Sunday as I was digging up the (ugly) ferns around my house a bug (hornet, bee, wasp? I dunno) flew up and stung me .... behind my ear ....
The pain was instant and so intense I thought I had been shocked by my MP3 player.
I went inside and brushed my 'ear' off and felt around it to see if I could tell where I had been stung.
Later that night as I was getting ready for bed I noticed in the mirror a three inch diameter swollen and red cirlce by my 'ear.'
Panic set in. This was the first time I had been stung since Lymes Disease and I didn't know how I'd react.
Lymes Disease? What, you say you don't know the tale of when a teeny tiny tick bit me and then knocked me on my ass for three months? Well then, let me regale you.
It was the Friday before the 4th of July weekend back in the ye olde year of 2004. I woke up with a pain in my side and when I went to show my mom she discovered a 4 inch oval that was red and swollen. My knees were also bothering me so she decided we should visit the doctor.
Dr. dippy-dandy looked at my side and said it was probably an allergic reaction or something and took blood work. He gave me a wimpy dose of antibiodics (like the kind used to treat a hang nail or something) and said come back when this three day supply is gone if the rash doesn't go away.
Achy knees turned into hardly being able to sit still to sharp nagging pain in my ankles, knees and hips.
I wasn't sleeping well and by the time Monday and my three day supply rolled around we went back.
The "welt" hadn't gone away, but really wasn't worse, and the blood work came back normal. He told me there was pretty much nothing he could do. So I asked for something for the pain. Obviously I was a just a college student looking for a high because he told me it was all in my head and I should just go home and try not to think about it. (Seriously.)
The passing days did not mark any improvement in my condition. The pain was constant and so bad that if I sat down for any period of time every joint felt as though it was being seared with a white-hot flame. The only relief I felt was when I was standing, moving or with cool baths, but as soon as the water hit room temperature it was unbearable again. I couldn't sit still, let alone fall asleep. I went for three days with no sleep except for a couple of 15 minute naps in the time it took for the water to drain from the bathtub.
Needless to say, it wasn't a good thing for my mood, and my mom was getting a bit annoyed with how irritable I was getting. (She still points it out, but I'm all "give me a break, I hadn't slept for three days. Isn't there a study that no sleep for seven days and you die, five days and you go crazy? I was this close to absolutely losing it on you.")
At my wits end, and praying for some relief or death, we went back in to the doctor's office.
Thankfully the original quack...er, doctor I saw was on vactation, so they gave me his replacement. She took my temperature and reported a whopping 109 degrees. Finally, she acknowledged something might be wrong. She gave me a higher dose of antibodics, the "we don't know what the fuck you have, but this should knock the everything but the black plague out of you" dose.
These lovely little pills gave me a splitting headache. So bad that I couldn't lift my head. And I thought not sleeping was rough. These pills kept me on a pretty regular schedule. Take a pill, contemplate throwing up because the pain was so bad, sleep for four hours. Wake up, take a pill, cry because it hurt so, so much; sleep for four hours. And on. And on. Well, at least I got some sleep.
I'm not sure how long I kept this cycle, I lost a lot of hours. But after the prescription was nearing it's end and I wasn't any better my mom made an appointment with the infectionous disease doctor.
I went to visit him, exhausted and in so much pain I could hardly move my limbs. He took a blood sample and had it tested for malaria, west nile, lymes and other random third world diseases that might be lurking in the outdoors of Central Wisconsin. The results would be back in a week. In the meantime he gave me a different set of antibodics at a much lower dose to keep fighting whatever was ailing me--with the warning to stay out of the sun and watch for insects.
What a fun summer. I did get a mosquito bite that weekend though, made my arm swell to the size of an orange for a day.
A week later the result: Lymes Disease. Yet another prescription of more targeted antibodics for another month and I was to come back in six weeks to see if I was successfully treated. In October, I received the happy prognosis that my Lymes was treated, but I would always be a risk for achy joints and sensitivity to bugs.
I can tell when I'm stressed, getting sick or a really bad storm is coming on. My knees, hips/lower back will hurt.
So back to the sweet little insect who stung me on Sunday. The summer of the Lymes Disease flashed through my head as I fought back a panic attack and the urge to call my coworker to tell her if I don't come in any day this week I was probably laying dead somewhere in the house.
Monday the red circle had gotten bigger and I had to take out my 'earring' because the area itched so much. By the end of the day I had a head-splitting headache and all I could do was lay in bed for three hours, willing it away. My mom suggested benydril, so Tuesday I went to the store and got the biggest bottle I could find (and some bug spray).
Swelling was still the same, but it took the itch away. I got home from work on Tuesday, made supper, ate and sat down to watch a television show before I did dishes. I woke up at 6:30 and only pulled myself out of bed to take some benydrill before I went to sleep for the night.
Wednesday I could finally see some improvement. Oh joy! I wouldn't have to go to the emergency room!
Today, Thursday, it's completely gone and itch free, so I could put my 'earring' back in. Whoohoo, I didn't want the hole to close up.
All my life, I've been scared of spiders and snakes. Guess I should have been terrified of ticks. Now I get the hee-bee-jee-bees every time I walk under a tree or a bush brushes me. Plus when we find a tick (and thankfully, I've only had one) I burn the ever-living-hell out of it.
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