We had a busy, productive day yesterday. We hit the hay about 11:30 and had just gotten into a good sleep when I suddenly felt sharp pain on the inside of my right forearm.
I jumped up, turning on lights. I looked at my arm and there was a blister type mark. My husband groggily pulled back the sheet on the bed to find a scorpion, who jumped onto his hand. I yelled at him because he didn’t seem to realize what was happening. He finally used his other hand to swat the scorpion off, thankfully NOT getting stung. We keep foreceps on a nail on the bookshelf. I grabbed those, got the scorpion, deposited him in the john and flushed him. He was very small. He didn’t curl his tail like this one. He just ran with his body straight, trying to get away.
We pulled the covers completely off the bed, checking to make sure there weren’t any others. My husband put some ointment on my arm and went back to bed.
I was still totally freaked out. My arm was red, swelling, and aching. I felt like I had been burned! I put on my robe and slippers (remembering to shake them out first this time of year) and went downstairs. There would be no sleep for me until I could get the pain under control and the images out of my still-panicked mind.
I got on the net to find out how to treat scorpion stings. Icing it down to reduce the swelling and antihistamine for possible allergic reaction were recommended. I took two Benedryl caplets, put Benedryl ointment on the area and got an ice pack from the freezer. It took until about 3 a.m. for my arm to quit hurting enough – and for me to finally get calm enough – to try to sleep.
This morning I am still very aware of where I was stung, but YOU couldn’t see anything looking at my arm. It still feels tender and I have a bit of aching, but no redness or swelling remains.
I’m going to pull everything off the bed again and put all through the washing machine. I’ll put on fresh sheets – giving my mind the finality that no other critters remain. I’ll vacuum the bedroom again and spray around the perimeter – plus doors and windows – with whatever bug spray we have and then finally relax.
We have enough scorpions on top of our ridge line that we just step on them and spray the area for future control. They don’t attack you or jump, and usually they’re easy to see and kill. I can count on one hand, thank goodness, the times we’ve had one in the house in the over thirty years we’ve lived here.
This is definitely NOT the way I wanted to start the day…
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