Writing in the Corner

Yesterday morning, I got stung on the foot, probably by a fire ant. Icky picture past the jump. You have been warned.

Yeah, I know. Girlfriend needs a pedicure.

I felt the bite, and it hurt like hell. You can see the bite site - it’s the little pustule on the outside of my foot. It was pretty swollen last night, but my feet were swollen anyway (female stuff) so I thought it was related to that. It’s not; my right foot was fine this morning, but the left one was still swollen. And painful. And red. With a rash around the sting. I went to the MD, and he says this is a reaction to the sting. I’m on prednisone for the swelling and generic Bactrim for an antibiotic. The Bactrim is the size of a tiny football and the prednisone is the nastiest tasting drug ever. It leaves an aftertaste. Yuck.

I was rather frightened when I started itching vaguely about 1/2 hour after this happened, what with my trip to the ER last year. And I didn’t have my EpiPen, because I took it out of my purse the last time I flew (I didn’t know if they’d let me on the plane with my EpiPen.) But it didn’t get worse, and went away, and could have been psychosomatic.

If my brother-in-law, the fire ant expert, read my blog (which he doesn’t) he would probably be amused at my going on and on about a single bite. Not that he’s heartless, but I guess it’s happened to him and his so often he calls it the “ant dance.”

I had a funny conversation about EpiPen’s and my brother-in-law with my daughter today. I told her that since my EpiPen is probably a weapon, I don’t think they’d let me on a plane with it. My brother-in-law sometimes flies with fire ants (long story), so if I happened to be flying with my brother-in-law I’d probably have to insist on having my EpiPen!