Run! said she throwing her shears in the hedge! Your close-call experiences?

[GrannieAnnie]

I was outside pruning  this morning and was stung on the hand by a hornet. After putting ice on it I realized the problem was a little bigger when about 10 minutes after the sting I broke out in hives and my tongue started tingling. I took two benadryl and hubby started driving me to the ER. En route my tongue was breaking out in ewd bumps so he ran around traffic beeping his horn just like in the cop shows and got me there with my tongue swelling making it hard to talk and feeling like I'd been given a shot in the tongue at the dentist.

They dilly dallied around slowly for some unknown reason ( I was their only patient) to the point I began having trouble swallowing- felt like swallowing around a marble. Finally when my blood pressure had dropped to 70/40 they got convinced enough to give me the adrenalin I'd asked for when I arrived. Then, with a shade more concern, they added the  heart monitor, oxygen, started an IV, gave me a steroid injection, an ice pack and started talking about possibly a second injection of adrenaline.

Anyway, after tasting the whole nine yards of modern ER medicine I'm home now dragging around on benadryl with the diagnosis of  allergy to bees and getting  to carry an important looking epi-pen for self-defense.

Have any of you had close-calls in your gardening experience?

[GrannieAnnie]

[betula]

This is serious,so glad you are OK,please be extra careful now.

Guy on my site dug into a bees nest last year and literally got chased,and stung.I am very nervous of them.Ihave had several wasp stings and they HURT.

[Georgie]

Heck, what a horrible experience, poor you.   :(  I'm allergic to hornet stings so I have some idea of how you must have felt. 

G x

[manicscousers]

bloke next door got stung between his shoulder blades by a wasp, he ended up in hospital  :o
made me very wary

[djbrenton]

I came very close to getting scratched by my cat when I stood on his tail if that counts.

[paulinems]

thats not nice hope you ok now, hubby wants bee hive think i will tell him no way!!
Pauline

[GrannieAnnie]

thats not nice hope you ok now, hubby wants bee hive think i will tell him no way!!
Pauline

I've wanted a bee hive but now.... :-[  Honey bees are not aggressive like hornets and yellow jackets. If you don't have an allergy to them I think bee keeping would be a helpful and interesting hobby worth giving a try.

[Robert_Brenchley]

You had a reaction to a hornet sting, and you have a diagnosis of allergy to bees??? Wasp and bee poisons are so different that while you can certainly be allergic to one or the other, it's unknown or almost so for anyone to be allergic to both. Dpon't leave the epipen at home in the wasp season; anaphylactic shock isn't funny.

[GrannieAnnie]

You had a reaction to a hornet sting, and you have a diagnosis of allergy to bees??? Wasp and bee poisons are so different that while you can certainly be allergic to one or the other, it's unknown or almost so for anyone to be allergic to both. Dpon't leave the epipen at home in the wasp season; anaphylactic shock isn't funny.

That is also what I thought, but this research was on Google and talks about the cross-reactivity possible because some  of the many proteins are the same  http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/full/270/9/4457
The last time I was stung was a few years ago by three yellow jackets whose nest I mowed over. They chased me into the house. The only reaction from them was some local swelling and itching. But I've been having strange intense focal itchy feelings in June that aren't related to bites and travel around, very peculiar ::) I'll admit. So perhaps this sting combined with  my hyper-itchy state ???

[lorna]

Crikey what a worry for you, glad you got it sorted. Take care.

[Robert_Brenchley]

That is also what I thought, but this research was on Google and talks about the cross-reactivity possible because some  of the many proteins are the same  http://www.jbc.org/cgi/content/full/270/9/4457

They may have found a 'weak reaction', but there have been numerous cases of allergy discussed over the years on the bee lists; it's not too uncommon for members of beekeepers' families to become sensitised. Cross-allergies don't show up in practice, so it's odd that anyone should have jumped to conclusions like that!