Friday, July 29, 2011

!!ACHTUNG!!! Yellow Jackets!!!

I was bush hogging the lower field yesterday and Beaudreaux's old paddock.  As I backed up into the first corner of the paddock I ran over a big stick.  I felt a stinging sensasion on my forearm and thought I got hit with a piece of the stick.  Then I saw and felt a yellow jacket between my eye and my sunglasses.  There was a swarm of bees all around me, I had run over the nest with a front tire of the tractor.  I shifted into 3rd gear to try to get out as fast as possible.  I left the gate open because I just needed to get out of there, knowing the main gate to the property was open and the llamas could wander out, but that was a chance I had to take as I am allergic to bees.  There I was driving laps around the property trying to get all the bees off of me.  Finally, I didn't see anymore near me, turned off the tractor and ran like hell back to the house.  Sandy, my mom-in-law, went out and shut the gate for me while I iced down the stings.
I had stings on my arms, neck, legs, back, hands, and boobs (which are already swollen with milk).  The one on the pad of my thumb was the worst.  Over the course of the next thirty minutes while I iced, showered, and changed clothes, I watched my left hand double in size.  I knew I needed to get to Urgent Care, so off I went.  By the time I got there, the swelling went from the fingertips to midway up my forearm, pain level was at a 9.  I got a shot and some meds and they sent me on my way.  I began feeling better around 5:30 this morning.
When I was a kid, I got stung once when we were visiting a family friend right over the border in Ohio.  I climbed up into the hay loft the watch Polly, the horse, below in her stall.  I was probably four years old.  I never got stung again until we moved here.  This is my third episode.  Common with bee allergies, with each attack, the body reacts worse and worse.
Curse those yellow jackets!!!

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