Randomness

welcome to the simple complexities of my mind...

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

A Little Bit of Kindness Goes A LONG Way...

Ok... so I got bitten... actually no, attacked is the correct word, attacked, by a spider at work yesterday. I'm not scared of spiders... but this one was just annoying:

It was pleasant to all of a sudden feel my foot in pain and then see this teeny-weenie little spider crawling up my pant leg. Turns out that teeny-weenie little spider had had a field day with my left foot and enjoyed a feast. FIVE BITES all in all. I was SO mad... I wanted to go kamikazi on this bug and spray bug killer everywhere to make sure it was dead, even if that meant me being near the poison. My foot was itching like mad ALL day long and it had random spurts of twanging pain.

I get home last night and well... my left foot (apparently my right foot is not good enough for a spider feast... only the left) is slightly pink and swollen. Everyone attributes it to allergies (I never had any before) and my scratching (which I have a tendency to do a lot when I get bitten by a bug... I have little self-control on the matter). Ok... we had bought some insect repellent and itch cream (I know.... I should have stocked up on this before it all happened but oh well... hindsight is 20/20) and so I rub the cream on my foot like it's cool... and I go to sleep...

I wake up... and my foot is unfortunately a bit more puffy than it was yesterday... I end up walking with a limp... but thankfully... my supervisor let me where my flip flops instead of my pumps so I could be a bit more comfortable... and I work the day with a constant vigil in case another blasted spider wanted to try and get another round of 5 bites...

Now... towards the end of the work day... I start to realize that the swelling... no matter how much benadryl (sp?) I take... isn't really going down... so I'm starting to get worried... like I need another worry added to my plate at the moment...

And I start to have such pleasant thoughts as, "What if it was poisonous?", "Will they amputate the foot?", "At least I'd get one of those handicap stickers", "Medical bill is not going to be cheap for this sucker", "I have a cankle", and "If I see another spider in this joint it will die a horrible death."

And I go to choir practice right after work and everyone enjoys the view of my swollen left foot. They all tell me where the nearest clinic is and how I can get help if I need/want it for medical aid.

But this one gent (papa bear type figure... not literally... but figuratively)... whom I do adore... escorted me and Jon to the ambulance center. He apparently knows the people there and he said they'd give me free advice on what to do about my foot. They tell me to soak it in a salt made for this purpose and take more benadryl. If in two days the swelling hasn't gone down or it gets worse... I need to see a doctor. So what does he do... he tells everyone that he'll get it... he was on his way to the store anyway so he'll get some of that salt... He presents to me a plastic bag... with that salt in it... AND an antibiotic cream that he says is good and should ease my pain and cut down the swelling.

I take the bag... so surprised by it... I was honestly touched by his kindness that in the middle of the public I start crying. I hate crying... even more I hate admit I cried. I know to a lot of people it didn't seem like much... but to me, it was just a little bit of kindness that went a LONG way.

It was just a small nicety... that reminded me that there are a bunch of good people out there who do care about others... It was simple generousity and touching too, I just had to talk about it.

4 Comments:

Blogger IAMB said...

Just something for you to mull over: all spiders are venomous to varying degrees. The difference is that only a few types area actually medically significant.

The bad news is that your end of the country has one of the really nasty ones.

The good news: your foot doesn't sound like it has a nasty bruise around the bite, so you at least didn't get bit by that one.

Other than that, what did this spider look like, other than teeny-weenie? That doesn't help much when it comes to identification...
;-)

1:47:00 PM  
Blogger Carmel said...

Haha... lol... well it's not a "nasty" bruise around the bites (plural)... it's not blue or purple or black... it's just red around the bite.

And yeah I'm aware this side of the country has the nastier ones... but it was black with white markings.

That's all I took notice of before I went to destroy it with my foot... *^_^*

3:55:00 PM  
Blogger IAMB said...

Black and white. Hmmmm...

Fuzzy? Smooth?

Big head? Little Head? (as in head bigger than abdomen or equally sized)

Thick legs? Thin? Long? Short?

Sorry to keep asking. Inquiring minds want to know...

5:14:00 PM  
Blogger Carmel said...

well it looked smooth... not really fuzzy hairy like most hairy spiders I've seen...

legs were thin... it also liked to jump... it was annoying... it jumped and almost floated a bit... then it landed...

head was smaller than the abdomen but don't take my word for that... all I had in mind when I looked at it was that it was a dead creepy crawly...

and ask away... i don't mind...

7:41:00 PM  

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