Bug Bites... as usual...

After the debacle that went down freshman year involving my bug bites, a trip to the ER, two trips to the NYU Medical center, and countless fruitless trips to a dermatologist, it's really no surprise that I've been getting bitten CONSISTENTLY since arriving here in Shanghai. I even got bit in Chengdu. They've usually been pretty itchy and a few have even expanded with the pus-like substance they did two years ago in New York. However, since American doctors merely popped the pus blisters and told me they didn't know the cause or any prevention, I figured that going to a doctor or hospital here in China would be similarly in vain and popped them myself with a sterilized needle. None of them had grown to the physically or painfully significant level as freshman year, so I felt fine.

But today, my bug bites were so excruciatingly itchy that I went (along with my kind roommate who speaks Chinese a great deal better than I do) to the corner pharmacy. I showed the woman working there my red, swollen ankle and she told my roommate that I'd been bitten by what Jessie translated as a "poison bug." And promptly prescribed me medicine generally reserved for snake bites.

First of all, why is there snake bite medicine in a pharmacy in the middle of Shanghai? Is there something I don't know about?

Second of all, it was a bit disconcerting how easily the medicine was transfered in to my anxious-to-scratch hands.

Third of all, a poison bug?? But I interpreted it as a way of translating that I was allergic to the bug bites, which I think is the case. Not many other people have been having the same reactions as I have, but I think it's just another case of my body rebelling against China, as it's been doing for the past month and a half.

The pills inside the little box (covered in designs of snake skin, fyi) are dung-colored and don't smell or taste much better than the substance they resemble. Not that I would know what dung tastes like. I'm to take them at mealtimes and can crush them up and apply them directly to the skin when I mix it with a little water. So far, after a couple of the pills, the pain is a little better, though my ankle is still a little swollen and the ten minute walk to the gym was not enjoyable.

Oh well. I'll keep you posted. Hope your ankles are thin, smooth, and generally healthy!
xo