I'm sure you're all wondering why I've not posted any further on my exciting trip to London and my narrow escape from Gatwickia. My excuse is that my enthusiasm for the trip was pretty sharply curtailed about 4 days after I got home, when I started showing a number of itchy bites on my arms, back, and legs. At first I thought they were chiggers, a common summer complaint around here--but I'd not spent any substantial time out in the high grass in the days since returning from England. Then, within a day or so, the number and appearance of the things made it apparent that this was something more than chiggers, or mosquito bites. I did stay in a cheap-shit hotel for 2 of the days in London, and I thought to myself, holy hell... Did I bring bedbugs home with me??? The bites occurred in clusters and occasionally rows of three, which is pretty textbook bedbug behavior. But I'd not gotten any bites WHILE in the crummy hotel, which was at the very start of the trip, so the whole experience was fairly unhinging as I proceeded to steamclean my bedroom and wash load after load of laundry in boiling water. All the while itching and cursing. Bedbugs are notoriously difficult to eradicate once established, so I was a bit terrified. But then I found some stuff on the internet (thank you interwebz!) suggesting that bedbug bites can take up to 10 days to appear, since sensitivity takes time to develop. Could it be that I got all these bites while at Crappy Hotel? Most of them were on my left arm and leg, which was the side closest the wall in the hotel bed. I decided that I would stand down red alert if I went 10 days without a new bite after the initial outbreak.... and we seem to be in the clear as of now. The bites are nearly gone now, and I've not had new ones. BUT JESUS CHRIST SERIOUSLY BEDBUGS WTF????
(This was in the early stages; I marked the bites with a pen to keep track of when new welts showed up. They ended up looking much worse--imagine each of them with a bright pink welt the size of a quarter. I had about 50 bites total, I think. CREEPY AS FUCK.)
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