Gardening can be dangerous

Fibrils. Now that's a word you don't hear often. In fact it's a word I had never heard of until this afternoon, when I was stretched out on an examining table and the doctor was removing some from my hand. With a scalpel. The dictionary defines a fibril as a small, slender fiber and in my case they were material left behind after several hornets attacked me.

I was completely unaware that hornets had built a nest in the compost heap. A week ago, on the first cool morning for a long while, I went out and removed some of the lush vegetation that had sprung up in the heat and humidity and decided to transplant a few items. So I went over to the compost heap, plunged a spade into one side and found myself the object of several hornets' rage.

Benadryl and a topical ointment seemed to be doing the trick, but over the weekend the swelling and itching returned worse than before and I decided it was time to get medical attention. A few nicks of the scalpel later I was off, clutching a prescription for antibiotics and steroids.

Just a few weeks ago I had gone to the doctor with an unrelated problem and mentioned I couldn't get rid of a painful sliver of wood in my finger. Out came his trusty scalpel and in seconds that problem was solved (as the bill said: removal of foreign object from finger, $172.) Fibrils are much smaller. Let's hope it cost less to remove them.