A week ago the insanity hit with just a short visit outside.
Zapped by a couple of mosquitoes and it felt like I was hit with a flame thrower along with the searing pain in my legs!
With an immune system gone haywire the past year I am learning in hard lessons that I have to be ready for anything and everything.
As a prepper and homesteader and herbalist I keep many things on a level you won't find in many homes so having items to deal with most emergencies is covered in a normal first aid kit.
How many of you keep items to handle an event such as this?
Pictures taken after soaking in ice cold epsom salt water to knees.
Within minutes of being bit I felt the signs of the swelling and the blotches of hives starting up, from the time of the bites to the time it took to get in the house was under 10 minutes.
I grabbed the Benadryl and took 2 right off the bat!
Within the next 5 minutes I took 2 more and had my cell phone ready just in case my breathing got worse (and yes it was getting there) and started taking a breathing treatment of "Albuterol Sulfate" in a nebulizer to open me up. I took 2 more Benadryl every 5 minutes for a total of 10 within the first few hours on day 1.
As I rode threw the next few hours of my legs swelling and splitting and leaking fluids (that burned like lava) in horizontal and vertical fashion and trying not to scratch and scream from the pain while trying to find anything to get the swelling to slow down much less stop, I have become determined to educate others!
More in acquiring the knowledge/learning and being ready to make do with what you have and to also keep a ready to grab bag or box to handle what life throws at us all.
Staying calm enough to cope with this and keep hubby calm in the event he had to drive me to the hospital takes years of practice and planning (this is one of the downsides of being rural).
Having a kit set up with what most people would consider a expensive luxury of items including a portable nebulizer with solution, epsom salt, ice cold water (to slow down heated swelling), Benadryl and a anti itch cream (Boudreaux's Buttpaste is what I had) of some kind.
This is 6 days later!
I am still swelling (blisters) and leaking fluids and the cracks in the skin I have started using Neosporin in and on to prevent infection.
After a trip to my Dr yesterday we are adding a few more things to the treatment to try and get rid of more fluids trapped in my legs (the rest of my body is ok), except for not wanting to walk from the feet cracking I am doing ok.
So the questions I have for you is:
How prepared are you?
Do you have the knowledge needed?
Do you have a kit ready anything?
Do you practice?
Chime in and chat...