Mosquito Bites??

[SleeveinIL 386]

Totally not WL related rant coming. So what is with all these mosquito bites I am now getting? *scratch**scratch* I usually can skate through a summer with only a few and Saturday night I was outside for a few hours WITH bug spray on and those darn bugs ate my feet like I was throwing a party just for them! Seriously, *scratch**scratch* I can barely even wear shoes as I had flip flops on and the only part of my feet that are unscathed are the bottoms.*scratch**scratch* UGH!! *scratch**scratch* Those nasty little blood suckers must think I am tasty now that I have lost weight. *scratch* *scratch*

[Orchids&Dragons 9,046]

Now you're extra-concentrated sweetness!

[J San 1,071]

Welcome to my world. Have always attracted all biting bugs and it hasn't slowed down a bit post WLS. I usually have to spray myself multiple times if I'm outdoors and still get bit. Worse part of it is I'm allergic to mosquitoes so when they bite the area swells up like I'm diseased.

[sillykitty 10,705]

On 8/27/2018 at 11:16 AM, J San said:

Worse part of it is I'm allergic to mosquitoes so when they bite the area swells up like I'm diseased.

I've never heard of anyone else being allergic to mosquito bites before. I mean, I can google it, so I knew I wasn't completely alone, but it does seem to be pretty rare!

[Frustr8 7,886]

Meet another, sometimes mine look like I have blood poisoning, and I don't scratch with dirty fingernails!

[J San 1,071]

Don't think I've met anyone either but I had no idea it was a rare thing. I just figured everyone around me was weird. Did your mother put meat tenderizer (not sure if that is exactly what it was) on them when they swelled up as well when you were a kid? My mother would make a paste out of it and put it on them. She swore it would stop both the swelling and the itch. God, the things that wonderful woman put us through. My kids are so lucky I'm crazy in a slightly different way.......

[Orchids&Dragons 9,046]

8 hours ago, sillykitty said:

I've never heard of anyone else being allergic to mosquito bites before. I mean, I can google it, so I knew I wasn't completely alone, but it does seem to be pretty rare!

One of my boys was very allergic to mosquitos when he was little. Fortunately, he outgrew it. I took him to the dr. once when he was about 2. He'd been bitten on the eyelid. It swelled up until he looked like Quasimodo. Got a lot of strange looks in the waiting room.

[Frustr8 7,886]

Yep, also a paste of baking soda, the worst was when someone told her to,paint me with a slightly. weakened Clorox bleach solution. Didn't work, stung almost worse than the🐝🐜 bites and I smelled like Monday Morning Laundry for a week!

[sillykitty 10,705]

@Orchids&Dragons that's actually more common. Babies and kids get bad reactions, but as we get older, and get bitten more often our bodies become desensitized to it, and the reaction lessens. It's why people in tropical countries don't usually react to bites at all. Google "Skeeter Syndrome" if you're curious.

@J San Never was treated with meat tenderizer, but my mom found other ways to torture me

I'm an unusual case because my severe reactions didn't develop until I was an adult.

It is also typical to get even more extreme reactions when you get bitten by a different species of mosquito. I learned this when I was afraid my leg was going to fall off when I was in Vietnam

I've only found one thing that is truly effective, treating my clothes with Permethrin. Works for me even when coating myself in Deet and melting my shoes and nail polish didn't stop me from getting bitten. It's not very practical though, so I only do it when I visit tropical countries.