But the day before that...well not so good. Jeff went out at 8 pm to meet some church members to play Axis and Allies. Of course, they wanted him to play America, and they were fighting over who would be Germany. Jeff and Tobias played as UK and US and beat them soundly. While this was going on, I was at home with the kids. We played at the park, then read stories and went to bed. I was nursing Ella, laying on my side, and a spot near my knee started really hurting. She wouldn't go to sleep and wouldn't go to sleep. Finally I had to go to the bathroom so bad that I couldn't hold it anymore, and I left her in bed crying while I went out to use the restroom. As I sat on the toilet, that same spot again hurt, and I looked down and there was something that looked like a rock embedded in my skin, which was all red and irritated. A closer look and I nearly passed out. A huge tick the size of an apple seed or bigger was dug down in my skin, and the swelling around him covered him nearly half way. I took off my pants and grabbed my phone to call Jeff. I looked up online how to take one out, but I was too upset to do it by myself, and I didn't know where the tweezers were, and it hurt to walk. So I just sat there for over an hour, avoiding looking at the tick and trying to get Jeff to answer his phone and crying like a really big wimp.
Meanwhile, Jeff, sitting around the game table with the guys, had just finished the first game and was about to start a second. He reached in his pocket to check the time on the phone, and saw that I was calling at that very moment. His phone had been on silent since church on Sunday and he had not realized it. When he talked to me I was so upset that he thought I said I had gotten at "ticket" at first. Tobias drove him home, and told him what he had learned at his most recent first aid class, to just pull the tick straight out instead of trying to use a match or anything. Apparently if you upset them, they inject their meal back where it came from, significantly increasing the risk of contracting a disease. So I spent the next two hours worrying about what horrible diseases I might get, and by three am I fell into bed exhausted. We saved the tick neatly in a baggy, even though he is mostly smushed. We couldn't ever find the tweezers, so Jeff used his multi-pliers. I guess you can have them tested for what diseases they were carrying, although I doubt we will have the time, energy, or funds to do that in a foreign country. I was totally scared by the incident, and wasn't really excited to go back to the park any time soon. Then Jeff made me feel worse by saying that it was much more likely that I got it on our walk on Saturday through an area with long grass and dogs playing. So that means the tick would have been there for days, and that's why he was so big. GROSS! Also, because of the air drying our laundry, I have been trying to wear my pants for several days, so I never would have noticed till it hurt like that.
Anyways, not very fun, but definitely some excitement. Next time I will not make so much fun when Ann Marie gets a tick and is wailing about it.
1 comment:
They are such tough little buggers. Remember the tick you got before we left CT? We lived quite close to Lyme, CT BTW. I'm not making you feel any better, am I? Hopefully you'll be fully recovered in a few days. :)
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