Ticked off

At the risk of developing a theme, here's another poppy.  This time after everything had a good soak with the hose.  I know I shouldn't water like that (though it was the evening) and I know I'm supposed to be minimising water use on pointless things like flowers, but everything looked so happy and perky and refreshed afterwards, and if veg are good for your bodily health, flowers are certainly good for your mental health.

Health has been much on my mind today.  I can't think how I didn't mention this over the last few days - well, apart from all the major international news I suppose - but I had my first tick bite on Thursday (realistically, the tale probably starts on Wednesday afternoon - last time I go wafting through the nether regions of the garden in a swishy skirt*).  I'm not good with insect things and though generally calm and efficient with other people's icky health issues, I'm rubbish with my own.  So instead of approaching the task calmly, I just set to in a whirlwind of tweezerly panic.

Obviously that didn't get the job done as cleanly as you might wish.

Yesterday the bite site started swelling up a bit, so I informed the kids just in case I died in the night and it was hard to tell why.

This morning it looked awful and I felt awful, and a bit foolish for joking about it last night.  And my doctor is on holiday.  So the pharmacist, after telling me off really a lot sent me to A&E.  Where I was registered, seen by a doctor, diagnosed, told off, prescribed stuff and paid the bill all within 15 minutes.  Not bad, huh? 

So, back to the pharmacist for the drugs, (and obviously one of those little plastic things for taking out a tick without risking agonising consequences) then home.  The doc gave me some antiseptic which he said I should 'try to keep on for an hour'.  That seemed like an odd thing to say, but you know how nuance is hard in a foreign language.  Two minutes after I put it on I got what he meant.  Agony.  Couldn't take it any more.  So now the huge lump (like four inches across) is also blistered from some kind of reaction to the bleach he gave me.  Sheesh.

You won't be surprised to learn I spent the rest of the day spoiling myself.


* In my defence, I needed a prop for an overly-laden apple branch.  The swishy skirt was just a feelgood thing.