On Wednesday I picked up a nuc and got stung in an ear lobe. Normally that's not a problem; I've been stung many times. But this time the venom went directly into a blood vessel and in five minutes (I'm now driving toward home) I began to have terrible skin irritation; I had to stop the car to remove my pants so that I could remove Ace bandages on my highly inflamed rheumatic knees. In another ten minutes I was on the dangerous high speed NJ Turnpike with my throat now constricting and arms reddened and pimpled . I was able to stop at a Service Area and stagger into the news and gift shop where I found some medication that had some kind of ephedrine. I couldn't open the package at this point but some customers assisted me and I managed to chomp on the liquid filled capsules to get the med started quickly. The staff was about to call an ambulance but I escaped to a men's room stall where I began to recover a bit after fifteen minutes; then the 45 minute drive home. Once at home I could barely walk and my body was completely red and covered with nasty pimples; I downed a couple of swallows of Benadryl and after two hours, was pretty much back to normal.
From now on Benadryl will be in my car or within immediate reach whenever I work with bees. In the majority of bee stings, the venom remains in the skin, muscle, or fat; but when it enters the bloodstream directly, look out!
From now on Benadryl will be in my car or within immediate reach whenever I work with bees. In the majority of bee stings, the venom remains in the skin, muscle, or fat; but when it enters the bloodstream directly, look out!