The Great Science Experiment

Since I was homeschooled for most of my life, I never got to do those cool science experiments. None of us did, especially since we lived in a Third World County that wouldn't have had anything available. By anything, I mean anything interesting. There was always ants, plants, sand, and siblings to do experiments on, however, the first four were boring, and the last one was unaccepted by the parentage.

Until recently *insert evil laugh here*

Bethany started her science experiment with sugar crystals. Let me see if I have some pics of them... Nope, but here's the beginning of it. It was cool to watch it. Free tip, Equal doesn't grow sugar crystals. It only grows mold, cool colored mold, especially if you drop egg particles in it!

Anyways, back to the past. Dad's favorite saying while going through the refrigerator was "Who's growing this science experiment?" Or something like that. The worst was corn with mold strands covering and filling up the container. It was rancid and vile and disgusting and pukifying.

On to the present.

I was being a wonderful wife and cleaning the kitchen. I hadn't be able to give it a good cleaning in a long time. I should have found time, but with my work schedule and our visiting the relatives, I was just pooped. But today, I found the time. I found the energy. I found the cleaning supplies. I also found the bread. My, oh my, did I find it or what. Look at what I found.

Looks ok, right? Take another look. Look closely at the space between the "N" in "Nature's" and the "100%" in "100% Whole Wheat." I don't think that's normal bread color. My first thought was, "I didn't buy blueberry bagels. I don't think I did. Did I?" So I investigated the blue stuff. Actually, it's more blue-green/tourquoise colored.

Yup, that's bread. I bought it two weeks ago. That's it, just two weeks! I think...

Now that I'm thinking about it, and finished my cleaning spurt, it might have been longer, but I'm not sure. Anyways, there's no wheat bread color showing through. I just had a thought! I'll tell you it at the end.

I think we have super mold growing. It'd better not be turning into penicillin, cause I'll get sick. But, perhaps, I could feed it to Mark, and it'll cure his ear infection...

Nah, that's just too gnarly. Bye-bye bread. Until I start my epiphany that I had a few seconds ago. Remember Mark's ear infection I just mentioned? Well, he's on his second antibiotic for it, soon to start his third. Don't judge him before you hear the story.

It all started out with a little sinus stuffiness. Mr. "I-Don't-Really-Get-Sick" had to go and get an ear infection, complete with balance problems and blood in his ear. He went to this urgent care center last week Monday after work, or so. The doctor there gave him cefdinir, or Omnicef. He took it for about 4 days, but it got worse. So he was able to get an appointment with our new PCP (primary care physician) since our insurance started up the 7th. They gave him amoxicillin (and basically said that other doctor was dumb for giving him cefdinir in the first place) and told him he should go see a ear, nose, throat doctor for a cleaning out after the infections calms down. So, this amoxicillin, while the cefdinir did nothing, has trampled all over my poor husband. You know how the bottle says "may cause diarrhea"? Yeah, poor Mark. So I called his doctor office to get them to give him a different antibiotic, perhaps metronidazole (Flagyl) I was thinking in case he also got some superbug in his gut from the amoxicillin. But that's just my thoughts. I didn't mention it for two reasons. One, I didn't want to look like an idiot and have the doctor say how stupid I was for thinking a little ear infection needs mighty metronidazole, and, two, I didn't think about it until afterwards. Oh well, we'll see what he gets.

So what's my epiphany? I'm glad you brought it up again. I'm going to take that piece of mold and pour the antibiotics on it. He's not going to finish them anyways, so there's not much to do with them. Although, I could send them to Karen (the health supervisor/head nurse at a camp I worked at) is always looking for medicines that kids leave around and don't claim, just in case an emergency comes up. Not to prescribe them herself, but if a doctor gives a staff member a script for a pricey drug, and there just happens to be that exact amount that a kid left (whose mother didn't call to get it sent to them), what's the matter with saving money and using what they have? On the other hand, do you know anyone who's going on a missions trip that needs any antibiotics they can get their hands on? Me neither.

I'll keep you updated on the lab experiment.