The Perils of Pauline...

If you're a regular reader, you know I live in the heart of Texas... and I've avoided hitting a deer (or a deer hitting me) all these years and getting stung by a scorpion... until this week. DD was coming home at 11:30 p.m., and as I usually do, I stand at the back door waiting for her. I had just taken my shoes off, and put on flip flops, and as I stood there, it felt like a thousand bees stung me at once, or laying your hand on an open burner (which I have also done.) I looked down, and couldn't see anything, and about that time, DD walked through the door as I'm screaming in pain and hobbling around. I yelled,  "It had to have been a scorpion!!" and as DD looked under the back bookshelf, there it was. The demon insect. Actually, scorpions should be in their own category - of demon species, like those scary centipedes that also live around here. And of course, snakes.
After us girls decimated it with a baseball bat, I quickly got on the internet, where you can find anything from, "don't worry about it" to "go to the hospital." There were some things to watch for, and sure enough, after about 30 minutes, my tongue went numb and then my lips did. Hmmmm.... Then we lost our internet, and didn't have a phone book, and by this time, it's midnight. I had to call a friend to get our hospital's number, and then call the ER, and the nurse asks if I am having trouble breathing or swallowing. No. Just the numb tongue. I asked what they would do if I came in, and she said they would give me Benedryl for an allergic reaction.
The best remedies came from local friends on Facebook, but since the internet went dead shortly after the sting, I couldn't see the answers until the next day. Evidently, like rattlesnakes,  baby scorpions have more venom. And this one was about 1.5" long with a tail about 1" long. It must have had the maximum amount of venom.
Sigh.
So... since it costs me THREE THOUSAND DOLLARS every time I go to the ER, I decided I would just see what happened. That's pretty sad, when you're having an allergic reaction and still decide not to go to the hospital in hopes that it will get better. I stayed up til 3:00 a.m. monitoring myself, and finally fell fast asleep. My tongue stayed numb until 2:00 p.m. yesterday and my toe kept stinging until about 4:00 p.m. Most people I asked said that it usually only hurts a little while, but if you get a bad sting, can get an allergic reaction like I did, which can be dangerous.
As you might guess, I have on closed toe shoes....

(It looked almost exactly like this)