Saturday, while attending Dylan’s birthday party in the city park, I had a close encounter with a bee. While chatting with a young couple a bee kept buzzing their drinks…the man was drinking a Pepsi, their young daughter a Mt.Dew and his wife had water.
The bee buzzed in & out of his Pepsi, so he covered it with the water container…the bee still kept buzzing the Pepsi can, even though the Mt.Dew sat right beside it and was open. The bee wanted no part of the water or the Mt.Dew. His wife took her water and the Mr. Dew and left the area, leaving him to cover his Pepsi with his hand.
The bee was relentless, so he gently pushed it away, but it always came back. He finally gave up, took his Pepsi and fled the area…the bee leaving with him. We all chuckled and decided that even bees prefer Pepsi to Mt.Dew.
Later, I got thirsty and got myself a Pepsi out of the cooler…you can see where I’m going with this. I roamed around and exchanged pleasantries with several in attendance and then settled down onto a picnic table to talk with Laura…I put my drink on the table and would occasionally take a drink.
The birthday song was sung to Dylan as he played his little guitar, and sang along. He had no interest in blowing out his candles, but just wanted to play his guitar and sing. The wind finally blew out both his candles and the cake was cut. I reached for my can of Pepsi, took a drink and was immediately STUNG on the tongue…OUCH !
I had a napkin and quickly got the bee out of my mouth…he was moving really slow…I guess he really didn’t like swimming in Pepsi as much as he thought he might. The acid probably hurt him a little too.
I gave the napkin with the bee to Jimmy to release into the grass and then I asked Jimmy to please remove the bee’s stinger from my tongue, which he did. I didn’t say anything to anyone except Laura, who was sitting beside me and saw the whole thing, and of course Jimmy.
I didn’t want to cause a commotion; I knew the signs to watch out for so I sat there while my tongue began to swell. In a moment I had a terrible headache, only on the right side of my head and then in a few moments, my left hand became numb. In a little while my head quit hurting and I got the feeling back in my hand, but now I had slurred speech from my swollen tongue. I didn’t go into anaphylactic shock and for safety’s sake, I should have gone to the Emergency Room for a shot of epinephrine, especially since I had gotten stung on the tongue.
I was lucky this time, tempting fate a little. Twice before I have been stung by honeybees and each time there was LOTS of swelling. I got stung on the finger and my WHOLE arm swelled up to my shoulder and another time on one of my toes and my leg up to my knee swelled up.
Either the Pepsi toned down the bee’s venom or it was a yellow jacket and not a honeybee…
28 comments:
Don't mind me, but I think you should have gone to the ER STAT and should always carry an EPI pen with you just in case. If you've had reactions like these before, the next time could be worse. You should know better.
Hope Dylan had a great time at his party.
Wow...I'm glad you are alright...that would have scared me to death!!
Here in Ohio they are now puting the canned sized drinks in bottles...which will help to keep bee's out if you have a lid!
I prefer Pepsi myself...hubby prefers Mt Dew...I don't see how he drinks it all of the time myself...after a few Pepsi's I'm craving water and lots of it!!
:-D
Motherkitty...We can almost see the hospital from the park, so that's why I didn't rush over there. I have had to have epi shots before, so I knew what to expect.
You are right...I need to carry an epi pen with me.
Holy cow! Stung on the tongue?????????????? That had to hurt like crazy! Shame on you for not going to get a shot. But then again, you knew what to watch for and you were okay. No more putting bees in your mouth, young lady!
Being stung on the tongue? Yikes!
What is in the Pepsi that the bees are attracted to? Maybe we should all stop drinking Pepsi. It must be too sweet so therefore it is bad for our health.
Sandy,
You poor dear! This made me cringe just to read it! I'm with the others on the epi pen, especially if you've had bad reactions before.
Hope you're feeling all better now :-)
Sandy, what an awful experience! Being stung on the tongue I can't even imagine how that would hurt.
I think you better carry the epi pen too since you are so allergic.
Maybe that bee thought you needed one of those tongue rings and was just trying to give you the piercing for it! :) (Sorry, bad joke I know!) Couldn't resist!!
Yeee-ouch! Maybe a straw in the soda would help. I can't drink canned sodas without a straw. I prefer Pepsi...lime, vanilla, cherry.
I have just now opened up my computer and have read your post. I am sorry for you and the bee that is some bad news to hear this noon. I have bad luck with bees so for a long time I was close to cigarettes. Any time I would get stung I would wet the tobacco and place it with tape on the bee sting. It worked well. I think chewing tobacco would also work in that situation.
See, all the more reason to stick to Coke!! :)
So glad you got lucky without having to go to the ER, whew!
Gosh, Sandy, I'm so glad you're OK!! (when you wrote, 'you can see where I'm going with this', I thought you'd ended up in hospital or something. PHEW! that you didn't!)
ouch!!!!!that must have hurt. I don't care for bees and I don't like them hanging around me.
My Goodness! I am glad you are ok. That sounds scary to me.
I wonder what the bee would have done if there were a can of Pepsi and a can of Coke. ha ha
Oh my gosh! You're a lot braver than I am!! The last time I got stung by a bee, I got the worst migrane and had to lay down all night. (I'm sure the champagne I had been drinking didn't help matters--or maybe it did, who knows!hehe) Glad you're ok. That'll teach you to drink pepsi outdoors!!
On the tongue? That must have been awful.
Be careful. The epi pen sounds like a good idea.
Wow that's nasty Sandy, almost as bad as being bitten on the funnel by a fingerweb spider..... or should that be bitten on the finger by a funnel web spider???
Glad you are alright! I got stung the other day by a bee on while riding on the back of the motorcycle. It swelled up more than I ever remember but was alright besides it itching and hurting for a while, but nothing like you get. It sounds like you get a very bad reaction to bees! You probably should carry an Epi Pen.
As you could see the other day we have several bees that like to stay around our hummingbird feeders and our dog Rusty just loves to catch them! We are amazed by it, he even eats them! I am not sure how he does it without getting stung on the tongue.
Anyway, I am rambling on, I wanted to say that I am glad you are okay and glad you all had such a good time at baby Dylan's birthday party. I hope he got everything he wanted!
Hey, how about carrying an EPI-pen with you? We all would really miss you here in blog-land if you got taken out by a bee! That is scary!
Hello Sandy ~~ I am so glad that you are Ok. You probably should have got the shot, as each time may get worse.
Alls well that ends well !!
Thanks for your comments, glad you enjoy
Take MORE care, Merle.
Wow - glad you're okay.
I got stung once in high school - actually, it was three times at once. I was in pottery class where we were firing pots in some home-made outdoor smoky kiln - about 20 metres from some bee hives. The bees got stirred up and came at ME! They stung me three times on my head and half of my face swelled up. But the doctor said it was "a bee with an infection" that caused the swelling, rather than me being allergic to them...
You poor thing! So frightening, to say nothing of painful, and I can hardly imagine such a thing happening. I hope next time you take more timely action! A swollen tongue is bad news.
BTW, I love your hibiscus photos from your previous post.
Oh wow, I've been stung by bees before but never on the tongue...I know how much you can swell up from their sting and it would be horrible on the tongue!!! Glad it settled down and it didn't get worse for you! I'm trying to catch up on everyone's blogs this morning and then will work on my Niagara Falls post:-)
OMG that's horrible! On the tongue!? Are you okay now?
By the way, I am going to tell everyone that story! I drink Diet Pepsi, and I hope bees don't like aspartame as much as sugar.
Oh my goodness girdie! I think I have two childhood memories combined related to this. I remember flipping off the monkey bars at the local park and falling on my back so hard I knocked the wind out of myself and I also remember being stung by a bee and having my hand and arm swell up something fierce. I have combined the two and for some reason seem to think the bee sting constricted my throat. Subsequent stings have shown I need an epi pen. do I carry one? Nope - I'm like you. I'd tempt fate. :)
ACK! I thought this was going to be a funny bee story but what happened to you was pretty frightening! I'm glad the outcome was relatively minor... although that would have freaked me out. Me and bugs, we don't get along too well :)
Mind word, that was a close encounter. Thankfully it all turned out okay.
Sandy, am I going to have to come down there and keep track of you? Don't be tempting fate like that again! Carry your Epi-pen!! Poor thing, that must've really hurt. Glad you didn't let it ruin your day and that things turned out OK in spite of the dratted bee.
Ouch, can't imagine how much that hurt on the tongue. Glad you are OK but next time even if you can see the hospital there may not be enough time to get there.
Post a Comment