heard and thought I was doing to my children to make them both scream from the top of their lungs. Sigh.

We made it indoors. Convinced Maxman that her eye would be okay. "See? She can still look around with it." Of course it was so swollen, you couldn't really see her eye, but I was trying anything.

Benadryl? Check. Note to let doctor know this girl definitely has a reaction to wasp stings? Check.

Maxman still thinks up a different scenario every day with a look of momentary distress about the possibility of losing an eyeball. "I think there is some dirt in my eye. AHHH! Am I going to lose it?" "I bumped it with this ball. AHH! Is it going to fall out?"

I think I'll need to use the "you could poke your eye out" statement very lightly over the next few months.