So I had my first encounter with fire ants. Down at Southern Headquarters I was simply wandering the back yard and I must have stopped in proximity to a nest. Now, I have a vague memory of a childhood trip to Florida and getting stung by ants but I don't recall any terrible reaction other than a brief owie. This time I had a bad reaction. A couple of the bites ended with small blisters but one was particularly bad and blistered at least an inch and a half across. All bites were on my feet thanks to open-toed sandals. The pain went away in a short while but the blisters, which were painless, lasted for days.
The real problem was the swelling. My foot and ankle swelled greatly, which was a little scary to me. After about a week of getting worse, I headed to urgent care where I got a steroid shot, antibiotic pills, steroid pills, antibiotic cream, and steroid cream. Yes, it may have been overkill. Now I'm going to talk about gross stuff.
The word on blisters from all sources is do not pop them. I have come to disagree with that. The reason you don't poop a blister is because it offers a bit of protection against bacteria getting in the wound. Well, that's easy to manage with nothing more than neosporin and a bandage. Popping (or at least draining) the blister can also allow your shoes to fit. Also if the blister gets very large when it does finally break a huge swath of skin beneath it can be scarred and irritated. That is in fact what happened to me. I left alone a small blister on my ankle and it grew and grew and then when it did pop it left a raw patch of skin, which is in fact painful. Also, the doctor I saw at urgent care said popping a blister is fine if it makes you more comfortable and you are not going to anything to get the underlying wound infected. So… lesson learned.
Sorry for the grossness. Anyway, still not fully healed from it all. So fire ants need to be eliminated from the face of the earth. One encounter with the tiny little buggers has disrupted me for three weeks and it's not completely done yet. Chemical warfare was employed in the backyard, but I'm told even that is only temporary. Resolved: While at Southern Headquarters each day will commence with a scan of the backyard for the savage critters and death to any I find. I also need to wear thigh high boots at all times.
Thank God I'm a Northern Boy.
