[Laneco]

There's a 24 hour mountain bike race in Tuscon every February. It's one of my favorite races, but somewhere, somehow, I always make close contact with the cactus kind. I like to think of myself as an equal opportunity cactus contact solicitor but there is one of the bunch that has an odd effect.

Those little fiend teddy bear cholla seem to have magnet for me. Oddly, when they tangle up with my tender girl hide, they give me a bruise that spreads out over a couple days, turns a dark color, then fades like a normal bruise from purplish to green, then yellow and disappears. It's not a hard impact that causes the bruise and the spines aren't really big enough for me to consider them a puncture injury. My humble opinion is that there is something in them that I am slightly allergic to, or that has an anti-coagulant effect.

For you? Weird lump and warm? Probably need to get that checked out.

angela