Watch out for critters in the well house
It’s warm here in this little part of North Carolina. It’s been raining quite a bit lately but has somewhat subsided. This can be great for any veggies that we may or may not have planted (see “The year I planted nothing”), great for kiddie pools, great for slow, all day, wood-fire smoking pork shoulder, great for important-like neighbor and porch meetings that include bottles, glasses and cans of refreshing liquids produced from all kinds of fermented fruits.
Great for herpetologists. The amazing skinks on the back deck: little ones with a blue tail, “big” ones early on with reddish heads, ones with half a tail - oops. We love to watch the occasional turtles that work their way to some way-cool turtle place. Oh and the TOADS. The toads are some of our favorites. Such grumpy-looking, lumpy guys but that just means that they’re so lovable.
And then there are the snakes.
Just to clear the air here, I love snakes.
To a point.
Their sheer beauty (I know, I know, in the eye of the beholder), the way they simply are. They give no excuses, they have to answer to no being for their actions. Snakes are just doing what snakes do. Coexisting with these fantastic creatures can be a wondrous thing, really. Snakes are not only aesthetically beautiful, they help us. Rodent control, other snake control, seeing how tough your burly friend really is by telling him you remove by hand black snakes from your chicken nest boxes on a semi-regular basis, relocating them to a blackberry patch where they’ll find some other juicy morsel besides your chicken’s delicious, nutritious golden orbs, then watching that fleeting glint of repulsion glide over said burly friend’s face. I felt ten feet tall.
Fast forward to two summers ago. Husband Mike is down at the well house, checking on the condition and fit of the water filters. Working in his methodical way, he has his mind pretty much only on completing this maintenance task and moving on to the next thing. He feels a pinch and realizes he’s been bit by something. He looks in and under the roof of our well house, sees a snake coiled in the top corner and in a flash is bit again AS HE’S GRABBING THE SNAKE FOR “LATER REFERENCE”. His words.
Come on.
Who does this?! He kept his cool enough to get bit a second time while trying to grab the snake to identify what did BITE HIM. Snake gets away but not before Mike realizes it’s a copperhead. A beautiful, venomous copperhead.
So you think, oh, now he’s bit, he can get to the ER and receive anti-venom and everything will smooth out.
NOPE.
He immediately came inside the house, cleaned as well as he could all wound areas and kept calm. We had read that ice would actually close off small capillaries, preventing draining of venom so we luckily skipped that mistake. He decided he’d like a second opinion from someone who actually has a medical degree so we headed to the ER. Doctors commended him on cleaning the wounds as well as he did and not using an ice pack. We were told those were some of the most important things to do other than stay calm. Anti-venom is so super expensive and the fact that unless he had some rare allergic reaction to the copperhead venom, and since he’s not a small person nor a small child experiencing possible complications, he left the hospital - not unscathed, mind you - with instructions to watch for any secondary infections. They sent him away with anti-nausea meds also coursing through him so he didn’t feel the waves of nausea until the next day. He was able to jump back on his responsibilities (chores) all over again (of course he did) with a bit of nausea and also pain in the area of penetration. Oh and swelling. Dramamine helps us not only on ocean-faring vessels and winding-road car rides, but also when the serpents are a-slitherin’. According to Mike, it’s not a pleasant experience and he doesn’t recommend hanging out with copperheads but these bites are survivable.
Whew.
Takeaway - staying calm and keeping a cool head in this situation, Mike has shown me another example of how he can stay in control even in a crazy situation. He’s pretty handy to have around to help keep myself in check.
Also, never underestimate a copperhead. Apparently they levitate.