Where fourth art thou?

I have been thinking, the Fourth of July is really a celebration of an act of civil disobedience. I am listening to police helicopters flying around my house looking for some hoodlums that were intent on celebrating the holiday with some disobedience of their own. I wish I could say I was up late because I have been watching fireworks shows across America on some over rated cable channel, but no, I just returned from the ER. There was a scorpion in the towel that Zoe wrapped around herself after getting out of the pool at Grandma Chris' house. It got her (and I got it.) I was completely clueless about the effects of a scorpion bite. I didn't over react, I really thought it would be ok, but Zoe was not doing well so we packed up early to go home (you can imagine how happy the other kids were about that). In the car she got worse. I caved and called poison control, and they said they would call the ER for me. How nice. So this is what I have learned. Symptoms that indicate something bad is up:
hypersalivation-which means the victim has got a lot of spit. This is bad because they have some numbness in their tongue and throat and are at risk of choking (they also can't talk very well).
Nausea : This happens because the victims eyes are not focusing and their equilibrium is affected.
Rotary eye movement: Their eyes kind of roll around in their sockets and they can't focus. There is a fancy name for this, but I couldn't pick it off as the nurses and doc's were talking.
muscle twitches: victim shakes a lot and can't relax because the nerves that run the muscles are firing at random. This was more scary to me when I realized that the same phenomenon happening to Zoe's limbs was happening to her heart and throwing off the rhythm.
Things I am grateful for:
Antivenin. I lucked out and went to a hospital where they are running a trial on an antivenin for scorpions. Been using it for years in Mexico, but it is not approved by the FDA. Zoe was better in two hours. The alternative treatment:two days in ICU on sedatives and painkillers. In case you need to know, Chandler Regional and Gilbert Mercy are the places to go for this miracle elixir.
That it was Zoe. This may sound awful. But Zoe got out of the pool with her cousin Mia who is almost 3. If she would have had the towel with the scorpion wrapped around her I have to imagine she would have had a much worse go of it.
Mexican health care. American health care is great, but we don't have a corner on the market.
America. So our Independence Day Holiday was bogus (it usually is in Phoenix, to hot for anything other than swimming and air conditioning), but that doesn't change the fact that we live it a great country with a wonderful heritage of standing up for what is right and helping others do the same. In the words of John Hancock:We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness, and so...fourth.