Either overnight or at some point during the day yesterday, I suffered an extreme attack from mosquitoes. My feet have been badly bitten - as a rough estimate I would say that the left foot has 15 bites and the right 12. However some of the bites are so close together they have merged into single red masses.
I woke up in the middle of the night in some discomfort. Attempts to ignore the pain eventually failed. But, as luck would have it, some bite cream had been left behind by one of last week's guests so my feet were soon smoothered in it.
This has led me to consider some of the discussions that have been raised by Guantanemo Bay and what constitutes torture. Part of the definition seems to be that torture causes permanent injury. Insect bites presumably aren't permanent (other than if the body reacts into total shock)and so the deliberate infliction of insect bites might not be torture per that part of the definition. Perhaps it is simply cruel and inhumane punishment.
Eventually I decided on a small medical experiment. Emma is always criticising me when she sees that I have scratched off the bite and have either a bright bloody spot or a scab. Yet I have found that this usually results in the discomfort dropping sooner than if I merely wait for the bite to heal. So one foot has been heavily scratched and then covered in cream, while the other has just cream on it.
And the conclusion? It is definitely better to scratch and then re-cover with cream tha to just use cream!
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