I never thought in a million years that I'd be saying "I have bed bugs!"
Yep! It's true!
For weeks and weeks I've had a hive-like rash on my arms that has been insanely itchy that not even Benadryl helps with the itch. It started around the middle of September last year about when the construction in my building started and around the time I returned to work. It literally, without a word of exageration, appeared over night. I went to bed one night and woke up with a really itchy hive the next morning and have been itching ever since.
It started with one hive on the baby finger of my left hand. I'm prone to hives so I didn't think anything about it. I have "Dermatographism" which means I have ultra sensitive skin which causes me to get hive welts when I scratch my skin. Which leads to more itching because of the hive welts. Benadryl usually helps.
However, it wasn't helping this time. And the hives weren't welt-like. They were individual round ones, and quite large.
As the days turned to weeks it got worse and worse and instead of one arm, it was on both. After 2 or 3 weeks of non stop itching, one of the doctors at work gave me a prescription for hydrocortisone cream, which helped a little, but not much. Three or 4 weeks later the rash was still persisting.
I thought it might be an allergy to medicaion (I started on Metformin and Crestor, and the pharmacy filled my blood pressure medication with the brand name Nifedipine instead of the generic), so I had stopped taking them, just in case it was my medications. The rash didn't go away.
I finally managed to get to my family doctor and he was stumped. He gave me a different steroid cream with a fungacide in it because I was sure I'd given myself a fungal infection from scratching my skin raw.
I know I'm allergic to dust mites, so I spent 2 days doing a huge cleaning including vacuuming my mattress. I had slacked off over the previous 5 months with vacuuming because I had been off work with serious depression. And I know when I don't vacuum at least twice a week my asthma acts up. My asthma wasn't bothering me but I figured the mites could be the cause of the rash too.
After I washed my entire bed ensemble including duvet cover and mattress pad, and vacuumed my bed, I stopped itching for a couple weeks and the rash cleared up. But it came back about a month ago.
Today I got home from work to a notice under my door about bed bugs and how to get rid of them and how to prepare for extermination.
I absolutely freaked!!!!
I went and looked at my bed more closely and sure enough there are signs of bed bugs at the head of the bed where it sits against the wall: along the mattress base where it sits on the box spring. I have dark sheets, so I didn't see the tiny rust spots on the sheets which are tell tale signs. And when I vacuumed my bed, I only vacuumed the mattress top and the sides of the mattress, not paying attention to cracks and crevices at the bottom of the mattress seam.
So all along I've been a buffet for freaking bed bugs!
It seems the guy living next door on the other side of the wall where my bed is, reported having bed bugs. Guess when he moved in? Yep! You've got it! September! I have no idea why he waited so long. The caretaker showed him, me and another tenant on my floor a newly renovated apartment that they have set up as a showing one. He didn't mention anything to the caretakers that day.
I'm so darn mad!!!
I'm in the middle of packing to move next week, to a newly renovated 2 bedroom apartment at the other end of the hallway.
Now, they expect me to have everything out of the drawers, moved 2 feet from the wall, everything I own vacuumed and/or washed in 120 degree temperature water and packed up in tightly sealed black bags so they don't become recontaminated, PLUS packing!
I have boxes everywhere in the living room. These bugs hide everywhere from what this notice says. How do they expect to do a proper job fumigating, or whatever they do, when I have stuff packed in boxes!!! The bugs could potentially have gotten into the boxes through the closed edges! Meaning I'll be bringing them with me!!!
And to top it off I can't have my cats in the apartment while this is being done. I don't have anyone that can take them, so I called the vet to see if I can board them there for the day. They said I can board them for the day, but I have to have them treated for "fleas". Not sure what that has to do with bed bugs, but whatever. They need a place to go.
I don't drive, so I have to take them in by taxi at 7:30 am. Still using the taxi I have to come back home with the carriers, have the driver wait while I bring the carriers up stairs to be fumigated, and then go to work... during rush hour. Taxi bill about $40.00.
Then after work I have to come home, pick up the carriers and go to the vets to pick up the kids and because it's rush hour again and hard to get a taxi, I'll have to have him wait and then bring me home. Again probably close to $30.00.
This vet visit is going to cost me $75.00 for 3 flea baths, 30 dollars for 2 kennels, and whatever the cost of their "special cleaning process" of the kennels afterwards.
And on Saturday while I should be home packing, I'll be at the laundr-o-mat washing everything I own including things that are clean and hanging in my closet.
From everything I've read, bed bugs are nearly impossible to get rid of. The fact that my bed is infested sickens me. Now I have to go and buy a new bed! I just got that bed 2 years ago and it cost me $1,800.00!!! The PITA is that apartment insurance doesn't cover bed bug infestations, so this is all on me!!!!
Yep! It's true!
For weeks and weeks I've had a hive-like rash on my arms that has been insanely itchy that not even Benadryl helps with the itch. It started around the middle of September last year about when the construction in my building started and around the time I returned to work. It literally, without a word of exageration, appeared over night. I went to bed one night and woke up with a really itchy hive the next morning and have been itching ever since.
It started with one hive on the baby finger of my left hand. I'm prone to hives so I didn't think anything about it. I have "Dermatographism" which means I have ultra sensitive skin which causes me to get hive welts when I scratch my skin. Which leads to more itching because of the hive welts. Benadryl usually helps.
However, it wasn't helping this time. And the hives weren't welt-like. They were individual round ones, and quite large.
As the days turned to weeks it got worse and worse and instead of one arm, it was on both. After 2 or 3 weeks of non stop itching, one of the doctors at work gave me a prescription for hydrocortisone cream, which helped a little, but not much. Three or 4 weeks later the rash was still persisting.
I thought it might be an allergy to medicaion (I started on Metformin and Crestor, and the pharmacy filled my blood pressure medication with the brand name Nifedipine instead of the generic), so I had stopped taking them, just in case it was my medications. The rash didn't go away.
I finally managed to get to my family doctor and he was stumped. He gave me a different steroid cream with a fungacide in it because I was sure I'd given myself a fungal infection from scratching my skin raw.
I know I'm allergic to dust mites, so I spent 2 days doing a huge cleaning including vacuuming my mattress. I had slacked off over the previous 5 months with vacuuming because I had been off work with serious depression. And I know when I don't vacuum at least twice a week my asthma acts up. My asthma wasn't bothering me but I figured the mites could be the cause of the rash too.
After I washed my entire bed ensemble including duvet cover and mattress pad, and vacuumed my bed, I stopped itching for a couple weeks and the rash cleared up. But it came back about a month ago.
Today I got home from work to a notice under my door about bed bugs and how to get rid of them and how to prepare for extermination.
I absolutely freaked!!!!
I went and looked at my bed more closely and sure enough there are signs of bed bugs at the head of the bed where it sits against the wall: along the mattress base where it sits on the box spring. I have dark sheets, so I didn't see the tiny rust spots on the sheets which are tell tale signs. And when I vacuumed my bed, I only vacuumed the mattress top and the sides of the mattress, not paying attention to cracks and crevices at the bottom of the mattress seam.
So all along I've been a buffet for freaking bed bugs!
It seems the guy living next door on the other side of the wall where my bed is, reported having bed bugs. Guess when he moved in? Yep! You've got it! September! I have no idea why he waited so long. The caretaker showed him, me and another tenant on my floor a newly renovated apartment that they have set up as a showing one. He didn't mention anything to the caretakers that day.
I'm so darn mad!!!
I'm in the middle of packing to move next week, to a newly renovated 2 bedroom apartment at the other end of the hallway.
Now, they expect me to have everything out of the drawers, moved 2 feet from the wall, everything I own vacuumed and/or washed in 120 degree temperature water and packed up in tightly sealed black bags so they don't become recontaminated, PLUS packing!
I have boxes everywhere in the living room. These bugs hide everywhere from what this notice says. How do they expect to do a proper job fumigating, or whatever they do, when I have stuff packed in boxes!!! The bugs could potentially have gotten into the boxes through the closed edges! Meaning I'll be bringing them with me!!!
And to top it off I can't have my cats in the apartment while this is being done. I don't have anyone that can take them, so I called the vet to see if I can board them there for the day. They said I can board them for the day, but I have to have them treated for "fleas". Not sure what that has to do with bed bugs, but whatever. They need a place to go.
I don't drive, so I have to take them in by taxi at 7:30 am. Still using the taxi I have to come back home with the carriers, have the driver wait while I bring the carriers up stairs to be fumigated, and then go to work... during rush hour. Taxi bill about $40.00.
Then after work I have to come home, pick up the carriers and go to the vets to pick up the kids and because it's rush hour again and hard to get a taxi, I'll have to have him wait and then bring me home. Again probably close to $30.00.
This vet visit is going to cost me $75.00 for 3 flea baths, 30 dollars for 2 kennels, and whatever the cost of their "special cleaning process" of the kennels afterwards.
And on Saturday while I should be home packing, I'll be at the laundr-o-mat washing everything I own including things that are clean and hanging in my closet.
From everything I've read, bed bugs are nearly impossible to get rid of. The fact that my bed is infested sickens me. Now I have to go and buy a new bed! I just got that bed 2 years ago and it cost me $1,800.00!!! The PITA is that apartment insurance doesn't cover bed bug infestations, so this is all on me!!!!
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