A letter of WARNING about those Magic Erasers!

This was sent to me by one of my Neices:

Attention to all of you who look after children:

One of my five year old's favorite chores around the house is cleaning scuff marks off the walls, doors, and baseboards with either an Easy Eraser pad, or the real deal, a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. I remember reading the box, wondering what the 'Magic' component was that cleaned crayon off my walls with ease. No ingredients were listed and absolutely no warnings were on the box, other than 'Do not ingest.'

My package of the Scotchbrite Easy Erasers didn't have a warning either; and since my child knew not to eat the sponges and keep them out of reach of his little brother and sister, it was a chore I happily let him do.

If I had known that both brands (and others like them) contain a harmful alkaline or 'base' chemical (opposite of acid on the pH scale) that can burn your skin, I never would have let my little boy handle them. A Scotchbrite Easy Eraser was rubbed against his face and chin, he received severe chemical burns.

At first, I thought he was being dramatic. I picked him up, put him on the counter top and washed his face with soap and water. He was screaming in pain. I put some lotion on his face - more agony. I had used a Magic Eraser to remove magic marker from my own knuckles a while back and I couldn't understand why he was suddenly in pain. Then, almost immediately, the large, shiny, blistering red marks started to spread across his cheeks and chin.

I quickly searched Google.com for 'Magic Eraser Burn' and turned up several results. I was shocked. These completely innocent looking white foam sponges can burn you?
I called our pediatrician, and of course got sent to voice mail. I hung up and called the hospital and spoke to an emergency room nurse. She told me to call Poison Control. The woman at Poison Control said she was surprised nobody had sued these companies yet and walked me through the process of neutralizing the alkaline to stop my son's face from continually burning more every second.

I had already, during my frantic phone calling, tried patting some numbing antibiotic cream on his cheeks, and later some Aloe Vera gel - both resulted in screams of pain. The Poison Control tech had me fill a bathtub with warm water, lay my son into it, cover him with a towel to keep him warm and then use a soft washcloth to rinse his face and chin with cool water for a continuous 20 minutes. My son calmed down immediately. He told me how good it felt. I gave him a dose of Tylenol and after the twenty minutes was up, he got dressed in his Emergency Room doctor Halloween costume and off we went to the hospital.

They needed to make sure the chemical burn had stopped burning, and examine his face to determine if the burn would need to be debrided (from my fuzzy recollection of hospital work, this means removing loose tissue from a burn location). My son was pretty happy at the hospital, they were very nice and called him 'Doctor' and let him examine some of their equipment. The water had successfully stopped the burning and helped soothe a lot of the pain. I'm sure Tylenol was helping too.

They sent us home with more Aloe Vera gel, Polysporin antibiotic cream, and some other numbing creams. By the time we got home, my son was crying again. I tried applying some of the creams but he cried out in pain. Water seemed to be what worked the best.
After a rough night, his face was swollen and couldn't move his lips very much. The skin on his cheeks was taut.

Today he is doing much better. The burns have started to scab over, and in place of red, raw, angry, skin we have a deeper red, rough healing layer. I can touch his skin now, without it stinging.

If you are a parent or grandparent, this post is meant to save your loved ones from the horror these parents went through. Please share it with other parents, grandparents, babysitters, aunts and uncles ~ anyone you know who spends time with kids.

BLOGGER PROBLEMS

For some reason the computer I was using to blog on no longer lets me? I'm using my ancient machine to type this one out and it's unreliable at best!

All is still busy here at work and having to sit at the computer all day long makes me not want to sit there any longer than I've wanted to!

Will be continuing soon....

Bear with my blogging woes...

REMEMBERANCE DAY

In Flanders Fields by John McCrae, May 1915 In Flanders fields the poppies blow Between the crosses, row on row, That mark our place; and in the sky The larks, still bravely singing, fly Scarce heard amid the guns below. We are the Dead. Short days ago We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow, Loved and were loved, and now we lie In Flanders fields. Take up our quarrel with the foe: To you from failing hands we throw The torch; be yours to hold it high. If ye break faith with us who die We shall not sleep, though poppies grow In Flanders fields.

BLOGGER PROBLEMS

Seems blogger doesn't like my l-o-n-g stories!

I started my story on the "Drama Weekend" and somehow it got cut off like I was finished! I know it's not the idiot behind the keyboard...or maybe it was? Anyways...I will try again to finish it...it was so brilliant in the first place that I'm not sure that my Alzheimer's will let me repeat the story...?

Now where did I leave off.... oh ya...

We spent the rest of the day [Saturday] doing our own things...I went swimming/hot tubing and others played video games. My ankle hurt so bad that going for a walk was out of the question so pain killers and a nap was my next accomplishment...what a way to waste a weekend!

The evening started off good...until the plays started! I got some more sleep! The last play wasn't too bad but was way too long! I enjoyed the actors and their abilities to sing, dance and remembering their lines to keep this l-o-n-g play going! When asked "what play did I think was the best...besides ours"....I would have picked that one for the talent that was shown. The only drawback to them being chosen, was their loss of points due to going over the time limit! The adjudicator thought differently and awarded the "Best Play" to a play I really did not like! As with the rest of the awards...I completely did not agree with her choices! Except ours!

This year, we received an award for our "Technical/Backstage" abilities! This means that the adjudicator and the stage manager, for the festival, liked our set, sound/lights, costumes and stage presence [during practice]!

Our Wilma came away with an "Honorable Mention" for acting...my opinion is that she should have won the main award for acting and the rest of us get the "honorable mention"...of course I'm biased!...but I figured that we were that good!

The evening had dragged on for so long [12:30] that we decided not to squeeze ourselves into the green room after the performances and go back to the condos to continue sleeping!

Up early again the next morning I hobbled down to the beach with my coffee/camera and take some final pictures before leaving...just so I'd have something to put on my blog!

The trip home was uneventful and I slept most of the way...

Summation of this year's festival:

-I got to see people that I only see at festivals [some talked to me and some didn't]...

-I got to see plays that hopefully we will never perform...

-I learned that our stage/facilities and town, is nothing to bitch about...

-I got to see a lake that I wouldn't mind camping at...if it wasn't so far away...

-I got to see a town that I will probably never see again...

All in all I'm glad I went because I learned that we CAN KEEP IT TOGETHER no matter what problems hit us!

If I had a vehicle to stick it on this would be the bumper sticker I would make for it...

Might be a new T-shirt slogan....

here is a test post....and a picture for your viewing pleasure!

Halloween Clip...Please Watch!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3uD2qIdffg

DRAMA WEEKEND

We spent 6 long hours driving to Kamsack from Dodge this past weekend for the "One Act Festival". The weather was fantastic and traffic was tolerable. Of course the driving was done by someone other than me...thanks BamBam and Pebbles for letting me hitch a ride!

The scenery was flat as usual [for Sask] and the trees had lost most of their leaves but going through the different towns and hamlets, made for interesting viewing. There's even a town that has a huge Santa statue in it!

We finally got to Kamsask and the first thing that I had to do was buy a bathing suit! It seems everyone else was told that there was a pool and hot tub in the place where we were staying at, but me? Alas, there was only one shop that sold clothing and naturally, a bathing suit wasn't one of their items. I settled for a tank top and shorts [cost me 28.00]! With that out of the way, we found that the 10 minute drive OUT of town to our accommodations, turned out to be 20 minutes instead! I do have to admit the place where we were staying was quite picturesque!

We stayed in what they called "Condos" at Duck Mountain Lodge located in a Provincial Park at Madge Lake. The first thing that greeted us, when we arrived, was a deer near the Lodge...great advertising shot if I had, had my camera ready! We got settled in quite nicely! Upon checking out the pool and hot tub we found a gift shop next to the registry area and guess what? They sold bathing suits! I picked one up for 16.00!

That night we attended the first 3 plays and I was not impressed. I'm not a big fan of dramas and the one that was a comedy wasn't very funny to me...others might have enjoyed it but I didn't! I judge a play by it's interest and if I fall asleep during it...it definitely doesn't get my vote!

Lets say I did a lot of sleeping that weekend!

After the plays are over, we usually attend a get-together party called the "Green Room", that usually means there's dancing and such. Upon entering this room, one noticed that it was wall to wall tables and chairs, with absolutely NO room for dancing! The only table that was left, was right next to the DJ's speakers...ear damage! Great music but I get frustrated when I can't enjoy it by not dancing! I was NOT IMPRESSED! Happily we didn't stay very long!

I have to add that our beginning of the the fun filled weekend was marred by that fact that our outfits for the "themed" green rooms were stuck in a post office somewhere [had to order late due to poor planning on hosting town] so we missed out on the fun of "dressing up"!

Anyways...

The next morning, upon waking early [my usual time, 6:30 am] I was greeted by the site of snow on the ground! I went for a walk in this wonderful stuff and took some photos of the area...

The above shots are of the "Condos"...ours being the two end ones [the lit window was the one I was in]...the next shots are of the walkway to the main lodge. It was very windy out and cold!

Our condos had kitchen facilities which included a coffee pot...but no filters or coffee grounds to fill it! I need coffee in the morning! So my walk was for 2 reasons...mostly for the coffee! The next shots are of the Lodge...

The snow melted later that day and we had beautiful weather for the rest of our stay.

The rest of the day, for me, was spent relaxing in the hot tub and swimming in the pool until it was time for us to go in for our practice time [2:00 - 4:00].

Some of us had come early and others joined us later [they had to work]. Our set had come later and we received distressing news that it was damaged from the trip! Frantically [with the help of the festival stage manager] we were able to locate tools to fix it and we were able to have time to practice! The other problem that we ran into was the size and layout of the stage we were to perform on...it didn't match with how we ran our performance and we had to do some major changes on how we entered and exited! The set had to keep kept outside in the lumber yard at the stage exit for our turn to set up for the play. Thankfully we had 3 strong men to accomplish this!

Other than that the practice went well!

Another disaster that we had to contend with was trying to find 2 new T-shirts that were the same color because one of the actors had decided to wash their shirt and the dyed color had ran and faded. Thankfully, I had thought to make-up new lettering, just in case of emergencies!

Then some of us spent the rest of the day relaxing in the pool and hot tub.

The craziness started when we arrived to get ready!

The changing rooms [for the actors] were located in the spare rooms of a Real Estate Office...two doors down from the theatre! The make-up room, in the back of the theater, didn't really have any room to change and NO WASHROOM!

I had some stomach problems [nerves] and fifteen minutes before we needed to go on...I was desperate to use the washroom! This meant going out the back [in the dark...the light was burnt out] and make a quick trip around the building next door in order to get to the front of the theater where they HAD washrooms! I was being very careful but ended up stepping into a hole making me fall on my knees!

I had twisted my ankle...actually felt like I had broken it! Luckily it WAS only twisted and I was able to hobble to the washroom and back to the waiting area backstage. All of the movement made it throb worse!

The SHOW MUST GO ON!

This is the motto that theater people live by and my accident wasn't about to keep me from going on. Luckily the others did most of the set-up when it was time for our performance and I could stay off of it as much as possible.

We were perfect in our performance and the audience just loved us! We got laughs in areas that were never laughed at before!

Wilma and J-Rod can be proud of their wonderful script writing!

I didn't freeze once...no stutter...nothing! I was proud of the fact that I didn't screw it up for them! I hardly noticed the sprain until it was time for me to storm off the stage...that part hurt! I hardly helped at all for the take-down! My fellow actors were so good that they didn't even need me!

The green room that night was crowded as usual and it was "Karaoke" night. Luckily for me Wilma and Bruno both hate it also and we went back to the lodge early. I took two pain killers and all my agony went to sleep!

Saturday morning [10:00 am] was our adjudication time slot. The adjudicator had some valid points to add to the script and comments for the actors. For mine she thought that I walked funny and that maybe I should have worn different shoes, until I told her about my mishap. Her comments included the fact to all of us is that...the show MUST GO ON!