clam bite

When my brother was little, maybe 2 or so, he woke up one morning with his eye swollen completely shut. When my mom asked what happened to his eye, he said "a clam bit me." And that was that.

In actuality, he is very sensitive to mosquito bites and he'd been bitten on his face, which caused a swelling reaction.

***

Sunday afternoon, I pulled the weeds from my back patio (which were plentiful, lemme tell ya!) and about an hour later, my face started burning. The skin all over my face felt raw and burned, like a shallow scrape (remember skinning your knees as a kid? My whole face felt like that). I thought that I must have gotten a snoot-full of Dandelion fluff or something and even though I am not typically bothered with pollens or allergens, I do have some skin sensitivies (mostly to soaps). I figured the pollen or whatever must be in my pores. So I washed well and took a Benadryl and went about my merry way.

Monday morning, I woke up with the tell-tale clam bite on my eye, which was gigantically swollen and purple to boot! Plus, I had some other patches of super irritated skin on my cheek and eyelid. And something that strongly resembles a bite mark, although it doesn't look like a mosquito. I wonder if I got bit by a spider while gardening. So I slathered my face in healing cream, iced my eye, and took more Benadryl.

It seems to be working. The swelling on my cheek is down significantly and the eye is improving. But I still look like I have a black eye. Maybe people think I've joined Fight Club or am a derby doll or something...