Friday brought a much awaited windy day. The boys and I took our brand new dragon kite for a test drive on top of Simplot Hill. Despite obvious frustration given my poor kite-flying skills, Charlie still thanked me profusely for "the funnest day I ever had."
Later that evening the boys played hide-and-seek and "toss the toxic plant around" with the neighbor's grandkids. Cole went to bed looking at cute as ever and woke up crying at 5:30am looking a little freakish. The poor little guy said "my face hurts like it has jalapenos and snakes in the oven." The following is graphic, so if you're weak-at-the-knees, scroll down. His chin and cheeks had weeping (pussy) blisters all over it. His right eye was swollen shut. His lips and tongue tip were swollen and the rest of his face was blistery, angry, and generally swollen. Of course it was Saturday, when doctor's offices are closed, so we made a trip to the ER. The doctor suspected it was a reaction to poison ivy/oak and gave him some Prednisone, Tylenol with codeine and more Benadryl. Within 30 minutes his eye slits opened slightly. The picture below was taken about two hours after the Prednisone.
The culprit:
Myrtle Spurge (a.k.a. creeping spurge or Donkey's tail). This drought-tolerant succulent can be found in many xeriscaped gardens around Boise and even growing wild. I just learned that its cultivation is illegal in Colorado. The milky sap can cause significant skin and eye irritations. According to Wikipedia, "In experiments with animals it was found that the terpen ester resiniferatoxin had an irritating effect 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than capsaicin, the "hot" substance found in chilies." No wonder Cole complained of jalapenos. Four days later he looks a
little better, but can't open his mouth very wide because the pussy blisters turned to scabs.
If you have young kids (or pets), be sure to check out the link to pictures of spurge above. The pretty little ditties have a mean bite.
Later that evening the boys played hide-and-seek and "toss the toxic plant around" with the neighbor's grandkids. Cole went to bed looking at cute as ever and woke up crying at 5:30am looking a little freakish. The poor little guy said "my face hurts like it has jalapenos and snakes in the oven." The following is graphic, so if you're weak-at-the-knees, scroll down. His chin and cheeks had weeping (pussy) blisters all over it. His right eye was swollen shut. His lips and tongue tip were swollen and the rest of his face was blistery, angry, and generally swollen. Of course it was Saturday, when doctor's offices are closed, so we made a trip to the ER. The doctor suspected it was a reaction to poison ivy/oak and gave him some Prednisone, Tylenol with codeine and more Benadryl. Within 30 minutes his eye slits opened slightly. The picture below was taken about two hours after the Prednisone.
The culprit: Myrtle Spurge (a.k.a. creeping spurge or Donkey's tail). This drought-tolerant succulent can be found in many xeriscaped gardens around Boise and even growing wild. I just learned that its cultivation is illegal in Colorado. The milky sap can cause significant skin and eye irritations. According to Wikipedia, "In experiments with animals it was found that the terpen ester resiniferatoxin had an irritating effect 10,000 to 100,000 times stronger than capsaicin, the "hot" substance found in chilies." No wonder Cole complained of jalapenos. Four days later he looks a little better, but can't open his mouth very wide because the pussy blisters turned to scabs.
If you have young kids (or pets), be sure to check out the link to pictures of spurge above. The pretty little ditties have a mean bite.
4 comments:
Poor guy! Thank goodness he is so articulate so you knew what the problem was!!! Tee Hee. Glad the kite flying was fun!
Oh my goodness! Poor kiddo!! At least picture day came first :).
I love that he is wearing his spiderman outfit~ Kisses and hugs to the boys.
oh my gosh! pour guy. so glad that you figured out the culprit! i will have to look into it so that i know what to be aware of!
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