What the sam hill?

While clearing the road to the two new tree houses, there was a lot of cutting down brush, small trees and other stuff in the jungle. The next day, there was a rash that started to spread and itch pretty good. The ointment that we have for mosquito bites wasn't quite doing the trick, and the rash started to bubble up pretty good. Luckily for the two of you who read the blog, there won't be any pictures posted. (Lucy wouldn't take any, and since the worst was on my right hand, I couldn't work the camera to get a shot with my left hand.)

After a couple of visits to the pharmacy, where the folks scratched their heads and pondered aloud if I had been bitten by a spider, had a spider upchuck on me, wandered into poison ivy/oak/whatever else is down here, or had smooched with a monkey, I went to the most reliable medical source I know: my dad.

Get a steroid shot, I was told. We went back to the pharmacy and while I was ready to grin and bear it for the injection, Lucy peppered the folks with questions before I went into the back and got the shot of dexamethasone, which I believe is the correct spelling. I knew I had heard the name somewhere, and when we got home, I looked it up. Sure enough, it is used for high-altitude climbing to combat high-altitude sickness. I had never used it on my climbs, but others had.

The steroid worked just perfect (thanks dad!) and the swelling and everything went away, though my career in Major League Baseball and the Olympics is now in jeopardy.