One of my best friends on earth and her family are coming from home to visit this week! We are so excited to see them! I'll never forget a couple of years ago when they came - on the night before their arrival, I went outside to pull weeds and garden to spruce things up a bit before they got here. Here in North Carolina there are things called "fire ants" or "red ants" as some people call them. I was born and raised in Ohio and had never seen or heard of these wonderful creatures. There happened to be a huge mound of them hidden in our flower bed and when I reached down to pull some weeds I unknowingly stepped right into the mound - barefoot of course. They swarmed my feet and up to my shins. Out of nowhere, seeming like all at once, an immediate sting shot through both feet and lower legs as I began to scream and run around the yard like a crazy person. The neighbors must have thought I had lost my mind. I tried to smack them off with my hands but they began to flood through my fingers and up my arms. Having cartoon images flash in my mind where they always jump into a lake, I immediately ran into the house screaming and went straight for the shower. Our four kids came running wondering what funny thing I was doing and my husband followed them in complete confusion. I breathed a sigh of relief as soon as I turned the water on and the ants finally left my body. The stinging remained in full force though. I was covered in a burning sensation. As I got out of the shower, the kids and my husband began to look at me strangely. I began to itch. My husband said, "Um, Honey, do you think we might want to head to the ER?" I looked at him confused..."The emergency room? For ants?! I don't need to go to the ER for ants! It just burns and it's itchy. I got them all off so it'll be ok now." The kids eyes got a little bigger and my husband calmly said, "I think we should head over to the ER just to make sure you're ok though. I think you might be allergic to them." He had a look about him telling me he was trying not to scare the kids but he meant business. All I kept thinking was...Ants?! I'm not allergic to ants! They're ANTS! Then I turned and looked in the mirror. My face was starting to swell, my lips were starting to swell, my eyes...sure I was itching all over, even where the ants hadn't been. I had never had an allergic reaction in my entire life but this was crazy. I looked back at Adam and shook my head and we were out the door. By the time we got to the hospital I was itching even under my skin. There are no words to the feeling of uncontrollable, unreachable itching that covered my body. We ran into the ER and I knew it must be bad because the people in the waiting room reacted with a look of shock when they saw me. I could almost see a mother cover her child's face. The woman at the front desk called out for someone to take me back immediately. (I could have been in labor with a broken arm and a knife stuck in my thigh and that never would have happened.) Once I got back and Adam followed me filling out paperwork while trying to keep the four kids in check, the nurses got me into a gown. Our son looked at me and said, "Mommy you have red all over you!" I looked down at my body and it was covered. Every square inch of me had welts and was swollen. I saw myself in a small mirror over the sterile hospital sink and I literally looked like Will Smith from the movie "Hitch." My eyes and lips were huge. I looked over at Adam and just then, our curtain pulled open. In walked possibly the most perfectly beautiful and most handsome doctor that ever walked the face of this earth. Even Adam's jaw dropped open. It was like music played as he entered the room. A glow of light surrounded him. He looked at me and immediately ordered an EpiPen and an IV with some magic in it and then wrote something down. I looked back at Adam again and shook my head. A nurse came in and as I lied in the bed, went to my left thigh and stabbed me with the EpiPen. She began the IV which immediately began to take the fire away from under my skin. I began to feel so tired and held Adam's hand while our kids sat and watched a cartoon. Just then, Dr. Hottie floated back into the room and smiled saying, "Ok, it looks like everything will be fine now." He talked with Adam about a few things and then left the room. Adam came back to me and smiled. He kissed me on the forehead and laughed saying, "No more gardening for you. I'm glad you're ok." I shut my eyes and smiled back. "Don't worry, I don't ever want to garden again."
So tomorrow - we can't wait for our friends to get here from Ohio. Today we will be busy with cleaning and getting groceries for our fun filled days ahead. I am glad that my best friend knows me well enough and won't care that our flower bed will have weeds in it this year. As exciting as all of that was, it will be just fine if we never see Dr. Hottie again.
So tomorrow - we can't wait for our friends to get here from Ohio. Today we will be busy with cleaning and getting groceries for our fun filled days ahead. I am glad that my best friend knows me well enough and won't care that our flower bed will have weeds in it this year. As exciting as all of that was, it will be just fine if we never see Dr. Hottie again.
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