My Ingrown Toenail got drilled on.

Well, not really.

I don't have an ingrown toenail ( Thank God!), and we do have several drills... but that's beside the point.

Point is, I got bitten by an ant yesterday. A Texas Red Harvester Ant.

photo courtesy of Wikipedia

On the shin, out in the yard.

It was excruciating. I looked down, and here was this ant clinging on to my shin with its freakin' mandibular mouth parts. I brushed it away and went back in the house.

That was at about 5pm. When I finally went to bed at about midnight, it was STILL hurting! This time, the hurting was down the front of my shin. I felt under my PJs pant leg, and that area was SWEATING. I mean, everywhere else was dry and cool, but the hurting area was DAMP. *hoy* Anyway, a I quickly googled the darned situation, found out that the pain could last anything from 1 to 8 hours, made a judgement call that I wasn't about to die or lose a limb, and went to bed.

This morning, there is a 1 1/2 inch diameter round red welt on my shin, and it still tingles some, but I'm alive and well.

Where does the drilling of the ingrown toenail come in? Well, an entomologist came up with this pain scale from 0 - 4 for stings, and mine came in at a 3.

• 1.0 Sweat bee: Light, ephemeral, almost fruity. A tiny spark has singed a single hair on your arm.
• 1.2 Fire ant: Sharp, sudden, mildly alarming. Like walking across a shag carpet & reaching for the light switch.
• 1.8 Bullhorn acacia ant: A rare, piercing, elevated sort of pain. Someone has fired a staple into your cheek.
• 2.0 Bald-faced hornet: Rich, hearty, slightly crunchy. Similar to getting your hand mashed in a revolving door.
• 2.0 Yellowjacket: Hot and smoky, almost irreverent. Imagine WC Fields extinguishing a cigar on your tongue.
• 2.x Honey bee and European hornet: Like a matchhead that flips off and burns on your skin.
• 3.0 Red harvester ant: Bold and unrelenting. Somebody is using a drill to excavate your ingrown toenail.
• 3.0 Paper wasp: Caustic & burning. Distinctly bitter aftertaste. Like spilling a beaker of Hydrochloric acid on a paper cut.
• 4.0 Pepsis wasp: Blinding, fierce, shockingly electric.
• 4.0+ Bullet ant: Pure, intense, brilliant pain. Like walking over flaming charcoal with a 3-inch nail in your heel.