Bugs...I hate them.

See that tiny speck?

Now imagine that multiplied by like a thousand.  

We had heard some rustling and chirping in our upstairs bathroom and when we went outside we saw a bird fly right into the vent leading out from that bathroom.  Since we also had a mama bird make a nest on our front porch we knew that it was baby bird season so we just decided to leave the nests until the birds were big enough and then we’d put up bird spikes to deter the birds from making nests.  Well…it was a nice idea in theory.  One day Maylyn yelled for me and when I got upstairs our entire toilet (which is under the ceiling vent) was covered in tiny bugs.  So small that they looked more like dirt until you got up close and saw that they were moving.  I called our pest control guy and he came over and said they were bird mites from the birds that had set up shop in our duct work.  He sprayed as best he could but said that we had to get the birds out to get rid of the problem.  So Bill and my brother-in-law Jeff rented a really tall ladder and evicted the birds.  Then they had to remove all of the duct work because it was packed full of years of nest building and dead bird and now these thousands of bird mites.  It was horrifying and disgusting.  Bill had to strip off the clothes he was wearing outside because they were covered in mites and I threw them directing in the trash barrel.  There was no way in hell I was putting those in my washing machine. After new duct work and lots more bug spray we are free of bird mites but I’m still traumatized by the whole thing.  Bill put up a bird guard on the outside of the house so they can’t get back in and I disinfected the entire bathroom.  Picture me mopping the ceiling. I’m so glad that Jeff was here to help Bill because otherwise it would have been me helping and I’m pretty sure I would have freaked! Moral of the story:  Birds are cute but don’t let them set up shop in or around your house.  You may not even see the bird mites until they are everywhere!

Shortly after the mite debacle Maylyn was bit by a mosquito and in typical Maylyn fashion, her whole arm swelled up.  She was bit on Saturday night and on Sunday night I drew a dotted line in marker around the swelling so I could keep an eye on it.  When she woke up Monday morning the swelling had passed my marker line so we went to the doctor.  The pediatrician recommended that Maylyn see an allergist.  We had to wait about a month and a half to be seen but the doctor we saw was so great. 

They did twenty-four different tests on Maylyn and it turns out she’s allergic to more than we realized, like cats and dogs.  But not horses, thank goodness! :)  It looks like we won’t be getting any pets. The one thing we learned from her visit is that her reaction to bug bites is not life threatening.  Huge relief!  But with the type of cells that Maylyn has, she’ll always have this type of reaction and swelling.  Huge bummer. 

She has to go back again next month for another pulmonary test to see if what we thought was asthma is really asthma or if it’s just these allergies we didn’t know she had.  The doctor put her on a new inhaler and now we wait to see.