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Old 12-30-05, 07:28 AM
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jppe
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Originally Posted by lookinUp
Christmas Eve in Orlando... visiting relatives for the holiday, we went for a quick bike ride in the afternoon. About 7 miles into the ride, I felt a bite on my leg and brushed off the ant that had bitten me. Around mile 14, the palms of my hands were itching and by mile 18 I was itching all over. We got to the house and I asked for a benedryl. Took it and went into the bathroom to take a shower. Arghhhh.... my body was covered all over with red blotches - I was having a serious reaction to that ant bite. (It was one of those famous fire ants)

Fortunately my breathing was OK, so I declined a trip to the emergency room. Took another benedryl which totally knocked me for a loop. Went and laid down. Wasn't sure whether it was the ant bite reaction or benedry that made me feel like I was drunk, and in my semi-delerious state, I was thinking how it would spoil Christmas for my family if I were to die on Christmas Eve. My sister, rightfully worried, checked on me every 15 minutes for the next 4 hours. Finally, around nine that night, I got up. The itching had stopped and the drunken effects of the benedryl had worn off.

As drunk as I felt the night before - at least there was no hangover in the morning. Yes, I'm getting an eppi pen to carry with me just in case it happens again and gets (more) serious.

Since then, I've been spraying my feet with bug spray, just in case!

Be careful! Don't want to scare you but we lost a teammate at work from one bee sting. We learned that often these bites/sings can have ongoing accumulative effects. In his case even an epi was administered but it could have been too long after the sting--but we're talking minutes........Keep it with you!
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