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Ok so living in sunny Southern Spain and living the life in the town with the longest longevity in Europe due to its water, eating the healthy Mediterranean diet doesn't always keep you healthy!! There are many things out here that are trying to get you, bite you, sting you, maybe even kill you, scorpion, snakes, centipedes even plants!!!
On the 15th May I became ill, fever, chills, achy bones, painful muscles, cramps in tummy, headaches, rash on arm. . . FLU I hear you shout, but oh no not so simple. There is a debate in the local bars on my recent health, the good old gossip mungers are going for pregnancy, strange pregnancies they must have had, but the more serious are hedging their bets on tick fever or euphorbia poisoning.
Tick fever being the obvious as after all we have plenty of ticks around here in the campo but the new one to me was the Euphorbia plant. How could a plant in Spain make you so ill?? It turns out that this plant is world wide in various disguises and can cause some nasty reactions to the unsuspecting passerby. The rash (I use that word lightly) apparently is a sure sign of contact with this plant and ive been assured that it will scar my arm. Now if this plant is ingested all hell lets loose, there is a possibility that I did ingest a little of this stuff mixed with our home grown spinach, because all hell did let loose in my digestive system! So feeling a little better I ventured out into our veggie plot and pottered about, weeding and planting things, when I noticed a spot of blood on my arm. Didn't think too much about it until my elbow looked like a golf ball was stuck inside it and felt very bruised a day later. Now it turns out I have a same bite on my lower leg which now looks like an elephants leg! The search is on to find out what beast decided to feast on me. So do beware of the insects, reptiles, creepy crawlies, fungi and plants when visiting Southern Spain.
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