Milestone

For the first time in nearly nine years, I have a mosquito bite. Several of them, in fact.



Since the summer of 1995, mosquitoes have refused to bite me. I remember watching one try it once, back in the middle of that summer--then watching it die almost instantly after pulling out its stinger. I didn't realize until then that mosquitoes could have a heroin overdose.

 

Since then, I haven't had a single mosquito bite, except for the time when I was in Charlotte and had been clean for 18 months. Once I got back to Chicago, that was it for me and the mosquitoes--in the beginning because of the heroin, and then for the past 6 years because of the methadone. I'm pretty sure there's some pheromone that gets disrupted by the opiates; I remember a couple of times, when I was in withdrawal, that I smelled different. (Yeah, I know--TMI--but it's true. Withdrawal has a very distinct smell to it.)

 

Whatever that pheromone is, or whatever the reason was that mosquitoes wouldn't bite me, apparently the cause is no longer in effect now that I'm down to 12 mg/day of methadone. I'm proud of myself, sorta; I was up as high as 150, back when I was double-dipping (getting my methadone in the morning, then going out and scoring some heroin later on) and now I should be off completely by the end of this year. More than anything else, I'm looking forward to the extra $220 a month that I won't have to pay the clinic!

 

However, I'd forgotten exactly how much I hate mosquito bites--and how badly I welt up when I get them!! It looks like I've got a second kneecap.