It was a fiery pain, sharp and sudden, as if I’d brushed up against a white hot stove element. I dropped my bag of dog treats and immediately checked the source of the intense burning, discovered the detached wasp’s stinger embedded on the inside base of my right ring finger. It instantly brought to mind a video I once saw, an extreme close up of an abandoned stinger, one end trailing its former owner’s innards, the other still pumping liquid poison into its unfortunate victim. I acted quickly, pulled it out, then attempted to suck the toxin out of the tiny wound – with negligible results. In retrospect, I think that only works for snake bites.
WTF? I’ve always laughed at the women in my life – my sister, my ex, Akemi – whenever they’ve reacted with hysterics, shrieking and bolting, at the mere sight of a wasp, ever-confident in my assumption (evidently an erroneous one) that the damn things only sting when provoked. Also, from what I’d been told, unlike bees that can sting with gay abandon and not suffer any consequences, wasps die after they sting someone. As it turns out, wrong again as its reversed: bees die because of their hooked stingers while wasps are unaffected due to fact that their stingers are straight. So, my assailant wasn’t suicidal, but she (I’ve since learned that only females possess stingers) was certainly crazed. How else to explain that completely unjustified attack? I was just standing there, minding my own business. My own business!
And, yes, I’m sure it was a wasp and not a bee. It didn’t look like this:
It looked like this:
All demented and angry and shit.
I had to cut the walk short, much to Jelly’s disappointment, and returned home to run the affected area under cold water, douse it with oregano oil and rubbing alcohol, and then downed a couple of advils and a benadryl. Nevertheless, my finger swelled up, turned a bright pink, and was extremely sensitive to touch. On the bright side, I did not experience dizziness, shortness of breath and/or death.
Ironically, I wasn’t the one scheduled to endure any sort of pain today. That was Akemi who had a wisdom tooth removed this afternoon.
She was in and out of the dentist’s office in less than fifteen minutes and, I’m pleased to report, is on the mend. According to the dental assistant, when she gets hungry, she should eat something soft and preferably not hot. So, ice cream dinner it is!
Continuing our trip down Atlantis memory lane:
QUARANTINE (413)
A “bottle episode” is a cost-saving episode that limits its scope to our established characters and sets while also making equally limited use of visual effects. After Be All My Sins Remember’d, we really needed one of these to get us back on track budget-wise. More often than not, the action in a bottle episode centers on our heroes, trapped and isolated, attempting to reverse the conditions that landed them in their difficult circumstances. When done well, bottle episodes can be engaging and entertaining, shedding light on our characters as they open up to one another in closed confine conversations. When done poorly – well, there’s not need to discuss that since Quarantine did it well, throwing together some unlikely pairings (Ronon and Keller, Carter and Zelenka) and delivering an episode that, while inexpensive to produce, offered humor, suspense, and insight into our characters. It also granted an opportunity to a most unlikely hero, Radek Zelenka, who ends up saving the day – following a terrific tumble out a vent.
Ah, how things may have gone had the circumstances been different. At the beginning of the season, Martin Gero pitched the idea of McKay becoming a dad. I liked the notion of Rodney having to balance fatherhood with his ongoing commitment to safeguarding the galaxy and we were giving some serious consideration to having him settle down with Katie Brown… But when Rachel informed us that she was pregnant, we elected to write her pregnancy into the show instead. There could only be room for one parent in season 4.
This creative shift also, curiously, had an effect on another storyline we’d been considering, a romantic arc that would have seen Ronon and Keller get together. In the end, it became a love triangle and, instead of Kellnon (or is it Roller?) we wound up with McKeller (or is it KellKay?).
Thoughts? Opinions? Did you prefer one pairing over another? Or would you have preferred no pairing at all?
This was one of my favorite episodes of the season! While I enjoyed the McKay-Keller pairing, especially at first, it annoyed me, because a) I was a big fan of Katie Brown, she seemed like such a perfect counterweight to Rodney, smart, polite, patient and b) I really liked the idea of Keller and Ronon, I think that that pairing had potential to be both enlightening about the characters and very humorous. (Of course you couldn’t change Teyla’s pregnancy, but I did wish for the John-Teyla pattern, and even after she was pregnant I felt like their chemistry was alive).
A bee not a wasp or hornet? Honey bee stingers are barbed and when it strikes, its “victim” is impaled with the stinger and is ripped out, venom sack and all, of the owner precipitating its fate. I have seen the business end of a wasp oscillating like a tattooer’s pen and can sting multiple times. But perhaps you came across a mutant wasp where its stinger is more barbed than normal. (Mutant Wasps!!!) The venom is acidic; perhaps a rub of baking soda or soap would have worked a bit. That is after you took out your buck knife and lacerated an X across the strung area. My dad used to collect honey from his hives. I have been a benefactor for producing sparkling fruit flavored mead.
You have my sympathy. I also got stung on the finger many years back in England. And at this time of year too. It hurt like the blazes!
Someone told me that the wasps are ‘sleepy’, they don’t know where they are and sting you by ‘accident’. I am a teacher and up until then whenever kids got stung and would cry I’d just say “Now, now it’s not that bad – stop that crying”
I have to tell you, I had tears in my eyes when that wasp stung me and now I am a much more sympathetic teacher!
No hope in sucking the venom out of wasp stings! Best bet is to be careful not squeezing the stinger so you don’t pump more in. Sorry, Joe!
I thought Ronon and Jennifer were so terrific in that episode. They had real sparks between them and their combined efforts to break out were so inventive and funny. I liked them as a couple. Rodney never seemed very interested in Jennifer as a person…he’s a little too self-absorbed to be a good boyfriend. The Freeze Ray episode proved that, where all he could talk about was himself while they were on a private jet with strawberries and champagne and she was in a beautiful dress instead of a uniform for once and he didn’t even look at her. Poor boyfriend material, sorry to say.
Wasn’t Quarantine the episode where Sheppard scaled the outside of Atlantis? That was incredible, but I don’t see how you saved budget there!
Ironically as I read this post, I too, was eating an ice cream dinner (I’m stress eating again). Sorry to hear about Akemi’s wisdom tooth. They hurt. I’ve never gotten stung by a wasp, perhaps because my hysterics have scared them off. Sorry you got stung. Hope it too feels better soon.
As far as the episode, this was a good episode. That would have been funny with McKay though being a father, although he got to be “uncle” to Teyla’s baby and that was fun. And having him deliver the baby on the Wraith ship was great, too. I thought the Keller pairing with anyone was strange, just because I didn’t see her with anyone, and not every character needs to wind up with another character in the group, but she was better suited to McKay versus Ronon. And it actually seem to mature or mellow McKay out somehow. In a good way. A character has to grow and he could not remain the same McKay we originally saw in SG-1. Once I saw Banks kicking butt, I definitely saw a connection for Ronon there since the Ronon/Teyla pairing was not going to happen. I have the right character, right? Banks?
Rough day. Still no excuse on not giving us doggie pics, by the way. And ice cream dinner sounds nice. Given how quickly the tooth was extracted, that bodes well for a quick and relatively painless recovery. If you didn’t use up all the advil, all should be well.
Already had some Halloween fun. Picked up a nice zombie girl, and placed her in my neighbor’s garage(where I am storing a lot of the stuff). I even texted my neighbor to go look in the garage and then call me. Little did I know she was going to bring her cousin. Who went in, then jumped about 4 feet back upon seeing the zombified girlie in her bunny slippers. Then neighbor screeched when she got a look, even knowing something had scared her cousin. This is going to be a GREAT Halloween…..
Quarantine was excellent. I liked taking Rodney completely out of the picture, exposing all of his too-many faults to his would-be fiancee in rapid succession. Then Ronan’s interesting, if failed attempt to effect his own escape. Sheppard’s derring do, Zelinka using his head, and poor Rodney clueless on how badly he hurt Katie at the end. Bottle episode or not, great work all round.
Do hope the swelling goes down quickly, so that you an use the hand normally again. Hope the rest of the week goes better.
Belated Happy Birthday to gforce
I am a wasp expert. 🙂 If you could more accurately identify the wasp, I could help you out. Not all wasps are docile – some will attack unprovoked. The most docile, non-aggressive wasps are paper wasps, and from my experience specifically the brown type. We get them in our office, and I let them fly around until I feel like catching them and putting them outside. Some days I’ll catch as many as 20. I call them my body guards, because when guys come in the office they totally freak out because there’s ‘bees’ flying all around. But I can attest to the fact that paper wasps (not to be confused with yellowjackets or hornets) are very non-aggressive, and will usually only sting if you accidently touch one (if it’s on a door knob, for instance).
And you are right – the males do not have stingers (they have reproductive organs instead). Interestingly, a female wasp produces males from unfertilized eggs, while females come from fertilized eggs – this is known as haplodiploidy. In referring back to Spoils of War, I had wondered if this was the idea behind Wraith reproduction (since it seemed the drones had been produced from female genetic material only). I know you guys didn’t even begin to think that deeply about Wraith reproduction, but if you had then wasp reproduction would have fit in quite nicely (except for the part when the male’s genitialia is ripped from his body during mating.. 😕 ).
And on that note, I will take my leave…
das
G’day Joe
Quarantine is in my top 3 favourite Atlantis episodes. Just love all the parts to the episode.
I LOVED the pairing of RononJennifer. Their interaction in Quarantine was fantastic.
I got mighty pissed when it did not continue. Another reason to dislike McKay.
Yes I still bitter about it.
As for wasp and bee stings, I believe it is ice that is the best remedy.
Hope you feel better.
I liked the love triangle thing and I liked how it ended. A) who ever thought that Ronon and Rodney would be the ones to compete for a woman, I always figured that if something like that happened on the show, it’d be Ronon and Sheppard; and B) I liked that the blatantly hot guy lost out to the nerd. The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth!
So sorry for both you and Akemi, a painful day all around – ice cream will make it better for sure!
Re Quarantine, really enjoyed the episode. Sheppard scaling the wall and his conversation with Teyla were gold. (McShep evidence – John knows Rodney’s password!) Also Zelenka saving the day was great!
Other thoughts:
McKay as a father – thank the heavens for Rachel’s pregnancy, talk about jumping the shark! Come on, more focus on Rodney when it’s a team show? I’m glad Teyla got a little bit of the spotlight, even if it took a baby to do it.
The Rodney Plant was funny. I thought Rodney regressed a bit too much in this episode and it was just done to break him up with Katie, not that he’d actually act like this at this point in his growth and career.
I’d prefer no actual shipping on the show so we can be free to imagine any pairing we want to. In my mind I always saw John and Teyla getting together eventually (if McShep wasn’t going to happen). I was a bit iffy on Katie and Rodney but after seeing him with Keller I wanted Katie back soooooo badly. McKay and Keller had no romantic chemistry at all! Period! Uncle and niece, mentor and protege or even older brother and baby sister, perhaps. But romance between them? Ickkkkkkkkkk. It did McKay’s character no favors, made him look a bit creepy in fact.
Ronon and Keller were pretty good together, but I’ve read Jason really didn’t think Ronon would go for someone like Keller so maybe he had it right. IDK.
Should have just stayed away from that shipping altogether and focused on the Team interactions, it would have made the last seasons of SGA so much more pleasant! Really!
Oh my, I’m going backwards in your posts and am reading September 15. Many prayers and much love to Anne Teldy, Anne Teldy’s little sister, family and friends. Although we have become extended family of sorts through this blog, the one thing that we cannot do is be physically present there to do specific things that would help your family, to do errands, to make a meal, to do some things of life for you to give you the opportunity to spend as much time as possible together, or to hold hands, give a hug, listen. Today, I wish you a break from the pain, a moment of peace. XXOO
@Joe:
So…..not a Georgia Tech fan?
Wasps vs Bees:
I’ve had this conversation before.
When living in England, I got stung on the tongue by a bee that had flown in a soda can that I was drinking from (and yes, it was a bee as the stinger stayed in my tongue). I threw the can down, yelling and ended up having the following discussion with my British friends:
Me: “A beeth justhh sthung me on my tongueth!”
Friends: “That wasn’t a bee it was a wasp.”
Me: “Buth theh sthingher isth sthill in my tongueth!”
Friends: “Bees are fatter and are yellow and black, and wasps are slim and are yellow and brown.”
Me: “You meanth a bumblebeeth?”
Friends: “Yes, and that one wasn’t a bee!”
Me: “Buth it wasth a honeythbeeth!”
Friends: “No those are yellow and black too.”
I gave up at this point, partly because my tongue has swollen to the point that further speech was difficult, and secondly because I could see I was getting nowhere. It was a complete inversion of what I knew a bee and a wasp actually were. I (and wikipedia) agree that a wasp can sting several times, while a bee can sting only once (and then dies). My British friends saw it differently (and were in agreement with each other), so in the end I wrote it off to cultural differences.
Regardless, I hope both you and Akemi feel better soon!
PS: If your identification is correct, you were stung by what we call here in the States a ‘yellowjacket’. And yup, they can be aggressive. The sort that tend to be non-aggressive are paper wasps, of the subfamily Polistinae. They feed on nectar, and crop-destroying insects, so wasps are actually a beneficial insect and shouldn’t be killed all willy nilly unless they pose a real threat, especially to someone with a severe allergic reaction. Still, most paper wasps won’t bother you unless you do something stupid. Yellowjackets, on the other hand, don’t wait for you to do something stupid, so just be careful next time!
das
I hope you and Akemi both feel better soon. Soft creamy cool things for a couple of days. Ice packs. NO STRAWS when sipping those cool drinks! (my daughter just had all four wisdom teeth out so I speak from experience) Sucking through a straw can dislodge the clot forming over the bone and cause a very painful “dry socket”.
We have lots of yellowjackets around at this time of year. For future stings: meat tenderizer works to break down the proteins in the venom, reducing the pain and swelling. Just make a paste and smear it on the sting.
I’ll withhold my comments on the whole shipping thing.
So, if only bees leave their stinger, wouldn’t it actually be a bee (heh) and not a wasp that stung you? I actually recently had a similar experience hiking in New Hampshire. Climbing one of the trails up Mt. Adams (alone), out of nowhere I got stung in the back of the knee by a hornet! Completely unprovoked. It felt like a nail going through – OW! Of course, then climbing with my knee throbbing was no fun at all. It did subside after about an hour or two. Itched like a bugger for about two weeks, though.
Poor Akemi! Hope she’s recovering well! Er, and your hand too, Joe. 🙂
I don’t think I would have liked the idea of McKay becoming a father, but I guess it would really depend on how it was handled. If anyone could make it work, it would be the writers on SG, that’s for sure.
Thanks, PBMom, for the birthday wishes. Hope everything is okay and your stress goes down soon.
Hope you both feel better soon. I had a wasp sting about three weeks ago, and I had never had a sting like that. So, I am sending lots of sympathy your way.
Thanks for the Atlantis commentary. I am really enjoying it.
Personally I had my wisdom teeth taken out after being put to sleep years ago, too much of a baby to lay there and you know. Afterwards I don’t remember it being painful, just a little numb. That said, I had all 4 out as it was the best thing to do. Two were impacted, I think its to do with people not having enough space in their jaws for the additional teeth.
Hope you and Akemi get better soon Joe.
Feel better soon Joe and Akemi. 🙂
Glad Akemi is doing well. Sorry about your wasp sting Joe. A few years ago I reached down to pull a clump of weeds out of the corner of my wooden fence. I didn’t see the huge wasp nest there. The back of my hand brushed it and I got stung on the finger. (I’m just glad I didn’t grab the nest along with the weeds) It stung real bad and my finger swelled up real big. It lasted several days. So I can relate.
Loved Quarantine! It is one of my favorites! Another entertaining mystery – malfunction. Rodney and Katie were very cute together. Ronon and Keller were like a cute young couple together. Poor Zelenka being stuck in the elevator with “the boss”. It got kinda hot in there. Teyla and Worry-Wart-Brother-Dad Sheppard stuck together. Sheppard was insane to climb out the window and up the side of the building! I loved the Ronon/Keller snuggle, Ronon smelling her hair, and the “almost kiss”. In the end, hero shaft diving Zelenka unlocks the city, Teyla does not give birth as Worry-Wart thought might happen, jerkhead McKay survives and breaks up with Katie, and Ronon does not get to kiss the girl. Well damn.
Wasps are the only creature on Earth that I’m convinced are actually evil. Their entire existence seems to revolve around causing other creatures pain. I had one come into my house and I think I used half a can of bug spray just to make sure it was dead.
I’ve seen wasps that lay their eggs inside living creatures, the baby wasps bursting out all Alien like. I’ve seen a few wasps annihilate entire hives of bees, seemingly for no other reason than they can.
The scariest was the wasp that invaded an ant hive. Ants tend to be quite territorial things, and don’t like uninvited guests. The wasp was prepared for this, and sprayed a chemical at the ants that caused the ants to totally lose it and begin attacking one another. So whilst the ants were fighting a civil war the wasp calmly marches in and lays its eggs in the still developing ants, and gets away before the chemical wares off.
They are evil I tell you!!!
Wasp stings hurt like a mo-fo. As do teeth extractions. My sympathies! They used to recommend meat tenderizer to break down the sting venom, but it’s probably too late for that now.
I loved Quarantine! But I never liked the Keller-McKay romance, and not only because I prefer McShep as one of the most infamous and enduring pairings of any fandom ever, ha. I also felt Keller-McKay was very unlikely. McKay should have rolled his eyes at Keller’s fear of everything around Atlantis, because he’d been there and had outgrown it.
Don’t hate me but at the time I felt (some) of the writers were smitten with Keller and identified with McKay. So they wrote McKay-Keller as some sort of wish fulfillment: the smart nerd gets the hot chick! It didn’t seem organic to the characters; it took me out of the story every time. Sorry!
Meanwhile to be really cheeky, would you ever want to share Akemi’s braised pork belly recipe, e.g., the proportions of soy, honey, orange and balsamic vinegar in the sauce? I’ve never cooked pork belly, but after having some awesome chashu and ramen today, I really want to try 🙂
I haven’t been stung by a wasp/bee yet. I’m hoping never to. I do my best to be nice to all my insect friends, because they are good for my garden, unless they are invading my house. Das, you are far braver than me. I tend to ask the wasps/bees to leave the house in a pleasant manner, holding the door/window open for them. They usually comply. Eventually. Outside, I tend to forbid the more dangerous species of insects from coming into my garden or to stay away from me. It works.
I haven’t dared to get my wisdom teeth out yet. My little sister got all hers out at the same time and I don’t want to do that. Anyway, my wisdom teeth aren’t bothering me much anymore. I think I’ve only had an ice cream dinner once, where I just ate maybe half a litre box when no one was home to make me feel guilty. I should do it again sometime, but I need to find a new favourite ice cream flavour. Shouldn’t be too much of a problem now that my li’l sis has got an ice cream maker. I can experiment.
Quarantine was one of my favourite episodes in SGA. The pairings were cool. Watching Sheppard climb up the tower was cool. John knowing Rodney’s password was great. Seeing how Carter reacted to Zelenka and try to stay patient was funny. Zelenka saving the day instead of Rodney and falling out the vent was a nice change.
I agree with bailey. I though McKay regressed a little in this episode, but I’m cool with that. People often regress in real life as well. I can’t say I’m sorry to see Katie go, in light of how he (surprisingly) ended up going out with Keller later on in the season (Trio was my favourite episode in all of SGA, closely followed by Quarantine, Tabula Rasa, the lightning freeze episode and The Seed).
When I saw this episode, I thought that the Ronon-Keller thing would be interesting, but when it turned into a trio thing – that was amusing. Almost wish there were more Ronon vs McKay moments. That it became a firm McKay-Kellar thing was a pleasant surprise. They’re all wonderful actors.
Also, I been playing catch up with these posts, so am sending up prayers for Anne Teldy. I’ll remember to keep you in my prayers. God bless. Keep smiling.
Hope everyone else is well. Haven’t caught up on reading comments yet.
A couple of months ago my wife had two wisdom tooths pulled out at the same time. But she “had” to eat ice cream the rest of the day, so she survived. 🙂
As for Quarantine, who said great episodes need to be expensive? A great character focussed episode where we get to see the characters trapped in pairs. Zelenka-Carter was awkwardly funny, Ronon-Keller romantic, Rodney-Katie tragic (in a way), and Sheppard-Teyla got a chance to come to terms with the pregnancy-booted from the team issue.
20 years ago, there I was, on Waikiki Beach with my Brother watching the sunset when SUDDENLY, I feel a needle-sharp-flesh-being-ripped-out-PAIN to the top of my left shoulder!!
OW!
As I moved aside my short-sleeve, a dead Bee fell out! – [NOTE: I am allergic to bees, wasps… hmm, this could be troublesome..] – Of course, the “TARGET-SITE” is just out of my field of vision… Bro says the stinger & sack are still there. He manages to remove it as I educate him on the signs of anaphylactic shock…
Anyway LONG-STORY-SHORT, I put the offending little bastard into film canister – [just in case an ID was needed] – and returned to our hotel room for an evening of a couple of aspirin and a brain-buzz! Guess I got lucky with only having a little venom…
Whatever, the point is, to this day, I have NO idea WHY IT picked me!? I had no flowery-scent. I was at the SURF-line! And my shirt was turquoise and white. — Maybe, it’s just *me*..?? Years later, a bumblebee rammed into the same arm while I at a busy bus transit-stop. Luckily, I was wearing long sleeves! Felt like I was punched! — Even left a bruise!!
BTW, who’s Akemi Dentist?! — 15 minutes “in & out” for an extraction?! What’d he do, punch it out?
Hi guys! Lookie what I got last night! His name is Cody, he’s 9 weeks old today and he’s a handful. We tried the rescue route but it just didn’t work out this time, unfortunately. Riley really needs a playmate, so we gave in and got this guy. I’m in love x 2 now. 🙂
http://i656.photobucket.com/albums/uu284/pbugsmom/Cody1_zps4fd60558.jpg
@Deni Awwwwwwww…………….. ADORABLE
I kind of feel a little vindicated. I am 45 and never been stung. I get teased by family members and stared at by strangers when I run screaming from anything that stings. And I felt bad that my two girls are exactly the same . It’s actually kind of embarrassing but it seems to work 🙂 Everyone says oh just ignore them and they wont sting you. My mother in law actually says just close your eyes. I tell her she’s insane.
Glad to hear there was none of that horrible swelling up and death! All the best to Akemi
Akemi, feel better! I know it’s against the prescribed advice, but if you received any of “the good pills”, try a shot or two of your favorite booze. That will have you feeling prime in no time.
I worked part time at a junk yard when I was still in high school. I was there one weekend moving old tires, when I picked up one that unfortunately had a hornet’s nest inside. By the time I noticed, it was too late. I ended up getting stung over 36 times (they stopped counting at the emergency room). I was allergic to stings when I was younger, but luckily by this point I was not any longer or they said I would have surely died.
I learned to kick the tires first after that.
While I would have liked seeing Ronon & Keller together, because they are both great characters, it would have been an odd pairing. She all brainy, he all brawny. Plus Jewel is so tiny and Jason so not. McKay and Keller was definitely more gooder. And Quarantine was a great bottle episode.
Joe and Akemi: I sympathise with both of you today!!! (More so with Akemi cuz having wisdom teeth removed isn’t a fun experience. I hope you’re feeling okay? )
I haven’t (touch wood) encountered too many wasps this year! I do remember everyone used to place a jam jar outside the back door to catch the little blighters! Still, they aren’t the only pesky summer critter: Mosquitoes! I loathe the buzzy, stingy shits to the point where I won’t leave windows open even on a bakingly hot summer’s evening, in case they have their wicked way with everyone in the family.
Not so last Saturday – we were minding our own business, having successfully avoided X Factor on TV, we eventually opted to watch Doctor Who, when a movement caught our attention. Oh, it isn’t the first Mozzie hunt we’ve ever undertaken; I consider us professionals in our field of expertise! I can’t tell you how long it took to track down this little bitey bastard. It managed to do its business on the back of my left leg, leaving me itchy, swollen and pretty annoyed. I thought they liked young, sweet blood?
At least an hour later, after placing television viewing and supper on hold, we still couldn’t find it … talk about Ninja styly stealth! Probably hiding in the curtain recesses, waiting to pounce at every opportunity. It got me a second time, this time on my middle finger. Yes, I know, it had a twisted sense of humour! Armed with bug spray, ratty newspaper and an iron will, we eventually splatted its blood sucking body next to the front room door!
@ Fuchsia: Yeah, sleepy, dopey September wasps; to be avoided at all times! I’ve been attacked by more wasps in autumn than summer! Although the worst place to be stung by a wasp used to be the seaside, they hung around the bins like it was their personal playground!
I’ve only ever been bitten by a Bee once when I was about eight years old. We used to have a coal shuttle and one day when the coalman delivered, I felt a strange feeling on the top of my head, brought my hand up to investigate and felt the insect sting the tip of my index finger. I don’t remember what happened to the stinger, maybe I ran around screaming fast and hard and it simply fell to the ground. Someone advised placing onion on the sting and that’s exactly what happened, they chopped an onion in half and kinda wrapped it around the area! Who knows if it actually worked?
Wisdom Teeth: Remember when John Sheppard stated having his wisdom teeth removed was the best week of his life? I endured a VERY different experience!
I knew they needed removing, I frequently suffered infections from impacted wisdom teeth and my dentist eventually made the appropriate appointment at a local hospital. NHS = long waiting time!!! I felt strangely calm during my assessment, knowing they weren’t actually going to removed there and then really helped. Conclusion: They didn’t want to touch the two on the left side of my mouth in case they caused permanent damage; something to do with nerve clusters, I don’t remember exactly, but yes, I would need the two on the right side removed. I had a choice – injection or overnight stay with general anaesthetic. I chose injection! How I came to regret this decision!
I waited three months for my actual appointment, I told you it takes a LONG time, except I didn’t mind the wait because I hadn’t ever needed a tooth extraction and I felt terrified at the prospect. Determined to do it alone – I cope with fear better when I’m alone – I hopped on a bus (I don’t drive) arrived at Queen Mary’s Hospital, waited, occasionally reading old magazines, eventually making my way down the corridor and into the dental surgeon’s chair.
Relatively general chit chat followed while I tried to resist the urge to bolt from the room and luckily I was facing a large glass window with a decent view, including a few birds hovering around, keeping me both entertained and distracted while the surgeon plied me with one injection after another, until she was ready to do the deed. She and the dental nurse engaged in holiday conversation totally immune to my presence.
Silence followed when she realised the bottom tooth wasn’t behaving as planned. She twisted and turned and tortured both my gums and my psyche all to no avail. Shifting her stance slightly, she changed weapons, I mean tools … no, I mean instruments, and whilst my lower jaw endured pneumatic drill spasms, they continued to discuss their respective holiday plans. Eventually the tooth lay crushed and bloodied, much like me, in the steel bowl, while I lay back with cotton wool embedded in my mouth, doing as ordered, resting for about ten minutes.
Feeling weak and decidedly odd, they dismissed me as an outpatient, saying I could now return home, with instructions to avoid hot foods. I made my way to the bathroom, cleaned the blood from my mouth and went outside into the early October air to wait for a bus. I didn’t feel well and I once home the pain increased to a point where I ended up going to bed, unable to form a sentence without experiencing pain.
Long, long story short … I spent the entire weekend in pain, visited my dentist on the following Monday, she immediately told I had an infection. Somewhere between the extraction, the rough treatment and the cold journey home I’d lost the clot which was supposed to form. Prescribed antibiotics, which didn’t work, the pain increased minute to minute, day to day and I couldn’t eat anything substantial. In fact, I distinctly remember craving and I mean absolutely craving all types of fruit. Vitamin C overload – it’s all I wanted, all I could cope with at the time. I stopped talking, I slept, I read several books, and I ate fruit.
A week later, they moved me onto a different antibiotic, one which I maintain to this day tasted like the devils backside!!! It slowly did the trick … alongside Ibuprofen every few hours and maintaining my mainly soup and fruit diet, I started to feel more like my usual self, but it took about six weeks all told until I felt completely well and able to eat normally. It took even longer for the hole she created to heal, it kept trapping food which, trust me, wasn’t pretty to see or remove.
Suffice to say, I will NEVER have the other two wisdom teeth removed. Good job it hasn’t put me off dentists for life! 🙂
Ronon and Keller sounds as if it might have made for more
interesting situations..and certainly it would have made for
some better visuals.
I feel your pain with the wasp sting. I was stung at a wedding of one of my cousins when I was in 4th grade by a wasp IN MY EAR! That is the only thing I can remember about that wedding to this day 🙁
Hero pig!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g7WjrvG1GMk
That kinda makes me feel bad for eating bacon…
das
Akemi and Joe, I hope you are both feeling better, all these stingy stories are making me feel like crawling bugs are on me, whew.! have a better day!
I’m kinda surprised some people had so many problems with their Wisdom teeth extractions. When waking up from mine being done, I don’t remember being in agony, just it being numb, then again depending on where you go, they allow you a short time to get over the effects of being put to sleep. Anyways they must of gave me some awesome meds as really I wasn’t in much pain, if any at all, just a very dull ache from one side of my mouth that soon vanished and nothing more.
I think the pain thing depends on the skills of the dentist doing the extraction as mine was pretty incredible and really within 24 hours I was up and able to carry on doing stuff as normal.
Some give you stitches that disolve in your mouth within a few weeks. Depends on how much you pay I guess, depends on your experience.
I apologize for yesterday, I got confused. I mixed up two episodes and commented on both. I’ll watch “Quarantine” and get back to you. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen that one.
The pairings turned out alright. McKay was such a hypochondriac, paring him with a doctor was a good choice. On McKay, I would have been fine with no pairing though. Ronan needed a warrior woman, instead of a helpless female.
I’m not sure why people think sending pregnant Teyla into dangerous missions would be a good idea. And since several of their routine missions would turn dangerous…. It wasn’t unusual for her to get into physical altercations and one misplaced blow might have ended both Teyla and the pregnancy. It’s not like Teyla could be rushed to the hospital anytime a problem came up. I’d probably ok going on trading missions but even that might be dicey.
So sorry for the wasp sting. I grew up in the country and I’m used to getting stung. The hornets were the worst. Although, I think it depends on WHERE you get stung that influences pain levels. I love walking barefoot but one day I stepped on three yellow jackets. I had flat feet for a day and I learned to wear shoes in the country. My dad became allergic to (bees/wasps/hornets) later in life and we would have to give him Benadryl fast or he would pass out. I’m glad you aren’t allergic to stings!
I hope you are feeling better Akemi! Milk it 😉 .
How are you doing today AnneTeldy?
Congrats Deni!
Well while my personal preference would have been for the Keller character to never have existed if forced to choose I would unsurprisingly have preferred to see neither of the Keller/Ronan or Keller/Mc Kay pairings. She never seemed a good fit for either character, I thought Ronan and Banks would have been a good pairing and I, like a lot of people, loved Mc Kay with Katie Brown as I thought she brought out a sweet side to Mc Kay that I never saw with anyone else.
I am a McKeller shipper and I hated Rodney with Katie she was too weak willed for him in my opinion and I hated Keller with Ronon they did not work and in my opinion had no chemistry so I am happy with the ending we got in one respect. As someone who was on Gate World during when Atlantis was airing trust me when I tell you there was a massive Ship war between Ronon & Keller (Doc & Wildman as they call it) Shippers and the McKeller Shippers and it got nasty too, almost as bad as the Sheppard & Weir (Sparky) Shippers Verses Sheppard & Teyla (Sheyla) Shippers. I am a Sparky Shipper and I shipped Ronon & Teyla too I think we called it Spanky lol not sure why though I know Sparky was a random thing that someone online said once in respect to Sheppard & Weir and it stuck that’s what we call Sheppard & Weir Sparky. Rodney was never one of my favorites I liked him more after Tao of Rodney David made me cry in that episode. After you and the rest of The Powers That Were sank both of my ships McKeller was one of the only things that I looked forward to to when I watched. As for Ronon & Teyla ship not happening I am not as angry unlike the Sheyla shippers some of whom hate him very much I liked Teyla & Kanaan they worked for me Teyla is one of my favorites so if he made her happy then that worked for me but I could never see her with Sheppard romantically I see they had a friendship but I didn’t see anything else. It’s too bad we couldn’t see more of Ronon with Banks from what little we saw of them I liked them together. Sorry I rambled on for so long I had my wisdom teeth removed good luck talking and tell her to take all the medicine as prescribed and don’t stop after the pain is gone she has to take them all it prevents infection I think I just remember being told that.
@PBMom: Right?
@Tam Dixon: Thanks!
Quarantine: Great show! J. F. nailed “The Look” when he was trapped with Teyla. Even Teyla thought missions could be a bad idea in her condition. Loved the password scene with J. F..
McKay reminded me so much of my hubby in this show. “High Strung” is the word my former sifu used to describe my hubby. I can’t mention any kind of illness around my hubby or he starts having symptoms. At the end, when McKay was letting Katie down “I would make your life miserable and you are too good a person to do that to”. My hubby came in and said “Me too but I married you anyway”. 😆
Sam and Zelenka were impressive. I loved the way Sam was so calm. It gave Zelenka a moment to shine without McKay. I guess I could have stopped at Great Show. Oh well, migraine day.
Peter Deluise is on Twitter: @RealPDeLuise
G’day Joe
Did not have a good day yesterday. My 10 year old daughter, Vicky, broke both her arms while on a sleep over. Spent the day at the hospital and stayed the night in the ward, they had to give her an general anaesthetic to set the arm. Now she has a cast on both arms. Left is straight out and cast right up to the shoulder and right cast is just below the elbow. Going to make for very interesting six weeks. School was supposed to go back Monday after two weeks holiday. Bugger.
@Janet Sorry to hear about your daughter. I can’t imagine having no hands to use. I would be MISERABLE.
G’day Joe
Here is her left arm
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z90/Justafan1107/leftarm_zps44be706d.jpg
Here is Vicky in the ward
http://i191.photobucket.com/albums/z90/Justafan1107/inward_zpsaf44660a.jpg
Hugs for you and Akemi, and Janet’s daughter Vicky, and anyone else who needs a good squeeze.
We had paperwasps in teh backyard this summer, not so bad, but also many, many yellowjackets. Buggers are mean, so I set traps. Must have cleared out the big ground nest in three days. They get more aggressive in the autumn, I’ve heard. I swell up when stung, hubby gets a couple bumps which vanish after ten minutes. Ha.
Hey Joe, just a reminder that tonight is The Office premire with a new (old) showrunner and final season stakes. Still curious if that’s enough for you to be persuaded to throw it back into the rotation.
I had almost given up on it as well, but I’m a sucker for final seasons, so I’m still gonna tune in.
@Das: Hormonal much, perhaps, but the piggie vid brought tears to my eyes. 🙂 I should get some sleep.
Ronon and Keller would have been better.
I like the way things ended up, McKeller and RoMelia(?). I think, given another season(or two) the Ronon/Banks story line would’ve been really fun to watch. Dates going awry, being ambushed by Wraith, that kind of stuff.
Had you not killed off Dr. Heightmeyer, who would’ve hooked up with her? She was purty!