![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Well, it seems I am a little allergic to wasp-stings, after all. The lip is just a little less swollen today as it was yesterday, which was worse than the day I got stung; I think holding a 3-hour lecture class last night did me no favors. That was fun. Picture not being able to feel one side of your mouth very well, and that side is thicker than usual. Yes, my friends, I was sort of drooling during class. Go ahead, laugh. In fact, I was so sore and swollen after class last night that brushing my teeth caused my lip to slip open :-(
Took two Benedryl last night before bed, which caused me to sleep 10 HOURS. Unfortunately, it barely seems to have helped reduce the swelling. Took a trio of ibuprofen this morning, and am drinking a beverage full of ice today. These things help a little, I think.
By the way, on a tip I looked up "yellow jacket," and it appears that's what assaulted me, not a bee. Yellow jackets are WASPS. Thus BASTARDS. They do not pollinate plants like our little friends the bees. Folks out at the KC Renaissance Festival call all the little stabbers out there "sweat bees," but they certainly are not. Sweat bees are a very different critter, and also not evil like the wasps. I'm pleased to feel friendly toward bees once again.
I should point out that, as a teen camping in northern Minnesota, I was once stung about 200 times by an entire hive of yellow jackets. They clung to the backs of my legs as I sprinted away down a hillside, stabbing and stabbing. That night, I enjoyed a great deal of hallucination and could not sleep for seeing a red-eyed, crysknife-toothed monster about the size of a raccoon in the corner of my tent. That was something else.
On a positive note, here's something that everyone in the area ought to visit: "Science on Tap," hosted by the KU Natural History Museum. Tonight's event is called, "Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the Expanding Universe," a talk by Professor Bharat Ratra of Kansas State University, from 7:30pm - 9:00pm at the Free State Brewery in downtown Lawrence.
Hope to see you there!
Chris
Took two Benedryl last night before bed, which caused me to sleep 10 HOURS. Unfortunately, it barely seems to have helped reduce the swelling. Took a trio of ibuprofen this morning, and am drinking a beverage full of ice today. These things help a little, I think.
By the way, on a tip I looked up "yellow jacket," and it appears that's what assaulted me, not a bee. Yellow jackets are WASPS. Thus BASTARDS. They do not pollinate plants like our little friends the bees. Folks out at the KC Renaissance Festival call all the little stabbers out there "sweat bees," but they certainly are not. Sweat bees are a very different critter, and also not evil like the wasps. I'm pleased to feel friendly toward bees once again.I should point out that, as a teen camping in northern Minnesota, I was once stung about 200 times by an entire hive of yellow jackets. They clung to the backs of my legs as I sprinted away down a hillside, stabbing and stabbing. That night, I enjoyed a great deal of hallucination and could not sleep for seeing a red-eyed, crysknife-toothed monster about the size of a raccoon in the corner of my tent. That was something else.
On a positive note, here's something that everyone in the area ought to visit: "Science on Tap," hosted by the KU Natural History Museum. Tonight's event is called, "Dark Matter, Dark Energy and the Expanding Universe," a talk by Professor Bharat Ratra of Kansas State University, from 7:30pm - 9:00pm at the Free State Brewery in downtown Lawrence.
Hope to see you there!
Chris
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
From:
no subject
I hope your lip heals up soon!
From:
no subject
Ants, bees, and wasp-things are related.
From:
no subject
We've got cicada wasps on campus. Hordes of them. Pest control won't touch them, since they don't sting people. Allegedly. I still don't trust the bastards.
From:
no subject
From:
I have managed
That said, they have straight stingers and can repeatedly jab and envenomate you. The bigger hornets can also bite -- they are meat/carrion feeders and have meat-shearing jaws. Which just adds insult to injury.
Be careful to avoid subsequent stings, if you react now, the reaction may escalate next time, this kind of allergy often does that. Best wishes on it going down as quickly as possible.
From:
no subject
Sorry to hear you had such a nasty close encounter!
y
From:
Re: I have managed
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
It sounds like you are just having a localized reaction to the toxin rather than an allergic reaction. Are you getting a rash/hives in other places? Does your throat or other non-stung parts of your face feel swollen? If so, that is an allergic reaction. Otherwise, probably not, and unless it is itching, the Benedryl won't do much to help.
I have reactions to the toxins which cause me to get hot, dizzy and nauseated as well. Thus, I stay The Hell Away from wasps. I definitely don't try to swallow them ;)
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
*visions of the ALIEN xenomorph*
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
I'm hopeful you mend quickly and I definitely don't recommend gargling with gasoline as a cure.
From:
Gasoline = health balm?
I don't even.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
and thankfully no one in my family was a smoker
OMG best ending line of a story.
From:
Re: I have managed
From:
Re: I have managed
From:
Re: I have managed
From:
no subject
DAMN YOU, CRYSKNIFE, FOR STABBING THE INSIDE OF MY MOUTH!
From:
no subject
Yikes! I once had an infestation of yellow jackets in a compost heap, and by mistake I disturbed it. They attacked and I fled as fast as I could run for a block or more, and they still got in about three stings on me.
I forget where I got my stings, but it wasn't anywhere nearly as sensitive as a lip. That sounds pretty awful. Good luck.
From:
no subject
I've only been stung by a bee when I was 7, ouchy but not awful, and leads me to believe the whole "no worse than a bee sting" explanation.
However, I did get stung by a Bumblebee about fifteen years ago, and it hurt like a bitch, swelled up and got infected. I'm so glad I've never been stung by a wasp or hornet.
JBird got stung by a bee in his beer at KCRF a few years ago and it went down in a couple hours, so I'm so sorry to hear of your horrid nasty black/yellow insect sting. STilll horrid.
From:
Re: I have managed
From:
Re: I have managed
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
:(
poor you!!!
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
But a quick internet search suggests they ALSO build underground. DEMONS.
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
From:
no subject
Still shuddering over your incident. Ugh.