The Bite

I've been bitten. Surprisingly, it was not my child who is currently teething. No, I was assaulted by something so much more sinister, my skin in crawling recapping this horrible event.

In the spring, we had decided to really go all out on our garden. We started a bunch of herbs and veggies from seed inside, we bought a tiller to destroy all our unsightly weeds, and were sure that hard work and determination would reap tons of produce this year. Well, it didn't. Everything died.

But, we did manage to keep our three tomato plants we bough from Costco alive and they produced the yummiest tomatoes I'm pretty sure I've ever had. They were big and firm and tasted nothing like store bought tomatoes! However, the weather turned about two weeks ago and due to the massive amounts of rain/the sudden drop in temperature, our poor tomatoes just weren't ripening on the vine any longer. It's kinda depressing because we still had SO MANY out there and I just couldn't bring myself to let them all rot just because they were green.

I went to the all knowing internet and found out how to ripen green tomatoes, grabbed my gardening gloves and a Walmart bag and went a'pickin'. Our plants are quite tall, so I had to reach my entire arm down into the plant to retrieve the large tomatoes. At some point though, I felt a little prick, but I didn't think much of it because I had my freakin' arm in a giant tomato plant. After I filled three Walmart bags, I called  it a day after I saw a Praying Mantis crawl into the last plant I had to pick from. I went in, washed all 78 of my green tomatoes and noticed a few mosquito bites an my arms and legs. Eh, small price to pay.

However, less than a day later, I noticed that one of the bites was getting more swollen and started to develop a lot of redness and a bulls-eye type of design to it. I didn't ever recall having a bite like that before, so I started doing research and everything came up conclusive- Arachnid.

The second I connected the dots (hehe), I started having irregular heartbeats. Maybe even a small heart attack, too. Besides being totally grossed out, I was angry. Actually, angry is making it seem tame, I was FURIOUS! You see, I've done everything in my power to kill every spider in sight. I have amazing bug killer for the inside and perimeter of my home and a handy hoe in my backyard for those that I can't chemically kill. BUT ONE GOT ME!

So, last night, after the rash looking thing started spreading to the size of a baseball and after I spent a couple hours looking up spider bites, I accepted my future. Death. I was going to die. As I got into bed, my stomach was churning, my head was pounding and my body felt stiff. Even though I had been bit over 30 hours ago, I was still certain of my fate.

I woke up in the middle of the night to turn over and I couldn't feel anything anything below my neck. I was paralyzed!! Oh my gosh, I was going to have to raise my baby and puppies from a bed. I'd be on my back for the rest of my life. I was going to miss out on so many things in their lives and it upset me so much, I started to cry. I laid in bed, paralyzed and crying. Crying and paralyzed.

Then, I heard my baby cry from the other room. She had woken because her new tooth is still breaking and her last does of Tylenol had worn off. So, as I was still sobbing about my new discovery of being bed ridden for the rest of my life, I rolled out of bed and groggily walked my way down to her bedroom as I sobbed about how I'd never be able to get out of bed again. I held her as she cried and I sobbed about how I'd never be able to go swimming with her, I'd never be able to run through the yard with her or do any physical activity for that matter. I cried and she stopped and fell back to sleep. I made my way back to my bed and fell back asleep.

It wasn't until this morning I realized my small mistake. I have use of all my extremities, to which I'm extremely grateful! I slapped a band aid on my arm so I don't have to look at the monstrosity and every time I remember, I say a little prayer of thanks.

 Next year, I'm delegating the tomato picking to my husband.