A&E is no place for the over-tens

‘Ouch!’ said the ex-builder boyfriend. ‘I think something’s bitten me.’ And a few seconds after that, something bit me too. We had been walking in the woods with the spaniel, when a winged creature of some sort, or possibly an agile snake, decided to take a chunk out of us both.

Within a few hours, the builder was complaining of feeling sick. And my leg started swelling. I’m allergic to mosquito bites, or at least I suspect I am because whenever I get one, it grows to a carbuncle.

This time, the bite left an angry raised red patch on the back of my thigh that just grew, and grew, and grew…I decided to plaster it in steroid cream and dose myself up with antihistamine. I went to bed that night confident that a dollop of Dermovate, a handful of Cetirizine and a couple of Atarax thrown in for good measure would sort it out.