Tipful Thursday September 5, 2013

It's my first Tipful Thursday! Yay! I made it to Thursday! This week's tip is brought to you by Michigan humidity.

This week's tip: Don't Overreact!!

 

I have a terrible habit of overreacting . . . especially now that I'm a mom. So, what have I overreacted about recently? Well, it doesn't involve Lydia. What? An over-reactive mother not overreacting about her child? Shocking!

So what DID I overreact from? Well, it's a long story...

While in Michigan, I noticed a few red bumps on my feet that looked like bug bites. At first, I thought, "oh great, a spider." And I assumed they would go away soon.

Well, as we got home, I realized they weren't going away. In fact, they were multiplying. I remembered a warning from Jessie, "Watch out in Detroit. There are a lot of bed bugs in Detroit." I knew Bryce and Jessie didn't have any bed bugs in their house. They're very much germ-o-phobes, and recently had their house sprayed for all kinds of bugs. 

But I couldn't get the thought of bed bugs out of my mind. I thought that maybe one had hitched a ride with me after somehow brushing against someone at one of the places we visited, or that our luggage was next to another person's luggage who had bed bugs on the plane, and one of the little creeps decided to pay our luggage a visit. Or maybe someone before me on the plane had bed bugs and left one behind.

 

Alas, I had to wait a while to see if it really was a bed bug infestation, because they obviously hadn't been established long enough yet to tell. They're sneaky little buggers.

Well, by Wednesday, I was frantic. I was absolutely convinced I had bed bugs, but not 100% sure. I had washed all of our clothes and stuff in hot water, some loads twice, and dried each load twice upon arrival home. I changed our sheets, twice in one week, vacuumed out ALL of our bags, vacuumed our carpet, vacuumed our mattress, and did everything else I could think of. But I still couldn't get the creepy-crawly feeling out of my skin. And the bites kept coming.

I literally made myself sick thinking about it. I wondered how on earth we could get rid of bed bugs. What if one sneaked onto something I had overlooked, and we would have to fumigate over and over again? I worried about how I would have to call everyone we had come in contact with that they may have to watch for bed bugs. I was especially worried because we had visited our newborn niece in the hospital on our way home from the airport. "Welcome to the world little one, how about you get eaten alive by bed bugs!" Yeah, I was sick over it. I felt like the plague.

 

So, Wednesday, I made an appointment to get my "bites" checked out. Guess what... NOT bed bugs! The doctor was sure about it. Ah! I was so relieved! I was a little slap-happy. I didn't even care that I had a rash. I figured that a rash was much, MUCH better than a bed bug infestation. I was so happy. I felt pure bliss.

So, now I have to put some ointment on the red bumps, which by now are pretty much gone. I also have to be confined to using boring, unscented products (body wash, lotion, etc. Although, I still use perfume, lightly.) So, we spent a little extra money buying some fancy products just for me, although they shouldn't be so expensive since they don't use fragrance... But I'm doing much better. What really triggered it was the humidity and the heat. I guess I'm stuck living in the dry desert of Utah my whole life...


Looking back, I realize I was really crazy. Like, REALLY crazy. I was not too far from going to the loony bin. But here are some reasons why I should have known it wasn't bed bugs: Lance didn't have any "bites." I never actually saw a bed bug. The "bites" didn't look as bad as a bed bug bite. The "bites" were on my feet and my lower legs, nowhere else. Bed bugs like to bite the back and neck.

 

What good came from this experience? Well, I learned a lot about bed bugs. I also cleaned some things that probably wouldn't have been cleaned quite so soon. And I learned to have faith. There was a point in time when my faith wavered. Well, actually, I just pretty much disregarded my faith, but then I was set straight. So, there was a little good from this experience.

So, yeah, tip for today, don't overreact! It's not worth it. How would it have helped me if it had been bed bugs? Not much, because I didn't have enough information yet. I made myself sick and lost a lot of sleep for nothing. Oh, Michelle...