Ahh, Poison Control

Waltzing Matilda posted about her recent call to poison control. I know exactly what she means by the nice, trained people on the other line, because I also had an encounter with the nicest Poison Control lady in the world several years ago.

Down here in Houston, we have these native plants everywhere called oleanders. They are indeed lovely. They are also known to be poisonous. Now when we first moved into our house, the inspector had told us that the beautiful, overflowing plant off of our back porch was poisonous, but did not say what it was. I filed that back in my mind (no kids at the time) and never bothered to find out just what it was.

Fast forward several years and we had Brennan and Nicholas, ages 2 years and 6 months. I was in the kitchen feeding Nicholas while Brennan was playing on the back porch (I could see him, but admittedly wasn't watching very closely - we had a fence, after all!). Brennan walked in the house chewing on something and I immediately went to retrieve it. I noticed a chewed plant, and looked down at Brennan's hands to see a few long, dark green blades from the plant that I recalled was poisonous. I freaked out!

I instantly called Poison Control and explained to the lady that my 2 year old had been chewing on plant leaves and I had been told the plant was poisonous. She calmly asked me "What type of plant is it?"

"I have no idea." I responded. "Our house inspector just told us that it was poisonous."

"Well, as long as it isn't an oleander, you are okay." she replied. "And you would know if it was an oleander."

"Actually, no. What does an oleander look like?". I inquired. And then as she described the bright flowers and long, smooth, shiny, dark leaves, my heart plummeted. "That's what it is!" I exclaimed.

She immediately came back with "Well, okay. How much did he eat?". I immediately began deciphering how many leaves he had, looked for chewed up remains, and tried to piece several leaves back together. All while this patient lady was on the phone.
The best I could figure was that he actually swallowed maybe an eighth to a quarter of a leaf. I relayed this to her.

"Oh." I heard instant relief in her voice. "There is only a problem if he ate several whole leaves, or brewed a tea with them". She then warned me to look out for drowsiness or nausea, and to call back if I noticed any signs of them. I thanked her profusely (this call lasted for about 25 minutes) and hung up.

Thankfully, Brennan did not exhibit any danger signs (I watched him like a hawk!). I later recalled the end of our conversation....who would brew them in a tea?

Colin came home an hour later and tore out both of our oleanders, stump and all. And that is the end of our only (so far, and hopefully our last) Poision Control saga.