This is a picture of the type of scorpion that stung me while I was camel trekking in the Sahara. Its nickname is “The Death Stalker” because it is one of the most dangerous scorpions in the world, responsible for several deaths each year (but not mine!) Its name however, and most westerners’ general knowledge of scorpions, lead us to believe that they are aggressive killing monsters, which in fact, they are not. Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not a bug person- especially not arachnids, having seen my fair share of terrifying spiders in India, Thailand, and Cambodia. After surviving the sting however, I’ve kind of developed a mild obsession with the Leiurus, my  scorpion. It’s weird and totally creepy, I know, but after the overwhelming intensity  of the pain and emotions I experienced, and then coming out of it all perfectly unscathed, I just became fascinated with the scorpion, both myth and reality.

The whole episode was so terrifying, in part, because I had no knowledge of the various kinds of scorpions and how dangerous or not dangerous they could be. The only thing I knew about scorpions was what I saw in movies, which of course led me to believe the worst.   Feeling the poison climbing up my leg and spreading unbearable burning  fire into my pelvis didn’t help much, either.  Coming to the realization that I might die on the 2 hour ride out of the desert; on a camel, in the middle of the night, singing Cat Stevens lyrics to try and calm myself down because they were the only lyrics I could recall at the moment even though I know hundreds of songs form start to finish,  remembering when my dad used to dance with me as a child to those very songs … I was pretty convinced that it would be my last night. I don’t know if it was the pain, or the distance from civilization, or not having any of my family near that scared me more, but if I had known anything about scorpions and the statistics of mortality, I know it would have been a whole different story.

The truth of the matter is, I was never in danger of dying. The deaths that do occur are mostly in young children, weak elderly people, or people who have allergic reactions to the venom- like a bee sting allergy. In the peak of my physical condition, it would have been an anomaly for me to have died from that sting. When I finally got to the hospital, 2 hours later, all the doctor gave me was a Novocaine shot, which did nothing. I did however, receive reassurance that I would indeed live, although the pain would last exactly 24 hours (which it did, to the minute).