My daughter had her first ambulance ride last night and I hope to the gods it is an experience that she never has to repeat. She was stung by a bee and started throwing up all over the place about ten minutes after, and I thought she might be having an allergic reaction so I called my insurance company's 800 number and talked to a nurse, who told me to call 911. I managed to do that before I got too incoherent, and then spent the longest ten minutes of my life waiting for the EMTs and praying like hell. (What a fractured simile...) There is no more helpless feeling in the world than holding your child and wondering if she's going to take another breath.
Anyway, she did keep breathing, and she didn't have an allergic reaction; it was just an ugly coincidence I guess. I can easily see how parents of chronically ill children find it hard to deny them anything, and thus face a parenting dilemma when it comes to discipline... if she had demanded the moon after that, I would have found a way to get it for her. Thank the gods for Holy Guardian Angels.