Um... OW!

So I got stung by a wasp!

I honestly can't remember the last time I was stung by a wasp, or even if I actually have been before?  I know I've been stung by a bee.  I remember stepping on one as a kid and I'm sure I've had another sting here or there but I can't tell you the last time a wasp got me... so we'll just assume it happened to me when I was a kid.  (Maybe.)

But here's the thing.  I was INSIDE!  In a store!  Trying to buy cheap(er) Halloween chocolate!  I WAS IN A STORE!!!!  Unfair, right?

So there I was, my box of who knows what in hand and I felt something brush up against my left pointer finger.  Now that feeling happens all the time, it's usually a hair or a bit of dust or lint or whatever, and it felt just that light sort of brush feeling and so I absentmindedly rubbed it away with my thumb.. as you do... and I can very distinctly, as if in slow motion, remember the feeling of my thumb coming into contact with something soft and sort of squishy and part of my brain went (that's wrong?) and then as soon as I slow motion felt that there was the sting and BAM! 

I looked down and there was the little bugger drunkenly flopping away from my finger which was now being waved up and down with me saying loudly (to Jason who happened to be with me) OW!  I JUST GOT STUNG! 

I think the main reason I'm not sure if I've ever been stung by a wasp before, or certainly not in a very long time is that it is a very specific type of pain and it was so unfamiliar to me.

We were in London Drugs, which is a drug store, so I immediately turned to Jason and said "I'm getting some bug sting lotion" because OW.  IT HURT!

We went to the aisle and I opened up the package right then and there and smeared it over my finger.  Then I went back into line and bought it and my chocolate and MAN was I annoyed at that wasp.

Like, I didn't even swat at you!  I didn't even see you!  I was literally just brushing something off my finger, and there was NO NEED TO BE SO MEAN!

I got Jason to drive and we were a ways away from either his or my place, so the whole way home I just kept on saying OW and putting more of the sting stop gel on.  OW!

I warned Jason that although I felt fine, my Mom had had an unexpected allergic reaction to a wasp in her 40s (or 50s?) and so there was a small possibility I might have that same issue.  We got me home and the damn thing was still stinging.  I washed it and cleaned it and put more stuff on it and iced it on and off for the next while.  I took some benadryl too.  The finger was swollen, but not horribly so and very hot to the touch, so I kept an eye on it.

It got a bit better after a few hours but it really was a distinct and uncomfortable pain.  I said to Jason that it sort of didn't hurt as *much* as I thought it would but that it hurt differently and much much longer.  Did not like.

By the evening, the area felt like I had burnt it.  It was still swollen but the pain was a lot better.  I took more benadryl and some advil and discovered that when I had a shower it felt a lot better having been run under the warm water.  I'd whined to a few people and they all said oh no!  And a few even said that they had had a lot of trouble with their last wasp sting so I was aware that I night have issues for a while.

The pain would be ok and then suddenly BAM! OW! again from time to time, but I think everything I did helped.

I was thrilled to wake up the next morning and see that the swelling was almost completely gone and that there wasn't really any pain!  The finger was still warm to my touch at the site of the sting, but that reduced as the day went on.  It still feels a bit weird to the touch, but I'm happy it's so much better and almost gone. 

That sting was not a fun thing, and I guess I'm going to be even more GAAHHH! around wasps when I see them now... not that I wasn't already!  But man oh man little lady (because it's apparently only the female wasps that sting gal dangit!) that was very very uncool.  I wasn't outside and I wasn't even aware you were there.  Meanie.