Saturday, May 28, 2011

Gold Colored Crayon

It's that time of the year again. Beast bush needed a haircut once again, and this time I also did a bunch in my parents' back yard. Fortunately Dad was a little more physically than vocally helpful this year.

Before I went out, Mom wanted to show me the aftermath of one of her mosquito bites. For some reason, mosquitoes seem to be very attracted to her, and what she showed me was horrifying. The bite was on her upper right thigh and it looked like someone hit her because there was a tremendous black and blue mark. One thing to note about Mom is that she bruises rather drastically. Curious I asked her if she was wearing any gold. She told me her wedding band and engagement ring is white gold. So I asked her to take it off and rub it on her face. Immediately her skin turned ash colored where ever she rubbed. She didn't believe me until she saw for herself in the bathroom mirror. Then she had me do it and nothing happened. Then she went over to Dad and started rubbing it all over his face and nothing happened. Content that the ring was now nice and clean she tried it again on her face. And her face turned black again.

Yep, it looks like Mom is anemic. I remember when I first heard about this. My middle school science teacher was talking about how gold jewelery can cause the skin to change colors. For example fake gold chains tend to leave green lines around necks. And people with low iron levels tend to have black marks left when real gold is rubbed up against their skin. My friend is anemic and she told me she brusies very easily, which is what made me think my Mom might be when she showed me that mosquito bite.

Nevertheless Mom protested that every day she takes a vitamin that has 100% high iron levels and eats a bowl of 'Frosted Mini-wheats'. The reason the cereal is noteworthy is because I noticed one day that the iron content in every version of 'Frosted Mini-wheats' I've seen is 90%. I didn't have an answer for her as to why her skin was turning black. But it turns out that at the end of the day she tried it again and this time she noticed no black marks. So maybe she had low levels in the morning before she had much food and before the vitamin was completely absorbed.

I had never seen the black marks before and thought it was pretty cool seeing how quickly they formed on her face. It was like drawing with a marker.

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