We are in town tonight … Once again, our trail angel, Fire Chief (Fire Marshall’s dad) met us on the trail! He did this for a few reasons, but mainly because we are hiking right near Fire Marshall’s Alma Mater, so we had to make that pit stop! It was actually perfect timing and if you read through this entire post, you’ll find out why …
First though, our next maildrop. As usual, this is not a request for care packages or notes, but if you feel the need, here’s the info:
Patrice and/or Justin La Vigne
C/O The Barn Restaurant
7412 Lee Hwy
Rural Retreat, VA
24368
Please hold for SOBO Thru Hikers – ETA Sept. 23
PS-there will be another maildrop before Deal’s bday on Oct. 6 …
In other news, we are at mile 1382.5! Central Virginia has been beautiful! Seriously, as soon as we left Shenandoah, the rain stopped (or maybe it was my rain dance) and hopefully it won’t come back for awhile. The climbs have been more difficult in this section, but the views have been so worthwhile!
And now for the medical mishap. After 1300 miles, something was bound to happen and hopefully this will be the ONLY issue, as opposed to a copperhead bite, which happened to a fellow SOBO in front of us this week.
Here’s what happened. On Friday, we were hiking up the
Priest, our first mountain over 4,000 feet since New Hampshire. We all had our iPods on to power us up. All of the sudden, I saw what I can only describe as a bee on steroids come flying at me. By the time I could react, the insect landed on my eye and stung or bit me! Immediately, I felt immense pain and burning and started freaking out. Deal couldn’t find a stinger, but could tell I got bit. We now think it was an Asian Giant Hornet that bit, but not stung me (don’t google it though because what you’ll read is VERY scary!).
That night, I was in a little bit of pain, but the swelling around my eye wasn’t too bad.
The next morning was another story. My eye was pretty much swollen shut!
I started taking an antihistamine and we went on our merry way to hike 17 miles. Deal & Fire Marshall tried to hike in solidarity with me by keeping one eye closed. It lasted all of 10 seconds … But A+ for effort.
Halfway through our hike today, my eye wasn’t looking any better and we knew we could go to the doctor when we got to town, but we called our “family doctor” (DocDoc/Rachel) and she advised me to quadruple my dose of the antihistamine (I was only taking 10 mg) and add a steroid (which we do have on hand luckily). The inflammation has definitely decreased! So thank you DocDoc for saving us $300 and saving us the trouble of sitting in an urgent care center for hours. Don’t fret people, if this doesn’t improve, I will go SEE a doctor! But I think the meds are doing the trick!
And the boys gave me a new trail name … Sloth.
Location:E 29th St,Buena Vista,United States
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Wow! That sucks! I'm glad you were able to fix the problem, at least hopefully! Stay safe out there!
Wowzers, in southern VA in two weeks? You are FLYING! 😉 Ok, probably not but you know, it seems like that! hehe!
OMG, Patrice! How terrible! I can't believe you've hiked through it! I was freaking out a few weeks ago when Lizzie got 3 wasp stings in a row, because I was worried she would swell up as much as you have. She didn't thankfully. Definitely go to a doc if it doesn't get better.
Oh Patrice! So sorry! Hope your eye us better soon!!! Love, dawn & luke
That better be it for the remainder of your trek or your mom and me will have to take action! (????) Sounds tough, huh? I am so glad you are now doing better! Miss you!
Holy shit! That looks disgusting. I think I'd rather go back to hearing about how many holes J had to dig. Gah! Now I'm going to have big, hairy nightmares about African hornets or whatever attacking me.
Oh my gosh! I hope you are feeling better and the swelling is going down! I have to admit, though, I LOL'd at your new nickname! Feel better and no more medical mishaps!! Laura
Patrice, you're such a trooper !! No whinning from you after all that. Glad to have shared a short short with you and Justin in Buena Vista. Be safe 🙂 Fire Chief !
OMG Patrice! I'm going to have nightmares tonight! LOL…Carlos was wondering if they really beat you and this is your cover story. HAHA! I hope you're feeling better….Yikes! See, you don't have those nasty things in New York! We're the safer state!
~Shadow~
Patrice, I hope you're feeling better. I never knew a bee could do such a thing. If you wish, I shall order my novices each to kill a bee to send a message to those flying stingers – or I shall just pray for full recovery.
Patrice, I'm sorry for your mishap with the Giant Hornet! I hope you're feeling much better, and that the swelling has gone way down. I can't believe how fast you and J are hiking – amazing! Lots of people at SSC are following your hike with great interest! Everything's OK here. It looks like you might go thru the Smoky Mts. during the peak fall foliage season – it's really beautiful there then! Keep on keepin' on! Both of you stay happy, healthy, and safe!
Hope you are feeling better. The pictures are crazy. You are a real trooper. Amy and I think of you guys often. Tell Deal, I scored free Fisk graphs…
Jim M.