Seriously!! This is my public service announcement of the month.
Last night, Mr. X and I were both wiped out. He had a long week at work (and long nights working on the stuff he had to bring home from work), so I had a long week at home. But did we go to bed early? Nooooo. Of course not! We stayed up talking and then I realized it was after 11 and got grumpy, and we finally crashed. At which point, Sarah woke up. She had trouble going back to sleep, so I went in just after midnight and realized she was burning up. We gave her some ibuprofen, Mr. X started walking her, and she threw up all over both of them. (Side note--I would much rather be thrown up on myself in the middle of the night than have a baby throw up on something that requires more complicated cleaning, like the carpet, or their bed, or my bed.) We got everybody cleaned up, made sure she was feeling a little better, gave her some more medicine, and she went to sleep.
So, we were even more zombie-like today. We were having a slow day around the house, and Sarah was feeling pretty crummy. I could locate three thermometers: the digital rectal thermometer (um . . . no, only if it's absolutely necessary), my basal thermometer with the dead battery, and the old mercury thermometer. So I tried to take her temperature with the old standby, she squirmed, it fell on the hardwood floor, and then we had teeny tiny balls of mercury all around.
Mr. X moved the kids into their bedroom, and we opened the windows, got some paper and scooped up the mercury, and threw it away. Then I went in with the kids, who were clamoring for me, and Mr. X continued cleaning up . . . including sweeping the floor. Then he checked online to see if there were any other precautions we should take. And that's when he found this, at which point we pretty much wanted to burn the house down and start over again. I'll tell the rest of the story tomorrow, but if you've got a mercury thermometer, just get rid of it! It's so not worth the hassle!
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5 comments:
Thank you so much for the tip. I don't have one of these but if I did I would be running to a dumpster as fast as I could.
How horrible. You must have been so worried. Looks like your husband really tackled the spill.
Things kind of incidents really scare me.
Thanks again for the precaution.
I am sorry you had to go through this.
Aw, your poor little one :( I hope she feels better soon.
I had a mercury thermometer that I was using a couple years ago to take my temps for PPVI. I dropped it in the bathroom at work and it broke, but thankfully the mercury didn't get out. I was terrified though that it would and have never bought one since.
Love the basal digital!
Am I the only one who spent hours playing with actual mercury as a child?
:)
PS curly "green" lightbulbs, mandated in california and soon to be everywhere else, contain.mercury and should be treated as hazmat if broken. Nice, huh?
YES, Cathy! I was just going to comment about that! I seriously have anxiety over those terrible lightbulbs breaking in my house. I want to start hoarding the old ones! We already had one break and I didn't really realize at the time everything about it but my husband assures me he did everything right. What a pain though!
I hope you can take care of it all without having to burn your house down ;)
Mine are gone!
And yes, the greenies who want us to use those mercury lightbulbs! Is the world crazy?
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