My Bee Sting Epic

It was a beautiful day, a trifle hot, and our family was getting ready for the bicycle parade that was to take place on our street the next day.

Last Saturday (Aug. 11) I ran out the front door to take Seth for a bike ride. When I got to the edge of the porch, I felt something on my right hand, like a bug. Continuing down the stairs, I tried to shake it off, but it wouldn't come, so I tried to brush it off-- it still wouldn't fly away. So I rubbed my hand against my leg and that got that bug that really hurt away. I looked at my hand. It had a stinger stuck in it.

I held onto my palm very tightly and ran back inside. I ran over to Mommy who was in the dining room and said, "Mommy I was stung!" and then started gasping, "it hurts, it hurts, it hurts really bad" as she took me into the kitchen and pulled the stinger out. By that time I was crying. Mommy commented as I held my hand under the kitchen faucet, "it must really hurt, 'cause you don't cry." Baking soda and ice later, I was still in a ton of pain, and still crying silently. Pacing the kitchen back and forth grimacing probably told Mommy something was wrong and she suggested that I call Ruby Hopkins to get my mind off of it. Well, I must say that it helped.

I held my right hand tightly with my left hand all the rest of the day, because it seemed that I was doing something to keep the pain down, even though it did very little. During the night I slept with my hip bone pressing my hand into my mattress for the same reason.

This picture illustrates where I was stung. Sunday morning my hand was slightly swollen. If I looked at the back of my hand and made a fist, I basically had no dip between my pinky knuckle and my ring finger knuckle. Oh, and my hand still hurt a lot.

I made it through Sunday with the only draw back being that I didn't enjoy the bike parade as much as I could have because of my hand hurting. At church earlier in the day, Daddy realized that I was having a allergic reaction and that I should take an antihistamine. Our church's first aid cabinet only had children's benadryl, which succeeded in doing nothing but making me sleepy.

Monday I woke up to a completely puffed up hand:

It didn't look terribly bad, I just looked and felt very chubby. Mommy was a tad concerned, so we headed to the doctor's office. They just gave me a tetanus shot and said to take more medicine. Well, the tetanus shot had a few side effects that effected me, (such as a headache and stomach ache) and I went to bed without even changing my clothes.

Tuesday my hand was less swollen, and itched a little. Oh, and my arm was sore from the needle going into my arm. So I couldn't do dishes, but I could type and play piano, which Emma didn't understand. I won't give the explanation I gave her, because it's a physics lesson.

Today is Saturday and my hand is better, although itchy.
I just thought I would share my bee sting epic because I kinda laughed at how one thing happened right after the other, and how everything had side effects, not just the shot. :)