A Sting in the Tail

Yesterday I was in Agadir for a while and got home a little late – so my walk with Ruby was a bit late. We headed off up to the top of the hill above Ouikiran, having out-manoeuvred Marmela, and I was looking forward to watching a spectacular sunset. Just before the topmost point there is a part where I have to climb up and squeeze between two large rocks. I was just doing this when I felt a sharp sting in my derriere. As soon as I was back on solid ground I had a look to see what had got me... no sign of anything. Meanwhile the pain was increasing incrementally and I was starting to feel some strange sensations in my leg.

So trying to keep calm, searching through my memories of first aid training etc I went straight back home. Had a look in the mirror and couldn’t really see anything apart from a bit of redness. I put some anti-histamine cream on... but the pain was getting worse and by this time I was also feeling pins and needles and a growing numbness in my teeth, lips and tongue. I went online and checked out the symptoms for Scorpion sting... and there they were – described exactly as I was feeling them and advising immediate medical attention. Mohamed was not convinced – I think he thought if I had been stung by a scorpion I should still be lying writhing on the hillside. Anyway I managed (I will leave you to imagine how) to convince him that he should drive me to Agadir and off we went.

When we got to the local hospital accident and emergency unit they had a look at it, asked some questions and then prescribed me some painkillers. Apparently they normally monitor for up to 6 hours to make sure there are no problems with breathing, but scorpion stings are rarely dangerous for adults (children and old people have to watch out!). Anyway I got sent home to monitor my symptoms myself.

It was all a bit weird, I have never had neurotoxins in my system before: as well as extreme pain (think wasp sting x 1500) at the site of the sting, numbness and pins and needles in teeth, lips and tongue and then hands and feet there were cold sweats followed by hot sweats, feelings of nausea, my feet feeling like lumps of lead and a strange inability to keep my knees straight when standing.

So it is still sore where I got stung, but apart from a lingering tingling at the tip of my tongue and my lips and general spaceyness from painkillers and lack of sleep, there doesn’t seem to be any other side affects... and I am still here to tell the tale.

And it is all my fault for not taking Marmela with me – she has tagged along for the last 3 days and really I could have let her come last night since we were not going to be out for a long walk. If I had let her come along we would have gone for a different walk and I wouldn’t have met the scorpion (or it wouldn’t have met me since I didn’t actually see it) and I wouldn’t have had the night I had. But I suppose it had to happen some time and at least now I know what to expect!