bee stings are no good.....
especially when they're from a yellow jacket!
So Thursday I went out with the kiddies I'm teaching for the morning bio lab to collect insects. And I always make a comment about if someone's allergic to bees, then to be real careful and not to mess with them (dur right?). Well I'm with two groups, and we're walking by some bushes that go up the stairs (so some are at eye level) and I mention they should use their sweep nets over the bushes to see if they can get anything. I stand to the side by this one bush while they try to catch stuff, mainly flying things, when I look at the bush and a yellow jacket flies out and comes at my face. I'm calm and try to just turn and walk away and gently persuade it that it really doesn't want to be on my face, more specifically my eyelid, when it decides to sting me! So I get stung, in the eyelid, in front of some of my students! I'm not allergic so I know nothing bad is going to happen, but your body's response, especially around the eye, is to get teary. They all start freaking out and asking if they need to do anything for me or get anything for me or walk with me to the infirmery or whatever and I just have to tell them no, it's ok. My eye does get a little puffy from being poked, but nothing too bad....one of those things where it FEELS 10X bigger than it really is. The freak-me-out part was the next morning. I didn't take Benadryl or anything for it that night....which was a mistake....and my eye was PUFFY!! not just the eyelid, but the bottom part too! I called mom not sure what to do, and she told me take Benadryl and see how it is in a few hours, it's probably just from sleeping and it'll go down. Of course she's right, but what am I supposed to think when my eye is twice the size it should be and I can feel it's big!! Yup. Fun times with yellow jackets. My eyelid is still a bit puffy, especially in the morning, but it's slowly getting less and less. There's a pretty little dot where it's stinger went in, so I can at least show it off and brag that I got stung in the eye :P
So Thursday I went out with the kiddies I'm teaching for the morning bio lab to collect insects. And I always make a comment about if someone's allergic to bees, then to be real careful and not to mess with them (dur right?). Well I'm with two groups, and we're walking by some bushes that go up the stairs (so some are at eye level) and I mention they should use their sweep nets over the bushes to see if they can get anything. I stand to the side by this one bush while they try to catch stuff, mainly flying things, when I look at the bush and a yellow jacket flies out and comes at my face. I'm calm and try to just turn and walk away and gently persuade it that it really doesn't want to be on my face, more specifically my eyelid, when it decides to sting me! So I get stung, in the eyelid, in front of some of my students! I'm not allergic so I know nothing bad is going to happen, but your body's response, especially around the eye, is to get teary. They all start freaking out and asking if they need to do anything for me or get anything for me or walk with me to the infirmery or whatever and I just have to tell them no, it's ok. My eye does get a little puffy from being poked, but nothing too bad....one of those things where it FEELS 10X bigger than it really is. The freak-me-out part was the next morning. I didn't take Benadryl or anything for it that night....which was a mistake....and my eye was PUFFY!! not just the eyelid, but the bottom part too! I called mom not sure what to do, and she told me take Benadryl and see how it is in a few hours, it's probably just from sleeping and it'll go down. Of course she's right, but what am I supposed to think when my eye is twice the size it should be and I can feel it's big!! Yup. Fun times with yellow jackets. My eyelid is still a bit puffy, especially in the morning, but it's slowly getting less and less. There's a pretty little dot where it's stinger went in, so I can at least show it off and brag that I got stung in the eye :P