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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 1, 2009 0:20:20 GMT
I need honest-to-goodness advice right now, please.
A couple of hours ago I got stung by a bug (I guess) outside. I never saw it, and was in the middle of a hot, messy project so just rubbed some plaintain leaf on it, then came in and took a shower a few minutes later. Plantain leaf has always worked for wasp stings & stuff like that. I'm thinking this might be an ant bite, but the main thing is that it hurts like holy hell.
I took a paracetemol, but the pain keeps increasing.
There is no raised place -- but it's red and slightly hot and sensitive. It's the bottom of my forearm, near the elbow. It hurts all the way to my wrist and the base of my thumb.
Make it stop!
(& no, I'm not going out to look for a doctor at this time of the evening)
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Post by imec on Jul 1, 2009 0:31:15 GMT
Mezcal - and no, I don't mean rub it on your arm.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 1, 2009 2:38:04 GMT
Hey ~~ great idea! I'll drink A WHOLE BUNCH of it, then tomorrow morning I will be so busy praying for death that I won't care about my arm at all!
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Post by spindrift on Jul 1, 2009 7:10:59 GMT
Bixa - that sounds alarming. You'll have to go to a pharmacy as soon as possible.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2009 7:15:01 GMT
Have you tried using a source of heat close to the bite?
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Post by spindrift on Jul 1, 2009 7:19:03 GMT
A couple of days ago I met a guy who'd been stung above his knee (in england) by an insect. He was already on antibiotics but they didn't seem to be doing any good, the knee was swollen and very red. He could hardly stand on it. I advised him to go to the nearest A & E.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 1, 2009 14:04:06 GMT
Okay ~~ here is what I did. Make note, as it worked!
This thing was really painful, distractingly so, like a toothache. I went to bed, but couldn't read, couldn't sleep. Finally I wet a folded napkin with plain white vinegar and taped it over the bug bite area. That completely did the trick! There is no pain at all and just a very slight red mark.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2009 14:18:06 GMT
Maybe you can still rub some of that poison bunny grass that you ate on the red spot.
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Post by imec on Jul 1, 2009 14:37:50 GMT
Maybe you can still rub some of that poison bunny grass that you ate on the red spot. It's a bug bite, not a Bugs bite.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 1, 2009 14:42:36 GMT
Y'all are such cards!
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Post by spindrift on Jul 1, 2009 21:07:23 GMT
I'm relieved you're ok Bixa....you gave me a fright. Why did you use white vinegar?
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 1, 2009 21:38:11 GMT
Thanks, Spindrift.
I routinely use vinegar to ward off bug bites & to remove the itchiness when I do get bitten. In fact, I keep a little spray bottle filled with vinegar for just that purpose. Last night I sprayed a little on the bad bug bite, thinking it wouldn't do anything, but what the heck. It seemed to help a little bit, so I decided to make the vinegar-soaked pad to put on it. I believe vinegar is a very old remedy for bruises, as well.
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Post by spindrift on Jul 1, 2009 21:45:44 GMT
I will now buy some white vinegar! Brilliant!
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Post by auntieannie on Jul 2, 2009 19:17:56 GMT
excellent to kill germs and to descale the bathroom too!
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2009 20:03:07 GMT
I had only balsamic vinegar on hand for too long, so I recently bought a bottle of cider vinegar. I don't know if either has any medicinal properties, but I am satisfied with my purchase.
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Post by bixaorellana on Jul 2, 2009 20:24:43 GMT
You can use cider vinegar the same way as white vinegar. I use white vinegar for the uses cited by Annie, also to clean the electric coffeepot. If one of your sink drains is sluggish or if you just like the idea of it being cleaner, dump in some baking soda, then pour vinegar on top of that. Cleans & is dramatic fun, besides.
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Post by bazfaz on Aug 26, 2009 15:01:54 GMT
A stupid wasp blundered into me on my walk this afternoon and stung me. I can still feel it an hour later and my hand is starting to swell. Anything I can do to bring some relief?
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Post by happytraveller on Aug 26, 2009 15:04:11 GMT
Put a lemon slice on it baz. It works with bee stings so I suppose it works with wasp stings too. A bit of ice is probably helpful too.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2009 15:08:16 GMT
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Post by bazfaz on Aug 26, 2009 15:16:19 GMT
I am thinking of using ice, but in a glass with brandy and Italian vermouth.
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Post by happytraveller on Aug 26, 2009 15:31:10 GMT
I am absolutely sure that that helps too ! ;D
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Post by bazfaz on Aug 26, 2009 21:26:18 GMT
My left hand is swelling. I have taken an antihistamine tablet. I must just be patient.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 26, 2009 21:43:52 GMT
My left hand is swelling. I have taken an antihistamine tablet. I must just be patient. why did you wait 6 hours or more to take ?
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Post by bazfaz on Aug 27, 2009 7:32:14 GMT
My left hand is swelling. I have taken an antihistamine tablet. I must just be patient. why did you wait 6 hours or more to take ? Because I never used to react badly to wasp stings. This morning my hand and wrist are badly swollen so I am trying to see a doctor. Thursday is our normal doctor's day off. The other doctor is on answerphone but I have left a message.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2009 7:37:51 GMT
Ouch... I have never had an allergic reaction to a sting either, but I have seen the result on other people. I haven't been stung by an insect like that in at least 30 years, though, so any experience that I had in the past is no longer valid.
This week, my ex-colleague's daughter came to see me, fresh off the plane from Hanoi. She was bitten by a millipede in Vietnam -- on her neck -- and she said it hurt like hell. When she showed it to the Vietnamese, they just said "Oh yes, millipede bite. It will go away." She suffered for 48 hours before the pain went away.
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Post by bazfaz on Aug 27, 2009 8:20:36 GMT
This morning we contacted someone to invite to dinner and found that by chance he had been stung by a wasp on Tuesday. It was more serious. He drank some fruit juice and swallowed a wasp which stung him in the throat. He was 24 hours in hospital.
I'm nowhere near an emergency but I am seeing a doctor shortly.
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Post by happytraveller on Aug 27, 2009 9:49:15 GMT
Oh dear... that can be so dangerous ! I've once heard that eating raw potato can help against the swelling if you swallow a bee/wasp. Does anyone know if that's true ?
Hope the swelling is going down soon Baz.
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Post by bazfaz on Aug 27, 2009 10:14:09 GMT
The doctor has prescribed cortisone tablets as well as antihistamine.
It is not painful just awkward. I cannot use my left hand because of the swelling. But it will be fine soon.
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Post by Deleted on Aug 27, 2009 17:28:25 GMT
Just because of the swelling?
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Post by spindrift on Aug 27, 2009 19:39:20 GMT
Some years ago I was with my ex-hubby fishing for trout in a chalk stream hereabouts. It was early afternoon and not long before we had eaten a delicious lunch of roast pork with all the usual trimmings. (This is relevant). I had spent hours cooking and I fancied that my hair smelled of the roast so I washed my hair with Pears shampoo. Whilst walking from the main river to a carrier stream an entire colony of wasps (or bees) settled on my head. Because there were so many of them they couldn't all fit onto my little head and so they swarmed over my entire body falling down my shirt, back and front and into my wellingtons. As I was then unable to see where to run for the main river and as the carrier stream was too narrow I couldn't jump into deep water. All I could do was lie on the ground, face first and try to beat the swarm with my arms. Hubby, being there, also tried to beat them off me. All the time I was being stung all over and there was no relief and nothing to do but shout! I don't know how long I lay there but finally I was pulled to my feet, shirt pulled off and the remants of the wasps/bees (I never saw which) beaten off me. I was marched back to the fishing hut, given ten minutes to sit down then the hubby told me to 'hurry up and start fishing and this would take my mind off the pain'. I was speechless. It was obvious to our assembled friends, who had come running to the scene, that I had to be taken home so hubby had to make the best of it and he drove me home thereby missing his afternoon's fishing. He got me into bed, pulled the curtains, put the children in the car and drove off to see his brother and family miles away. I couldn't do a thing. I lay in bed in agony. When it got dark I couldn't even turn on the light. I lay there, rigid, for hours and hours, till 10pm at least. I thought I would die. There was no calling for an ambulance or driving me to hospital. Nothing. I was in bed for a couple of days and after the terrible pain receded I only suffered from diarrhoea for a while. Now that's a wasp/bee story worth the telling * I forgot to mention that during the fracas I lost one of my gold Boucheron wedding earrings somewhere in the mud where I was face down. A week later I borrowed a metal detector, went back and found it.
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