as some of you may remember, i am sorta allergic to bee stings. in fact, i almost died once from a bee sting. this weekend i got stung again. it hurt and i think it was mostly my fault. see, the bees were sorta hanging about as FFJ and i hung out on the porch reading Crabwalk. i was doing ok, remembering to stay calm as they landed on me. but then one landed on my face and i freaked out, sure it was going to crawl up underneath and sting me 1000 times right in the eyeball, rendering me blind in one eye for the rest of my days, if not dead.

so i freaked out a little bit, jumping about in my chair, waving my arms and making frightened huhuhuhuhuhhhhh noises.

“it got me,” i said in a weak voice clutching my wrist and waiting for death to come.
“do you need me to bring you to the hospital?” FFJ asked.
“i don’t know yet,” i said still waiting for the shortness of breath and swelling of body parts. “maybe i’ll be ok, i can’t tell.”

we sat and looked at each other, me cupping my wounded arm and FFJ just watching for me to keel over. i started to imagine symptoms and kept breathing really deeply to make sure that i could still breathe.

“i think i might live,” i said.
“do you want me to get something?” she asked.
“it hurts,” i said.
“we’ve got tons of bite junk, i’ll go get some.”

FFJ headed into the cabin for first aid type stuff and i sat cupping my arm and making sure that i was still breathing ok and that my head wasn’t feeling all kinds of wonky like last time.

“here, we’ll try this one.”
“ok,” i said.
“it says to make sure the stinger’s out. is the stinger out?”
“i think so,” i said, looking at my wound.
“ok, apply to the affected area with fingertip. if itching doesn’t go away in 10-15 minutes reapply.”

so i applied the bite balm to my wound and commenced checking my own breathing.

“are you sure you’re going to be ok?” she asked.
“yes,” i said. “i think i might just be panicking.”
“ok.”

now, two days later, i’m still alive. i’ve managed to survive, but it still really really hurts and itches.