Spider Bait
Just when I thought things couldn't get much weirder, I spent the afternoon in one of East Vancouver's health clinics not due to sudden illness or for some kind of preventive medicine, but rather because of a spider who seems to have crept into my bed sometime this weekend.
The spider bite started innocently enough — a little mosquito-bite-sized lump with a little blister on the end, which didn't really bother me aside from stinging a little to the touch. I'd been bitten by spiders dozens of times as a young kid, and so wasn't particularly worried at what seemed like a run of the mill spider bite. And run of the mill it was, until I woke up this morning and my entire upper arm was considerably sore and tender.
Throughout the course of the day the lump swelled up to a size that could nearly be described as a handful, became excruciatingly painful and sore, and even started pinching the nerves in my arm to the point where the fingers of my left hand felt like they were burning.
You know Jared Leto's arm in Requiem for a Dream? Well, it doesn't actually look too much like that, thank God, but that's the image that had been running through my head all day of what this thing could turn into. (Scared you, didn't I?) Nevertheless, when the cold sweats and nausea started, I have to admit my freaking out reached a peak, so I got myself to the health clinic pretty damn fast.
According to the doctor, yes it was an arachnid or some kind of insect, and no, it's probably not infected — just a severe reaction. She traced around the perimeter of the swelling with a pen, prescribed me some industrial strength antihistamine, and instructed me to compare the swelling tomorrow to what it was today, to make sure it has improved rather than worsened. Believe me, I'm definitely praying for this — I can't imagine it feeling much worse.
Wouldn't you also know that this happened only a matter of days before I'm eligible for Provincial Health Coverage. At least I got my taste of what health care is like here (in a nutshell, long wait, mixed bag of people in the office, but pretty decent care, and relatively inexpensive medication), and since I paid out of pocket, it's an interesting data collection point to see an example of what the care here really costs. The whole ordeal was $100 for the doctor visit and $20 at the pharmacy — not too terrible.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, no I can't shoot webs out my wrists. Yet.
* * *
The final closure on the day, incidentally, was when, finally heading home from work + clinic + work again at around 9:45pm, I passed a woman on Seymour St who, in the most weirdly-modulated Caroline-from-Poltergeist voice ever, was shouting, "mmmmmMMMMMMommy! hhhhhhHHHHHHHelp me!" I have no theories as to how she was able to do the reverse reverb thing armed only with her own vocal cords. If I were ever to see a demonic possession, I think this might qualify.
The spider bite started innocently enough — a little mosquito-bite-sized lump with a little blister on the end, which didn't really bother me aside from stinging a little to the touch. I'd been bitten by spiders dozens of times as a young kid, and so wasn't particularly worried at what seemed like a run of the mill spider bite. And run of the mill it was, until I woke up this morning and my entire upper arm was considerably sore and tender.
Throughout the course of the day the lump swelled up to a size that could nearly be described as a handful, became excruciatingly painful and sore, and even started pinching the nerves in my arm to the point where the fingers of my left hand felt like they were burning.
You know Jared Leto's arm in Requiem for a Dream? Well, it doesn't actually look too much like that, thank God, but that's the image that had been running through my head all day of what this thing could turn into. (Scared you, didn't I?) Nevertheless, when the cold sweats and nausea started, I have to admit my freaking out reached a peak, so I got myself to the health clinic pretty damn fast.
According to the doctor, yes it was an arachnid or some kind of insect, and no, it's probably not infected — just a severe reaction. She traced around the perimeter of the swelling with a pen, prescribed me some industrial strength antihistamine, and instructed me to compare the swelling tomorrow to what it was today, to make sure it has improved rather than worsened. Believe me, I'm definitely praying for this — I can't imagine it feeling much worse.
Wouldn't you also know that this happened only a matter of days before I'm eligible for Provincial Health Coverage. At least I got my taste of what health care is like here (in a nutshell, long wait, mixed bag of people in the office, but pretty decent care, and relatively inexpensive medication), and since I paid out of pocket, it's an interesting data collection point to see an example of what the care here really costs. The whole ordeal was $100 for the doctor visit and $20 at the pharmacy — not too terrible.
Oh, and in case you were wondering, no I can't shoot webs out my wrists. Yet.
* * *
The final closure on the day, incidentally, was when, finally heading home from work + clinic + work again at around 9:45pm, I passed a woman on Seymour St who, in the most weirdly-modulated Caroline-from-Poltergeist voice ever, was shouting, "mmmmmMMMMMMommy! hhhhhhHHHHHHHelp me!" I have no theories as to how she was able to do the reverse reverb thing armed only with her own vocal cords. If I were ever to see a demonic possession, I think this might qualify.