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| 'Bee on an Iris' She was still sleeping when I took this pic early in the morning at the Missouri Botanical Gardens. |
The 'Bee sting' allergy is also another chapter in that huge book. As a child growing up in Hannibal, MO / Quincy, IL and playing outside as much as possible to avoid the people INSIDE, I can remember several individual instances where I got stung by yellow jackets, HUGE bumblebees, wasps, honey bees, etc. Those are the stings that I can remember, and I know I was stung much more than that.
One time, in particular, I can remember playing in a spare storage room that was actually a part of the house that we lived in, and it was the original kitchen. Years before we lived in this house (in Hannibal), somebody blocked off this original kitchen from the rest of the house. It had an outside door of it's own, and a small porch. This door was usually agape, and any and all wildlife could enter at-will. I was playing in this room one summer day, and I accidentally disturbed a nest of HUGE bumblebees. Three of them flew up my shorts, and all THREE of them stung me on the behind! I also stepped on wasps - while barefoot, etc.
I never had a reaction to THOSE bee stings. (:::Fast-forward 11 years:::)
I was at my Ex's sister's house when a wasp flew by. I raised my arms to let the thing fly by, BUT I dropped my arms to my side too quickly. I trapped the wasp between my bare arm and my body. The wasp stung my arm. The ensuing welt grew much larger than normal....it was 4 - 5 inches across. Over the next several days, the center of the sting actually turned black and developed a rotten looking pit in it's center. My entire arm ached - throbbed, actually - for several days. The pain was so bad that I couldn't sleep for several nights. Hindsight being 20 / 20 (and with a little age on me!), I now know that I should have gone to the ER immediately.
(:::Fast-forward 6 years:::)
I was gardening in my yard in Quincy in the summer of 1993. I had a VERY small garden, probably 5' x 5'. As always (and currently!), I was gardening barefooted. I stepped on a honeybee. My Ex's mother was in the kitchen cooking our supper. She heard me yell, and she looked out the back door and asked me, "What happened? Did you step on a (garter) snake?"
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| Honey Bee |
We lived 4 blocks from Blessing Hospital in Quincy, IL. And I was a nursing (LPN) student at the time. I knew that 'ice reduces swelling and slows down circulation.... heat increases circulation.)
Supper was on the table, and I was hungry! I went in the house, made myself an ice pack, and put it on the floor, resting my foot on the ice pack as I ate supper. The developing welt went from side-to-side across the entire sole of my foot, but AT THE MOMENT, it didn't spread any more than that. I ate supper.
I knew that ultimately, I was going to have to go to the hospital to get epinephrine shots, SO, after I ate supper, I took a (HOT!) shower because I didn't want to be covered in dirt from gardening when I went to the ER. Remember... HEAT increases circulation. Before I could get out of the shower, and to the ER (just 4 blocks away!), from the sole of my foot to my knee, my leg swelled 2 - 3 times it's normal size. I couldn't even get a flip-flop on my foot, and I definitely couldn't walk or stand on this numb, huge club that was dead-to-the-world.
When we got to the ER, my Ex got a wheelchair.... I jumped in, and we entered the reception area. A personal friend that knew me well was an EMT, and worked at this ER for probably 45 years. He looked down, and saw my elephant-like leg, and yelled, "My God, Michael! What did you do?"
My answer: "I got stung by a bee, and I think I waited too long!" His yelling, "I need a room open NOW!" got us nowhere, so they brought a gurney out of a storage room, and put me on it, and started my treatment in the hallway in front of the nurse's station.
I got an extended release shot of epinephrine in one arm, and an immediate-acting shot of epinephrine in the other arm.
I had to sit in the ER for several hours under observation. My friend, the EMT, would pass by my gurney every half-hour or so, and ask me, "How do you feel, Michael?" I answered him, "If I could get off this damned gurney, and drag this heavy, dead club along, I know I could run laps around this hospital!" (...a result of all that epinephrine in the blood.)
Ultimately, they sent me home after the emergency was averted. As I was waiting by the door of the hospital in the wheelchair, waiting for my EX to drive up to pick me up, my friend / EMT bent down and whispered in my ear, "Michael, the next time, don't stop for supper - get your stubborn ass to the hospital!"
It took at least a day and a half for the swelling to go down in my foot / leg.
(:::Fast-forward 19 years:::)
I was tending to the potted plants that were spending their summers outdoors this past summer - in 2012. I didn't know that a nest of yellow jackets made their home in an abandoned chipmunk burrow beside one of my pineapple plants. I didn't even see it coming. These little bastards didn't like me invading their perceived space, and one particularly worked-up defender stung me on the calf. If you have ever been stung by a yellow jacket, you will know that the sting can effect the nerves in the entire leg / arm, etc, sending shocks that are not unlike painful electrical shocks up and down that appendage.
Through the pain, I took several deep breaths. We had just got home from shopping, and Mark was just a few feet away from me, unpacking the car. I calmly told him, "I've just been stung. Prepare yourself to take me to the ER at St. Joseph's Hospital (or Barnes Hospital - whichever he thinks that we can get to the fastest!)
At the time, I didn't own an EpiPen. I now own 2, one stays in my home, and the other is in a bag that I take with me everywhere.
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| A typical EpiPen |
HOWEVER....other than itching for several days, I had no systemic reaction to this sting, whatsoever.
The 19 years that passed between stings was enough time for my immune system to 'forget' it's allergy to bee stings.
The clincher: If I get stung AGAIN within the next 20 years, and I don't have an EpiPen within my reach, it could result in anaphylactic shock.
The moral of this story:
Every-other sting will produce only a local, normal effect, and every-other sting can most likely kill me if I don't have an EpiPen on me.
That could be bad news for a person that loves the outdoors, and loves gardening.
I visit the Missouri Botanical Gardens at least twice a week - sometimes more - from early spring through early summer. I cut my visits down to once weekly during the remaining summer and fall seasons. ANYBODY that is even relatively observant and goes to the Gardens will affirm that the place is, rightfully so, swarming with pollinators - including their own 2 maintained hives of honeybees.
An outsider would think that I should bee terrified of 'flying things that sting'. Not so. If I am driving my truck, and a bee flies in, I simply roll down both windows, and let him find his way out. When many species of trees go into full bloom, they are absolutely swarming with happy bees.
I will stand directly under one of these swarming trees, watching these natural pollinators do the work for which they were designed to do, and that that they do best.
I'm not afraid of bees. I'm not afraid of wasps. I know the behaviors of those insects, and under normal circumstances, they do not want to waste time or precious energy on humans.
Long live the bees. Long live the wasps. And I'm keeping my EpiPen handy!
- Michael
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