Tuesday, September 2, 2014

Practice 2.6

When I was ten years old, I was constantly outside. Nothing would stop me from playing in the woods with my friends, not rain, not heat, not even the little annoying bugs that were bound and determined to eat us alive. That is after all what bug spray is for right? Well that summer the bugs were awful! I mean so bad you couldn't even be outside for more than thirty minutes without having bug bites on places no bug should be able to reach! So we made a game out of looking for an answer to our problem, a hide and seek of sorts. Whoever found something usable won a lunch that the losers had to make. Off we went in search of anything we could get our hands on, fly swatters, a net that you wear to keep the bugs out, but  I found a green can with orange writing on it with a little rust on the top but it all I had that could work. I had found Off bug spray. We decided to spray each other, not knowing how much to use we just kept spraying and spraying. I t was sure to work if we used it all! That is exactly what we did, we emptied the can on each other. Off we went out into the woods just being my house and we started to make forts, and mud pies, using all the weeds we could find to make the mud look less like dirt and more like a decorated cake. The longer we were out there the more I started to feel odd. A weird sensation spread through me, something was definitely not right. I wondered if it could be a type of plant we had picked up that was making my fingers look all funny. But no, we picked the same types we always used. I tried to push the feeling away and focused on my pie, but as the time went on I started looking different, my fingers were growing very puffy, and turning a light shade of purple. My friends were getting worried, they decided to walk me home. By the time I walked up to my house a rash had appeared all over my body. Little red dots, very similar to bug bites but much more painful. I went straight to my mom who rushed me to the doctor. The car ride was the longest car ride of my life! Every minute that passed my body grew more puffy and itchy. By the time I had reached the doctors office I was scratching intensely as if my life would end if I didn't scratch my arms. The doctor took me immediately and told me it looked like a reaction to something. He asked me if I had done anything unusual that I normally don't do, or touched something different, eaten a new food, anything out of the ordinary. The only thing I could think of was that rusty can of Off bug spray I had found in the shed. So I told both the doctor and my mother about the can of bug spray we used, and he gave me a prescription to make the rash go away and to make my puffiness go away. Later when I was feeling better, and looking better we ran tests and discovered that I am indeed allergic to bug spray.

3 comments:

  1. Since you mentioned the plant, I thought this was going to be about your first encounter with poison ivy (remember: leaves of three, let it be; leaves of four, eat some more).

    Are you allergic to all types of bug spray?

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  2. When i read this line: "A weird sensation spread through me, something was definitely not right." for a second i thought you might have gotten high from the fumes of the bug spray, that would have been funny... but being allergic to bug spray must really suck.

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  3. I am allergic to all types of bug spray, if someone touches me while wearing bug spray I will have a major reaction so I try to stay away from people with bug spray. And yes it does suck, if you see me in the summer I am almost always sporting at LEAST 20 bug bites at all times.

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