Are you kidding?

My oldest son has gone to work today (actually for this whole week) with my hubby. Brownie is wanting to earn some money so that he can take his girlfriend to the prom. Sounds fairly easy and straight forward doesn't it? He is supposed to help around the shop... sweep, pull weeds.. whatever yucky chores they can devise for him. I though that he would be perfectly safe. Shows what I know.....

I had just gotten out of the shower (sometimes you have to have one) and my son was calling me. When I answered, he immediately handed the phone to his dad who demanded to know where I was and why it had taken me so long to answer the phone. (My husband has forbidden me to set foot out of this house without his prior consent due to the early state of my labor... blah, blah.)

Anyway... after convincing him that I had not been at the zoo he informed me that my son had washed his hands with some orange soap and had had an allergic reaction to the soap. Brownie is deathly allergic to plants and also fruits. He is supposed to carry an epi-pen with him where ever he happenes to be because if his reaction is severe enough he really only has about 6 minutes in which to shove a needle into his thigh and administer the medicine. No biggie...right? Except for the fact that he was at work about 25 minutes away and his pen is down stairs in his backpack. Lovely.

They rushed to the store and had gotten him some Benadryl to take and were just calling to tell me he was fine. His fingers and his tongue both felt swollen but he was feeling fine and so "not to worry...hahahahaha" my husband told me. Well, don't I feel better now? I had never imagined that by simply touching a fruity object that my son might have problems.

So what is the lesson we have learned from this experience.... DO NOT WASH YOUR HANDS!! I told Brownie to just wipe his hands off on the back of his dad's shirt.... a little extra dirt won't kill him. Washing his hands might though!