yeowtch!

[chronovore]

I nearly made it to the 40 year mark without suffering a bee sting. I'll be 40 the day-after-tomorrow, and YESTERDAY I was trying to remove a type of yellowjacket from within my house where my 2 year old boy is, to outside where my neighbors were walking over to see what I was doing. With a pair of canvas pants wrapped improvisationally around my hands, I pressed the bee against the screen door but the screen had too much "give" in it to squish it. I got the beast's legs pinched between my fingers, opened the screen door and was trying to figure out if I should throw the shorts down and run for it, leaving it to sting my neighbors, or how to squish the thing - I looked down, and its abdomen was thrashing about, needle extending and retracting, questing like some blind, deadly worm -- and then it shoved the needle straight through the denim and into my thumb.

That is some surprising shit. It felt like the needle went all the way to my first knuckle. I screamed and scared the hell out of my neighbors. Then I started sucking on my thumb, hoping to get the poison out. Then I started hoping I wasn't allergic, because I've never been stung before. I didn't die, so I'm not allergic; I was seriously euphoric for a bit, because I've never known if I was allergic to bees or not.

Anyhow, today it feels like I burned my thumb; it's throbbing and a little painful, but mostly feels like some odd internal pressure is built-up and can't release.

Bee stings aren't nearly as bad as I thought; not that I'm signing up for more, mind you...

Edit: Sass via benchilada

Comments

[clevermanka.livejournal.com]

Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch. Bee and wasp stings are teh SUCK. Here's hoping your thumb feels better soon.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

I got anudder BUNNY!

YAY! BUNNY!

Thanks for the well-wishes. I iced it tonight, and that seems to have helped. I also put some world-crushing sore muscle cream on my neck, and it has eclipsed all other sensation in my body.

O_o

[hedr-goblin.livejournal.com]

I can't believe you've gotten this far in life without a bee sting.

I hope it's totally gone by birthday time though.

I wonder what other random things you've never done that life has in store for you....

Don't stand under any open ladders, that's all I'm sayin.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Yesterday I had no visible swelling (though The Wife says she could tell), but today I've got a clear "bump" on the tip of my thumb. As long as little bee-maggots don't come swarming out of it, I'm going to be right-as-rain by this weekend.

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

The worst stinging I ever got was delivered by about 200 yellow jackets in Northern Minnesota, hours from any hospital.

Needless to say, I could not sleep that night. Had some fascinating hallucinations all night long, too, vivid and enduring.

I lived. I guess I'm not deathly allergic, either.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Good.

God.

You might have /developed/ an allergy from that many bee stings. What the FUCK were you doing to get that reaction? Did someone convince you that "hive tipping" was a great prank?

[mckitterick.livejournal.com]

Well, a friend and I were hiking in the woods on a small mountain (yes, northern Minnesota has 'em), and I brushed against a tree. It felt at first as if I had brushed up against a spiky branch; I mean, it was a pine tree after all. So I looked to see what was up and saw that it was a huge hive that I had bumped and my legs were becoming coated with the yellow-and-black cloud that was emerging from said hive.

I learned that I could run about 60mph downhill with 10-yard strides as I raced away from the remaining cloud, whapping at my legs to knock off the critters.

We got back to camp about a mile away free of hornets and I told my dad about it. He decided that if I wasn't already dead, I must not be allergic, so there was no point in driving hours to a hospital and ruining the trip.

Could not sleep at all that night, heart pounding, sweating, and hallucinating. I saw the most fascinating thing in the corner of the tent where my friend and I were trying to sleep: It was about the size of a small dog, but with short legs, long spiky fur (quills?), glowing red eyes, and a long point snout filled with chrysknife teeth. I could look off to the sides and it would not move. I could close my eyes and viola! As soon as I opened them, there it was. And it would sort of smile when I did things like that.

It sat in the corner of the tent all night. Eventually, due to my vivid description, my friend began to see it, too.

That was creeeeepy.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

YIKES!

[liz-lowlife.livejournal.com]

Was it a bee or a wasp? You seem unsure. I thought North Americans referred to stripey yellow and black wasps as yellow jackets.
Reason I ask is that bees and wasps have different stings. One is alkaline and one is acid. I forget which is which but I know that a wasp sting can kill me and a bee sting does little more than make me go Ouch!

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

It was a wasp; it was like a yellowjacket wasp, but smaller and black, no stripes -- actually I thought it was a horsefly at first, so I'm happy that I didn't just bat at it immediately.

[liz-lowlife.livejournal.com]

Well at least you know you aren't allergic to wasps, at any rate!

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

FWIW, the recommended treatment for wasp stings is vinegar, which means it's neutralizing an acid, right?

IANAC.

[lunablack.livejournal.com]

compress of baking soda and drop lemon juice on that, should help, especially if it has a detatched stinger in there.

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Thanks! It was a wasp, so I'm stinger-free!

[weezie13.livejournal.com]

I've never been stung by a bee either, but I have been bitten by a brown recluse which is worth at least a 100 bee stings.

"...it's throbbing and a little painful, but mostly feels like some odd internal pressure is built-up and can't release. " - tell me about it!

[chronovore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a brown recluse is a Big Win comparative to a wasp. I've seen some nasty, nasty bites documented from those. CRAZY!

[super-nyanko.livejournal.com]

My first and most memorable sting was when one got caught in my hair while bike riding. Got my neck, swelled a ton.

Happy birthday!

[lunablack.livejournal.com]

Happy birthday. May your next year be free of stingy things. ^^