Stung

I was stung by a wasp while walking Elka today.

At least I think it was a wasp. I felt the sharp pain on the inside of my right bicep and of course slapped it, then stomped on whatever the crumply corpse was that fell to the sidewalk. I'm not allergic to anything that I've encountered yet (Thank God), so I wasn't overly concerned. Just irritated, and now slightly hurting.

It was on the return trip, so we had less than a mile to go. I tried not to think about my exercise heightened heartbeat pumping poison around. Not allergic, remember! I checked the swelling once in awhile. Yup, looks like a wasp sting. No stinger left in the skin, either, which seemed like a decent tipoff. I wonder where the little fuck came from; I heard no buzzing, saw no nest, and there was only the one. At least it was me and not the dog.

Once home, I did what any good citizen of the Internet would do and consulted WebMd (well, I consulted The Google, and felt WebMd was my best bet.) Remove the stinger; check. Wash the site with cold water; check. Make a paste with baking soda to draw out the poison.

"Draw out the poison?" Doesn't that seem a big like an old wives' tale? Or like what they say in Old wives' tales? Really, though, I'm of the firm belief that baking soda is magical fairy dust. It does amazing things when I use it to clean my stove, or the rare occasions I have a burned pan! Really, WebMD said "baking soda or meat tenderizer", but I know from jellyfish experience that whoever slipped the meat tenderizer in there is an advocate of Satan. It makes whatever pain you felt from the initial sting multiply, and also burn. But, which are you more likely to have on a beach vacation, baking soda or meat tenderizer? Yeah.

So after the baking soda paste, and putting some ice on it, it looks pretty much exactly the way it did in the first place. Maybe it hurts less? Maybe the swelling is lower? I probably could've just left it alone too and had similar outcomes.