On June 11th Alivia was out playing in the yard with the neighbor. It was a pretty normal night. We had already eatten dinner and she had already had a bath. Rob was outside cleaning out the escalade. I was inside cleaning up dinner. At about 8:30 I heard alivia outside crying. I went to see what was going on and Rob came running inside holding alivia and I saw her foot was bleeding. Rob was screaming "she got bitten by a snake and I think it was a copperhead!!!" I didn't even think, I just went to the phone and dialed 911. I have zero experience with snakes and didn't know if this was serious or not but I was not going to take any chances. I told the operator what happened and she dispatched an ambulance right away. Alivia was sitting on the kitchen counter and Rob was trying to suck the venom out of her foot. I guess he had always heard that's what your supposed to do! He told me to stay with her and he went back outside. The operator wanted to know if the snake was still outside and if there was anyway we could try to kill it so that the paramedics could see it when they got there. The neighbor had come inside to see if she was ok so I asked her to sit with alivia while I went outside. The neighbor and rob had caught the snake under a bucket and were trying to kill it with a little handheld shovel-it was the only thing laying around!

I went back inside and got alivia and brought her outside. At this point she really wasn't crying. The fire truck and ambulance pulled up on our little bity street, lights and sirens and all. I told her they were here just for her and she laughed a little. Her foot was starting to swell up. The firemen came down first and looked at it. The ambulance guys came down next and said she would have to go to the hospital . At first I was thinking they were going to leave and just wanted us to take her. Then he said to me, You can ride with us. And I realized he meant she needed to go to the hospital right now in the ambulance. Her and I both had pj's on so I ran inside really quick and just threw on a sweatshirt and grabbed my purse. Rob was going to follow us in the car. I had never been in an ambulance before. I asked the guy where we were going so I could call my parents. This was the evening before my mom's 50th birthday! He said we would have to go straight to childrens. My heart sunk. I figured it must be pretty bad if we have to go all the way there. He took alivia's vitals and everything was great. She was just sitting there sucking her thumb. At one point she asked if we were going to the store to buy some candy!

We ended up going to St. John's. We went straight to the pediatric emergency room. I didn't even know there was such a thing. Rob met us there a few minutes later. They didn't do too much to her at first. By now her ankle was starting to swell. The put some markings on her leg to keep track of the swelling (this stayed on her leg for about a week and she called it her tattoo!) The e.r doctor was consulting with a few other dr's to figure out if they wanted to give her an anti venom. They weren't sure if they should just deal with the bite or worry about the side effects of the treatment. At about eleven, they put an IV in her. At about midnight they said they were going to admit us and start the anti venom. We were moved to the pediatric ICU, where we spent the night. Most of the next day they were just monitoring her. She was still hooked up to the IV as well as heart monitors and an oxygen sensor.

We were moved into a regular room late that day and had to spend another night. Most of the day she had a fever that they were keeping an eye on. They also had a plastic surgeon come in to look at her. Apparantly, copperhead venom is known to do alot of tissue damage. They weren't too concerned after looking at her foot. We were finally released around 4:00 pm.

She talks about this everyday! And everyday the story changes! One day the snake bit her arm. One day it ate her, one day she beat it. It's pretty funny. I am so paranoid now as this happened right in our yard. I called the hospital the other day to make sure they had all of our insurance info, they did, and I asked them if they knew how much the bill was. He said so far, it was around $34,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He said with the provider discount though, the insurance company will only be billed for about 10% of that. Crazy.

When we finally got home, there were balloons and stuffed animals on the porch from the neighbors, it was so sweet. We had alot of visitors and phone calls while we were in the hospital. I told rob it's really nice to know that when something like this happens to you, that other people are thinking of you.