A Cautionary Tale...

Did you know an Epi-pen is spring loaded?  It's meant to be stabbed through clothing into the large thigh muscle if one has a severe allergic reaction to something.  It's only supposed to be used in an emergency...not to CREATE one!  Let me back up...the boy carries an Epi-pen with him when he plays golf as he is allergic to bee, wasp, hornet stings.  He discovered his Epi-pen had expired and asked me how to dispose of it...so I took the thing from him, explaining that it needed to be taken apart, and just as I was about to tell him to make sure NOT to push the top, the thing went off like Mt. St. Helens into my thumb!  The needle, which could easily be mistaken for a knitting needle because it's SO big, forced it's way through the back of my thumb until it hit the BACK of my acrylic nail - breaking it! (Notice how the needle is bent...my nail stopped the needle but the force with which it hit caused the needle to bend...making it's REMOVAL a bit difficult!) I screamed, the boy laughed and the mister remained stationary in front of the TV.  Within a nano-second 0.3 mg (the equivilent of a vat) of epinephrine was racing through my veins, making my heart beat faster than ever before and my head immediately felt like it had been put in a vise...of course, my blood sugar went sky high, vision was blurry and I felt like I was going to pass out...and if my heart hadn't been pounding so hard that I thought it would burst between my breasts and take flight I just might have!  Fortunately I got Nurse Julie on the line and she told me I would live...the mister looked up just long enough from the TV screen to acknowledge that fact - disturbing as it was, and then Nurse Julie told me the effects would only last about 15 tp 20 minutes.  And she was right...everything went back to normal except my blood sugar - of course - anything to trip up my nightly Hallmark Channel viewing...oh, and my thumb - which stayed sore and swollen and it throbbed all night long.  Woe is me.