Bee stings

On Sunday, while I was descending at fairly high speed, a yellow jacket ended up in the space between my thumb and my index finger and being stuck there, stung me. The sting went right through the glove. I am moderately allergic to bee stings and the prospect of spending another week with a swollen hand caused me a lot of concern.

As a kid I got stung many times but I never developed an allergy. Nobody in my family is allergic to anything and so it never occurred to me that I might one day become a victim. That day happened more than ten years ago when I got stung on the upper lip while on a bike ride. My lip turned into a bright red, ready-to-burst sausage that disfigured my face for almost two weeks. Since then I have gotten stung in my right arm once, resulting in an equally grotesquely swollen tube that kept me out of circulation for another ten days.

Then one day, something remarkable happened. I got stung in the eyelid while at the SJ international triathlon. Thinking my race was over I hurried to the transition to get help. However, it took quite a while for me to get there and by the time I did I had all but forgotten about the sting. I went through transition and ran a 10K without ever thinking about the bee again. I finished, took a shower, got dressed and was walking though the remnants of the expo when I suddenly noticed that there appeared to be a curtain hanging in front of my eye. It was strange. At first I did not know what was happening.

And sure enough, within 10 minutes, my eye was swollen shut. It was as if the whole reaction had been delayed for an hour or more, while I finished the race. Now however it was in full swing as if the clock had been reset. The swelling lasted for 5 days.

Taking some lessons from that episode I knew that if I removed the offending insect carefully and kept riding, the reaction would be postponed. I would get home in time to do something about it.

The problem was that soon afterwards my left crankarm came loose and I could no longer ride. After some manual adjusting I made it to a Round Table pizza place where I could call for help. They also had a soda machine there that dispensed ice. I used it to keep my hand cold and elevated until my ride arrived. The swelling was moderate and nicely under control, and the pain was less too.

When I got home I kept the hand elevated and applied many layers of a strong (prescription) steroid ointment. I put the hand in a glove to keep the ointment from rubbing off. I also took two Benadryl. And I am happy to say the remedy worked like a charm.

Today I have a kidney-bean-size swelling with some very mild edema in the surrounding tissue (but not much). The "bean" itches a bit but nothing dramatic. One can see that the reaction is still abnormal because no red elevated spot formed (that I take to be the hallmark of a normal sting reaction). Instead the sting site is hard to see and somewhat lost in the surrounding tissue swelling. But the result is spectacular to say the least. I think I finally found a way to deal with this.

Here are my recommendations (for mild allergies--no respiratory symptoms):

-carefully remove the stinger and poison sack --do not squeeze

-if away from help, keep your exercise level high. The adrenaline will postpone the reaction. I.e. don't stand around.

-as soon as possible, apply ice and keep the limb cold and elevated. The ice will cause vasostriction which will prevent edema and prevent uptake of the poison.

-as soon as possible, apply steroid ointment and reapply often. Keep area cold until you can get medication.

-take antihistamines.

I have followed these procedures twice now and the results have been encouraging, preventing major swelling from happening and keeping symptoms under control.

Bee/wasp sting

As I kid I got stung by bees and yellowjackets quite a few times, but I never responded with more than a little red bump and some itching and pain. Then one day, I went on a bike ride in Oakland and got stung on the lip. What happened next surprised the hell out of me and caused me to avoid contact with others for a week. My upper lip turned into a bloated, bright red sausage of rather enormous dimensions. It distorted my entire face and lasted for five days before slowly subsiding. I had trouble eating, drinking and talking.

That happened a good ten years ago. Ever since I have been allergic to bee or wasp stings. I am not sure why this happened all of a sudden but here it is. Since then I have had a few more stings, including one on my forearm that made that arm twice as heavy and twice as big as the other. I was once again incapacitated for a week. Not so much because of the esthetics this time, but because I could not use the arm and had to put it in a sling.

Most recently, a tiny bee got under my glasses at the San Jose International Triathlon and stung me on the eyelid. That happened during the biking leg, about 3 miles from the finish. I thought for sure my race was over. But then somehow, I almost forgot about it, parked my bike and went on the run. I am not sure why, but it took almost 1.5 hours before symptoms appeared. I had all but forgotten about the sting. The race was over, I had taken a shower, and I was looking at the vendor booths, when I suddenly noticed something hanging in front of my eye. Like a curtain on my visual field. From then on, things moved quickly and within 20 minutes my eye was swollen shut and it stayed that way for 3 days.

It may have been the adrenalin of the race, or maybe the dehydration, or both, but the delayed reaction surprised me. What also surprised me was how quickly the pain subsided. Ever since my first "allergic" reaction, stings have become very painful with a long lasting, very intense burn. I did feel the sting in San Jose, but the pain went away almost immediately. I was not kidding when I said I almost forgot about it by the time I finished the bike. It was really gone.

Yesterday I got it again. I was running an eight mile loop close to my house and around mile 3 I felt a burning in my right middle finger. I was just running, never saw an insect or anything. Just the characteristic burning pain. I tried to apply some suction but that clearly did not help. It may even have made it worse by causing vasodilation. I decided to keep on running. By the time I came home it was slightly swollen but not all that bad. I immediately applied cold wraps and have been trying to keep it cold for long periods of time. In between I apply cortisone cream. Unfortunately here I do not have access to the longer acting powerful steroids that I can just prescribe in Belgium. But so be it. I do not feel like going to the emergency room or waiting two weeks for a doctor's appointment.

My right hand is moderately swollen now. I can feel the tightness and the heat. The edema has sunk somewhat because I elevate my arm whenever possible so as to avoid a swollen (and possibly damaged) finger. It appears to be better than other times and I have noticed that the reaction may be less vigorous now than 10 years ago. Nevertheless it is quite obvious. What I have also noticed is that the very local signs (at the site of the sting) are now absent. I can't really see where I was stung, there is no red dot there. Just an entire area that is swollen.