not a lot of patience here

Sunday morning we stopped on our way to the drugstore for some Benadryl, as every home remedy and pharmacists suggestions were not curbing the swelling or pain from the wasp sting. (For those of you on Facebook, I did NOT use the chewing tobacco suggestion). And I figured day three of swelling and redness and itching and hurting was enough. Time to pull out the big guns. By the time church had ended Sunday morning, I was getting very drowsy, but the swelling was 90% gone and the redness was reduced to a spot about the size of a dollar bill. I've been pumping it every 4-6 hours, and am noticing a steady improvement. But there's not a lot of patience on my part. I want this red itchy spot gone like YESTERDAY.

We were laughing about the irony of the fact I cleaned out the medicine cabinet two weeks ago. Everything out of date was tossed. And I tossed almost a whole package of Benadryl that I bought about 4 years ago when one of the boys cutting grass got stung (and like me, he has "mild" reactions to them) and it's not been used since. It's probably been 8 years since the last time I was stung (and that one was by a wasp, not a yellow jacket), and I will be perfectly okay if I never, ever get stung again.

As for home remedies, I will say this. Everyone has a different body chemistry, and what works for one person might not work for another person. I will say the cream with ammonia in it did the best for stopping the itch, though the smell about makes me sick. It's even worse than boiling the vinegar mixture for canning pickles. UGH!

Today I'm rejoicing that there's no swelling, at all, and I only have a red oval about the size of four quarters, and even that is breaking up into small bumps. :) Progress. (Even though I must admit I was disappointed to wake up and see it still there.)

Happy Monday.