I just got a call from someone from the county concerning Cara’s bout with Salmonella.
To be honest, I’m not totally sure where she was from; wherever she said she was from it was enough of a shock that I totally forgot how she identified herself. Anyway, she started asking me questions about whether or not the Crazy spawn was in daycare and if we had eaten out anywhere recently. She wanted to know if we had any pets and things along those lines.
I played along and answered her questions and then asked her if she was calling because the Base thought that we were negligent or if it was a CDC/public health reporting kind of thing. The lady (she was very nice) assured me that it was a “CDC thing” and that the Base is required to report all Salmonella cases and that she was just trying to determine how Cara became exposed to it.
Well now I’m a fucking nervous wreck. On the one hand, I gave her TONS of information about things she didn’t ask about. BUT, I forgot to tell her about Henry, our snake. Snakes can be carriers of Salmonella (anyone remember when buying turtles smaller than four inches across was made illegal?) I didn’t mean to not tell her, I just didn’t think about him. Also, she has NO exposure to him and we ALWAYS wash our hands and use hand sanitizer after we (usually Tucker) handle the beautiful fellow. I know that he can be a vector and that’s why we’re always so damn vigilant about washing our hands.
I keep remembering details that I forgot to tell her or details that I did tell her that she didn’t ask for. I keep playing the stupid phone conversation over and over in my head and each time it gets changed just a bit to where I really can’t remember for certain what I told her and what I didn’t.
I’m sure that you’re thinking, “What’s the big deal? It was just a routine call”.
I’m wigging the hell out because we have some friends who got their kids taken away from them…for no reason (well, no good reason).
These are the same friends I wrote about here. Though I may not agree with their parenting style, they still didn’t deserve what happened to them.
When their youngest daughter was around three months old, the dad was changing the baby’s diaper and noticed a large bruise on the baby’s chest. He called his wife at work and told her about the bruise. Once the wife had made it home from work, they took the baby to the emergency room on Base since it was too late to get an appointment for that day. To make a long story not as long, they ended up loosing both kids for a day and then the children were turned over to a friend so that the mom could breastfeed the baby since she would not take a bottle.
They fought “the man” for over three months. Their baby had ALL KINDS of tests run on her since our friends were positive that something was wrong. Finally, after almost four months, the baby was diagnosed with a blood clotting disorder. Though the county has finally closed the case, this will always be in our friend’s military service record. He plans on making a career out of the military and every time that he’s up for advancement, this ordeal will be brought up again. Can you imagine being innocent and having to defend yourself over and over again.
After watching what happened to them, I am understandably leery of someone from the county calling me. What happens if they want to follow up and do a “home visit”?! What if they see Henry and crosscheck the list of pets that we have against the list that I told them? Why did she need to know what apartment complex I live in? Is she going to contact them?
I can be a very paranoid person at times and this whole situation is not helping things.
