Maybe I've watched too many horror flicks, but sometimes I feel like my body is a party host for mosquitoes. Bloodsuckers.
I've always gotten bit a lot every summer, but this year...phew! %-0 It seems like they are merciless, both in terms of biting and itching. I don't tolerate itch at all. I think I have a fairly high pain threshold, but definitely, I do not possess any itch threshold whatsoever.
Two weekends in this month of June already have been sleepless for me. Or rather, interrupted. Because of intense itching. Yes, I know you're not supposed to scratch bites! But even though I've put stuff on them before I go to bed, it's useless. I often wake up in the middle of the night.
I've spent too much time researching how to treat and avoid mosquitoes...but they still find ME! I've experimented with alchol (my mom's favorite remedy for almost everything that ails you), wintergreen alcohol (smells better!), witch hazel, Listerine, and vinegar--both regular and apple cider (also smells better!). Vinegar was actually helpful, for my bites.
None but Tiger Balm let me sleep without me waking up in the middle of the night (sometimes several times) scratching my bite, because the itch was ferociously intense. It drove me mad and made me mad, that itching! %-( Last week I went five days straight suffering interrupted sleep...and MY sleep is VERY important to ME!! I LOVE MY SLEEP! If I don't get my sleep, I'm prone to changing personality! ;-0
One night last week, I found my Tiger Balm, which I hadn't used for a couple years since I last injured my ankle while running to catch a bus and tripping over myself in a groove in the ground. I thought about Vicks VapoRub, too. Same idea as Tiger Balm: menthol and camphor taking the itch away. But since it was 3 a.m., and I was frustrated and in zombie-mode...I found my Tiger Balm first. :-)
I put it on my 13+ bites on my limbs, and felt an instant cooling effect! Whew! SLEEP!
There must be something about the back of my right thigh. My ham. Must be real tasty to the mosquitoes: I've had the most bites there--having six at one time at one point. And the ones there are THE itchiest by far. What gives? The itch lasts for several days. SO itchy it stings all day. When I get a bite there, the irritation spreads far...so far that there's a huge pink circle that spreads the width of my ham.
On Father's Day evening, I walked around at dusk (prime time for bloodsuckers!) and got a dozen bites in about 10 minutes. Had to go into the swimming pool to cool the bites off...my poor leggies (almost all on the right leg) literally felt like they were on fire! %-0
So I guess I must be very sensitive to mosquitoes. And as we are now living in the sticks and next to a river with lots of woods, there are TONS of different creatures out here, some of which my rural in-laws have not encountered, or with such magnitude, in their lifetimes! I'm sure it's not just mosquitoes biting me, as not all my bites look alike. Flies bite, too. As do gnats...and don't even mention ticks! %-0
People try to humor me and say I have sweet blood! Hubby says the insects are tired of him...they want tasty stuff: Chinese food (me)!
I've been trying to consume more garlic. Bloosuckers hate garlic. I LOVE garlic! Are these things vampires in disguise? With all my bites, I sometimes think I will turn into one! That WOULD be rather morbid, wouldn't it? But maybe, a little fun, if only to bare my bloody fangs! Hahaha! Especially to people who incite fear, hatred, and violence. ;-)
If I had $ for every bite I've gotten in my life, I think I'd be rolling in green by now! %-0 And since I will likely get countless more, I would really be in the green when I'm an old lady...! And I ought to get a bonus for the one yellowjacket sting I got on my neck a few years ago: THAT really hurt! (so much for high pain threshold!). I hope never to get stung by one of those things ever again.
Pardon me for sounding vain here, but my right ham looks like a scarred battleground now. As if it were diseased. The bite marks will fade away...but not quick enough. I think the bloodsuckers see the bite marks and think:
"Hey, hey, HEY! Look at all those bites on that lady's ham! Must be some good eatin' there! Drinks are on the host! Par-tee time! Let's go!" %-)
Or am I giving them too much credit? What else am I to think when only one leg gets the majority of bites? They concentrate their most lethal poison saliva there. Will my body ever build up resistance to them?
I've never been the party girl type. I hope I'm not being punished by the God of Social Butterflies in possessing a body that is host to insects that feel free to party and feast on my blood! %-0
Meanwhile, let me publicly thank the late Aw Boon Haw for perfecting his father's concoction along with his brother, for the product known worldwide today as Tiger Balm. Doh jeh!
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p.s. (unrelated)
Dearest G:
We cannot believe it's been a year ago today that you've been gone from our lives. From so many lives you touched. We miss you sorely. You were the ultimate friend! We love you. xox
p.s.s. Tiger Balm, Aw Boon Haw, and G are hyperlinked...but I haven't figured out how to make it show yet on the new template formatting...! %-) I italicized them, though!
