BITTEN
Last weekend I went to a farm in Aldergrove to help clear up the garden overgrowth. It’s actually an orchard, but it has different gardens and shelters and fields. As I was collecting the tall buttercups and other ‘weeds’, to put them into a wheelbarrow and bring them to a trailer, I felt a prick at my wrist. I looked at it and saw a tiny bit of blood, which I wiped away. It was itchy, but I continued working. It wasn’t painful, but I had to wipe the bit of blood a second and third time in the next few minutes, before it stopped bleeding.
I was trying to think how I had been bitten—maybe by an ant. No, I’ve been bitten by an ant in my backyard, and it’s a sharp prick that happens sometimes repeatedly, until I manage to get it out of my pant leg, shirt sleeve or glove. Maybe a bee or a wasp? No, I’d feel a lot more pain and would probably hear and/or see the bug get away. Soon, I’d know it was a bee or a wasp, because a painful lump would appear.
Boy, is it ever itchy! Mosquitoes aren’t out at this time of year, right? I wonder what it was. Oh well, I’ve just about finished the job, and it’s beginning to rain, so I’ll go inside. I washed up and put tea tree oil and a bandage on the tiny wound. It wasn’t bleeding, but it was very itchy. Within 30 minutes, I noticed that my wrist was swelled and the itchiness had spread.
To make a long story short, I went to bed with a bandage on the bite, and managed to sleep the night. But in the morning it didn’t look good. So I washed it and dressed it again, and worked in the orchard and in the barn. Same thing on Sunday: swollen, itchy, a bit painful, and my forearm was noticeably red. It was rainy on Sunday, so I helped inside the house. I figured the bugs in Aldergrove were mean predators, compared to the ones I’m used to seeing in my backyard or basement.
I rode my bike to the King George Skytrain station, and took the Skytrain to Waterfront and the Seabus to North Van. Then I rode up Lonsdale to home. No problem. By Monday morning, I cleaned the wound and it started to ‘ooze’ some clear liquid—a good sign, I thought. Not infected. I decided to tell my naturopath. When he saw my forearm, he was convinced it was a spider bite. He had some advice for me, but the pain and the swelling had diminished, and I was obviously over the worst of it.
Why didn’t I think of a spider bite? Of course, there’s a toxin (poison) in a spider bite that is used to paralyze or kill a bug that gets stuck in a spider web. And I’ve got a tiny scab where it bit me and I bled.
Live and learn.
Fiona