When we first moved to Trenton, one of the first things Brian wanted to do was to start beekeeping. We LOVED the idea of having our own honey, especially since local honey is good for seasonal allergies.

I didn’t tell Brian until he received his first shipment of bees that I am allergic. I didn’t want to ruin his fun so I figured I’d just stay away from the beehives. And, that’s worked great! I got stung by a paper wasp one day but I have avoided any bee stings.

Of course, Brian wears what I fondly call his Oompah Loompah suit when he tends to the hives. He got stung a couple of times the first year, and a couple last year. Well, one of those stings last year made his hand swell to much that we had to go to Urgent Care. He was advised that he had developed a bee allergy from getting stung too many times.

I always figured the more someone is exposed to something, the less likely they are to develop an allergy. I was dead wrong! As least where bees are concerned, some people, if stung too many times, develop an allergy.

Have you ever seen the cost of an Epi- Pen? We had to buy four of them.

About a week ago, we were sitting on the porch and one of B’s bees flew by me. I turn into a statue when that happens. My eyeballs followed its movements and it promptly flew over to Brian, landed on his foot, and thanked him for all the sugar water he’d been supplementing them with by promptly stinging him on top of the foot.

By bedtime, he didn’t have any breathing problems but his foot was swelling rapidly. I found a very old bottle of Prednisone in the medicine cabinet, looked up the dosage for bee stings, and started him on that. He was also on Benadryl, and icing his foot. While his foot blew up overnight, the Predisone had worked by morning. His foot was back to its normal size.

Our neighbor has two grandkids who are allergic to bees. They only need their Epipens if they are stung on their upper body.

So, a couple of days ago, B is tending to his bees and doesn’t bother to tell me he got stung again…until three hours later! He was trying to not make me worry but it was starting to swell. He said, “Can you guess where I got stung?” He looked straight at me. I noticed his forehead on the right side was swollen. I pointed to his forehead. He said, “Nope, on top of my head.”

The bee had stung him through Oompah Loompah hood.

I was extremely concerned because the swelling was only inches from his airway.

Only a few minutes later, Brian got a look at his face in the mirror. He said, “I look like a Klingon!” I did not appreciate his humor. He wanted to try the Benadryl first. I knew where this was going and my stomach was getting all knotted up with sorry.

I made him lie in bed and he held an ice pack on his head and forehead. Well, that did NOT work! In fact, I think it made him swell even worse! I brought him the Prednisone. He took the first dose. I told him, “I’m going to say something and this is not up for negotiation. If we need to use an Epi-Pen on you at ANY time, we are getting rid of the bees.” He said okay.

It kept swelling (toward his nose and also down the right side of his head) and, about an hour later, Brian said he was willing to give up his bees now. He has no interest in an Epipen episide. The Prednisone worked. He still had some swelling the next morning but it was not near as bad as it was the previous last night.

A friend of his is coming by to look at all of B’s bee equipment, and to make us an offer. We will simply buy honey from them from now on.

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