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.

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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!

[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. ^^