Tuesday 24 September 2013

Last... sting? at summer

On Saturday, Maart and I were doing some yard work at his place. It was a beautiful sunny day, turning out to be pleasantly warm.

Needless to say, I just had on my Crocs (go ahead and shudder if you will, but they offer my poor work-abused feet proper cushioning) and no socks. Who needs socks when it's warm out?

We were getting close to being finished, enjoying working together and seeing our hard work accomplish what was needed (stump removal) when I felt a little something on my foot.

Just as I lifted my pant leg and moved my foot to have a look, someone jabbed a high powered electrically charged pointy tipped jack hammer into my foot!!!

I started jumping around and yelling "ow!" and "fuck!" like a madwoman. I briefly caught the look on Maart's face ~ I swear he thought I'd been possessed by demons.

No, not possessed. STUNG. By a damn wasp. What the hell was it doing in my shoe anyway? There's nothing in my shoe fit for any wasp.

"FUCK!" I yelled. "I just got stung by a wasp!!!! FUCK, it hurts! What do you put on a sting anyway!?!?!?" The last time I'd been stung by anything, I was still in grade school. So we're talking well over 40 years. And I sure don't have any memory of it hurting this much!!!

"Vinegar." Maart says. "There's a jug under the sink." So I hop and hobble as fast as I can into the house, find the jug, soak a tissue and hold it against the sting.

It did nothing. Applying an icepack was the only thing that remotely helped, because it numbed the area. Can only do that so often before the risk of frostbite becomes very real, unfortunately.

(the white stuff is hydrocortisone cream applied after the vinegar poultice)

My foot was exquisitely painful for the rest of that day. And at bedtime, it felt like a swarm of electric eels was squirming under the skin. I had to take drugs to fall asleep. Lots of drugs.

Since then, the pain has gone away and it's just majorly itchy. My foot has swelled a little bit, and is very red. At first, I was getting concerned that perhaps I was developing cellulitis, which is quite a serious skin and deep tissue infection that usually requires IV antibiotics (I took the MoS to the ER for just that last year).

(three days post sting)

But after doing some medical research online, I discovered that cellulitis with stings is uncommon, but having an intense localized reaction is not. And given that I have no more pain, I have no fever or chills, I don't feel ill, and the swelling is quite minor, I have diagnosed it as a localized reaction. Apparently this will last for 4 - 7 days. I am already at 4 days. I think I have a few more to go, considering how it is today. *sigh*

It's enough to drive a girl crazy, however, with the itching. I have been applying a fairly strong steroid cream 2 - 3 times a day, as well as the ice packs, and that helps. Guess I will just have to tough it out!

(this morning ~ wearing shoes is a bitch, let me tell you!)


23 comments:

  1. Looks nasty hen, but how is the wasp doing eh? Bit of an auld headache after being trodden on by a Viking hoof, no doubt.

    I'm sorry doll, but I'm just not buying into the whole "yard work" thing. "We were getting close to being finished, enjoying working together... hard work... felt a little something..."

    C'mon hen, you were having sex outdoors with your man and things got a wee bit carried away in regard to passion! Let's no pretend otherwise eh? We don't hear from you anymore, you never write, you never call... the little singing fella has been worried sick.

    As for you being possessed by demons? Och, I've known that for years.

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    1. I must admit I forgot completely to check on the wellbeing of the bloody wasp. After the little bastard blasted me? I think not.

      And regarding sex outdoors... I am not at all adverse to that, however not in the front yard of a 16 suite apartment complex... on a weekend when everyone is home. THAT kind of public display of affection is definitely outside my comfort zone!

      You and Map obviously have memory issues... I've commented on both your blogs recently. Perhaps your lollygagging about Spain means you don't remember things these days?

      We all have our demons, don't we?

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    2. Lollygagging eh? How hurtful... you know what a sensitive soul I am.

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  2. OUCH! Mice do not make me run. Snakes don't make me squeal. But you let me SEE a wasp and I am going in the other direction as fast as possible.

    I swell up when mosquitoes gnaw on me, so I was always afraid of wasps. A couple of years ago I stuck my hand into the mail box and one of those evil red wasps (they have a bad temper just because they breathe) stung me on my ring finger. Amid the yelling like I'd been struck with an axe on fire, I ran into the house and started icing it down. It wasn't so much the pain but the swelling I was trying to prevent because I didn't want anyone to have to cut off my wedding rings!

    I took a Benedryl, which I hate but we keep on hand in case Hubby ever gets stung again...he once stepped on a hive of yellow jackets, which nest in the ground, that went up his pant leg en mass. He went into anaphylacitic shock...and I was out of town! So we keep Benedryl around, just in case.

    Sadly, unlike the angry Bee who stings and expires, those stinking Wasps continue to live and can sting multiple times. From the look of your foot, I'd say he got you more than once while trying to exit your shoe.

    Hope you're feeling better fast!

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    1. I swell up with mosquito bites too, Hope. And if your hubby went into anaphylactic shock, he should carry an Epipen, never mind the Benadryl!!! Next time could do him in. =(

      I only had one sting. That much I know. I have considered antihistamines, but I get hyperactivated by them, which means I am bouncing off the walls, very jittery and wide awake for days. That's as annoying as the sting. If it doesn't settle down soon, I will pop into the Quick Care clinic and see the nurse practitioner for some steroid pills.

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    2. He did have an epipen for that year...then again, the majority of that HIVE went up his leg and he had more than 40 stings! Bites usually disappear on him in 30 minutes....me, takes days. Hope you're feeling better today!

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    3. Okay... 40 stings would definitely throw anyone over the edge! I can't imagine the pain! I am still battling the itching; the swelling is starting to go down and the redness is shrinking.

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  3. Oh my goodness, that looks awful! What kind of wasps do you Canadians breed over there?

    Hope it starts settling down soon. That looks bloody horrid.

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    1. We breed big hardy wasps here... just like everything else! I have no idea what kind they are, honestly.

      I'll be fine soon. it's already itching a bit less as the day goes by.

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  4. Oi! What did I say??

    Actually, reading you wee tale over again, and leaving out some words and certain bits of sentences one could make it into a right sordid story. Not that I would do that, just sayin' like! :¬)

    I remember being on a nudist beach with my Taller Pal once when he got stung by a was on a little delicate place. As I had no cell phone with me I ran to the nearest phone booth to ring emergency services. They told me the best thing to do was to suck the sting out. I ran back as quickly as I could.
    "Well says Jimmy, what did they say?"
    "They said yer gonna die pal!" Say I. :¬)

    Hope your swelling goes down soon. :¬)

    xxx

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    1. WASP not WAS! Duh! Drunk again..hic!

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    2. Yeah, I noticed you left a letter off. ;-)

      Oh I know both you and the Chef are very adept at turning things around to be quite deliciously sordid! Well, if I'd been the one on the beach with him... just sayin'! :-)

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  5. Aye, if Pony-doll had been on the beach with me son, you would have been sent for ice cream and told to wait in the car. My swelling will never go down...

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    1. Not if you keep swallowing them blue pills it won't! :)

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    2. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    3. Maurcheen, you're repeating yourself.. ;-)

      And those blue pills... well, let's just say sometimes they have their use! :-D

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    4. (He's a little bit 'hard of hearing', I often have to repeat myself to him, as in 'Your round Chef!' :¬) )

      xxx

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  6. Yard work is evil I say. Good to learn that your lovely foot is going back to its normal form. Cool nail polish btw.

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    1. Hi Mago! Thanks for noticing the nail polish. I only wear it on my toes because if I wear it on my finger nails, it just peels off due to all the handwashing I do at work.

      And the foot took a turn for the worse. I had to go to the ER yesterday after work to get antibiotics because it did, indeed, spiral down into a case of cellulitis. The NP (nurse practitioner) who saw me told me I should talk to my doctor about allergy testing once it's all cleared up, as I may need to carry an Epipen in the future if this has become a serious allergy. I'm not too happy about THAT news! But, after just three doses of antibiotics, it is already starting to improve. I also found some Solarcaine lidocaine lotion (lidocaine is a local anaethetic) to help with the itching. So I am definitely on the mend!

      Yard work is, unfortunately, a necessary evil. And the leaves are changing colour and rapidly falling right now. So there will very shortly be lots more yard work!

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    2. I am sorry that it got worse, Ponita.I hope the antibiotics will cure that inflammation.
      It is strange. I found that it takes much longer time for me to recover from an insect bite or sting than some years ago. Nowadays a bit of a mosquito leads to much stronger reactions and it takes not some days, but some weeks until it finally is back to its normal state. And I think I saw new species when I worked in the bookmines last year. There were some extrodinary large flying insects I can not remember to have seen earlier. But seriously, I can barely distinguish a bee from a hornet!

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    3. Hello my love - the foot still attached?

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