Today I got my first bite. Five months into the job, and I got bit. I knew it was bound to happen sooner or later, but freakin’ A man, I was not expecting it, and it HURT. I’m doped up on ibuprofen right now, so I’m feeling alright, but I could not say the same thing when it happened.
I will preface the story by telling you how high my tolerance for physical pain is. It wasn’t always high, but over the past few years, I’ve become amazed at the things I can endure without a single tear… things like concussions, breaking my thumb, bashing my face with skis (and trees), etc. The only physical pain I can recall in recent years that actually made me cry was giardia (holy unbearable pain). So you know it has to be bad when a bird bite hurts me so bad that tears flow like a tidal wave within two seconds, my vision goes foggy, and I feel faint.
I got bit by an Amazon. Thing is, I was not holding it, or even trying to touch it. I was simply walking by it (sitting atop its cage) when it lunged onto my shoulder blade (me wearing a tank-top) and bit me. It hurt immediately, I screamed, but it wasn’t until a second or two later, that it became unbearable. As soon as it was off of me, I reached my hand around to my back, sure to find myself gushing blood and missing a chunk of muscle, but that wasn’t the case. She barely broke the skin, but instead pinched my shoulder muscle so hard, I couldn’t move it until the souped up Excedrin and ibuprofen combo finally kicked in two hours later and an icepack numbed my feeling there. Those two hours were awful though. I would compose myself, only to randomly start crying as my muscle spasmed and everything went cloudy again. I felt like a big baby.
Parrots have hundreds of pounds of pressure in their beaks, and I have a new-found respect for the parrot caregivers at work who are bit on a regular basis. They get chunks taken out of them, and I will merely have but a bruise and a small cut (and perhaps a little apprehensiveness when walking by cages). They are tough cookies in the bird department, I can tell you that.
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