Itchy Bitchy Spider

I feel amazing today!!

I feel full of vibrant life energy and I feel like I could conquer the world. I'm excited on a cellular level!

Why the nutty talk?

Well... my last post, about detox, was a personal one. I didn't just pull the topic out of the air. I was going through it myself. I found that the biggest challenge I faced was TRUST.



See...



I was bitten by a mystery bug, and judging by the way the bite manifested, my best guess is a spider. That alone is scary stuff. But the worst part is, it was on my breast. A very sensitive, tender area.

I didn't see the culprit, and I didn't feel it happening. Just one night after my birthday, I noticed I was scratching while I was sitting at my computer. Just idle scratching; hardly paying attention.

It wasn't until bedtime that I looked and saw a raised, red welt on the side of my breast. Well. What a shitty thing to pull on a hypochondriac; my thoughts took me to hell.

I managed to get to sleep, only to be awakened by the most intense itching I've ever experienced in all my life. Ever try to satisfy a scratch there? Nothing to really push against. I told Steve it would be like you trying to scratch your dangly bits. Not easy, and not satisfying.

It wasn't just at the site, either. It was the entire boob. Feck!

I usually know better than to diagnose myself via computer, but this was welting in a bullseye pattern, and I pretty much confirmed the spider theory. Then I went hunting for natural cures.

Enter the banana. Turns out, the inside of a banana peel is a great itch relief for insect bites.

So I peeled a banana and held it to the bite. It did help, but it didn't take it away. Some relief, but still, suckin' in my breath through clenched teeth.

So I also added aloe vera gel, which I keep in the fridge for my morning smoothies (I add 2 oz.) You can take this internally or topically. Sounds gross but works like a hot damn. It healed my sunburn so quickly in the summer and I know it heals all skin 'things' like no other, so I applied it.

The relief was so very welcome. Within a 1/2 hour, I was soothed. So I went to bed holding a banana peel full of aloe to myself, and fell asleep. No, I don't have a photo.

That night, and next day, I woke up to the intense itching again, and re-applied the treatment as needed.

I also got some tea tree oil and applied it directly to the bite, which was still pretty angry looking. This also helped immensly, so I added it to the aresenal, morning and again at night.

My body went into day 3 of this with only temporary relief brought on by these measures. I would check on the bite and see that it was morphing, and while that was scary, I did notice that while it was different, it didn't appear worse. So I kept going.

Meanwhile, my thoughts alternated between darkness and light. Darkness because like all women, I've been taught to fear my breasts, to live in terror of breast cancer. (THE BASTARDS. I have MUCH to spew on this subject but, well.... DOWN, Girl.) Anyway, I was thinking stuff like, "What if it wasn't a spider? I never saw it, after all... What if it is the beginning of something horrible?"

I am not joking about being a hypochondriac. Up until this experience, I've never been known to do well with the idea of illness. Any body symptom = fear.

It was a whole new challenge to take care of this on my own, without suppressing it beyond relieving the itch naturally, an itch like no other, an itch that drove me to distraction. An itch I couldn't, and didn't, scratch, even though it was insanely itchy.

Oh, and it was itchy.

Meanwhile, my body was acting like it was fighting off an attack. It was!

I went through low-grade feelings all week... extremely low energy, fatigue, blahs. I begged out of my every day life and I took to my bed for the most part. I slept for hours on the 4th day. I drank tons of water. I ate only the most nutritious raw foods...no brownies, no sweets...only dark green leafies and red peppers, garlic, red cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, etc, all known to promote healing with their rich vitamin and mineral content, including Vitamin C, a great infection fighter. I didn't dehydrate any foods and I kept nuts to a minimum, but added hemp seeds and pumpkin seeds to my salads.

By day 5, the site was decidely fading, much less itchy and angry. It had been hours since I remembered itching! This was working! I was fighting and winning, without medical intervention. I know that folks usually take a round of antibiotics for spider bites. And while I believe the body can heal itself, this isn't all heroics; had it taken a drastic turn for the worse, I'd have run like a little girl to Emergency.

But, since I wasn't walking around with banana peels in my bra , and I didn't have to cup my boob in my hand, I decided I felt well enough to go on a grocery shopping trip with Steve.

I loaded up on more healing foods, but at the check-out, decided to 'reward' myself with a Green & Black's chocolate bar. Normally I would eat a 70% bar but they were out and I grabbed an almond one, another old favorite.

I scarfed it down during the drive home.

Within the hour, the intense itching, like, day 1 all over again.

The sugar!

I had *just* written in my latest post, about taking sugar out of the equation when trying to heal from something! DOH!

I spent that evening with a deeper understanding and a direct line to just how true this all is.

And, with a very itchy tit.

Big lesson!

I took it to heart, and I haven't had sugar since, and I am completely on the mend, in that the itching is totally gone, and the whole thing is fading to nothing. I am so proud of my body's level of health and ability to clean house!