"I should've stayed home."

Wed., July 8, 1992

     Ez's doing better I think. She did wake up some every night but wasn't up as long as before. She also woke up grumpy from her naps today, just crying & crying. But she hasn't had any more fever or runny nose and no medicine since Sunday. She has been coughing some today but she doesn't sound congested.

     Now I need to write about my lousy Sunday. Guy had duty so all of this was on my head.

     I didn't think to give Ez. her medicine til she was dressed and then she sneezed & got it on her dress. We were already running late so I just tried to wipe it off.

     Church was ok. There were a lot of former members there: Wendy Loveland, Gene & Cynthia Fredette, Andy Turner, & Mark & Linda Pugh (were here for camp). I invited Wendy over for supper Tues. night. She asked if Debi Gibbs could come with her & I said ok. She said she's here to try to help Debi not make the same mistakes she did. (More about that later)

     Ez. didn't take a nap in church & she was kinda fidgety but I kept her with me. She fell asleep on the way home so I was prepared to go to bed myself when I got her settled. I went to let Chief out and found all these little plastic pieces in the floor in the living room. He had gotten one of the ant baits we'd put on the entry. It had been in the corner behind the diaper bag, which, of course, I'd taken to church. I looked up the vet's no. for emergencies & got an emergency animal hospital on V.B. Blvd. I couldn't remember for sure what brand it was but I told her I thought it was Combat. She couldn't find any info on that & told me to call the 800 Poison Control & see if they could tell me the active ingredient. They did. But then I remembered we had other baits out & went to get one of them to see if it had a label or anything. It did and it was a different brand (Raid) and ingredient. I called the vet back & spelled out the name of the ingredient and she couldn't find anything on it and went to ask someone else. I assume the head dr., and said he wasn't familiar with it. She told me to call Poison Control again and ask what kind of chemical was in it or what symptoms it would cause in humans. I don't know if it was the same woman I got the first time or not but she said she would call the vet and give her the number for an animal line and have her call it then call me. So she took my name & number & the vet's number & it wasn't long before the vet called. She didn't call the number but gave it to me to call and said to be sure to ask if they charge anything to give you info. After I explained the situation to the man he asked if I was aware they charged for their service. I asked how much & he said if I charged it to my phone bill it would be $2.95 a minute. If I charged it to my credit card it would be a flat fee of $30. I told him to charge it to my phone bill. I forget exactly what all was said but for some reason he got me upset when he asked me if I wanted the number or not & I said 'I need to find out if my dog is going to die–just give me the number!'

     So I got the number & called & talked to a woman for 3-4 minutes. She asked what kind of dog, his age & weight & amount & what he ate. She said the concentration in the amount was so small that it shouldn't affect him but we'd need to watch him for vomiting or diarrhea for 2-3 days in case he swallowed any of the plastic. All of that took nearly an hour & I was so keyed up by then that it took awhile to get to sleep. Thank goodness Ez. took a long nap, til nearly 2:00.

     When we went back downstairs to eat lunch I realized I'd forgotten to take the juice out of Ez's diaper bag & there were ants all over & in it & on the entry. There's still bait behind a box there but it seems like they just ignore it & go for her bag. It took awhile to get her bag cleaned up. We think the ants first got in after Ez. & I started going out to wait on the front porch for Guy to get home. But we can't figure out if they've built a 'nest' inside or are all coming in from the outside somehow. We're trying to be more careful about leaving juice & snacks in her bag. 

     Ez. did good the rest of the aft. I debated about going back to church & finally decided to. I should've stayed home. Keith Cuthrell preached & he always goes overtime. It was 7:10 before church was over. I was so tired by the time it was over cause Ez. was so fidgety. Wendy sat behind us and Ez. sat with her awhile. Then when she came back up she wanted to stand up & play with Wendy. Anyway, I asked Daniel to carry her to the car for me. I took her from him to put her in the car and bumped my head.

July 1992