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| My feet, yesterday afternoon, a few hours after a bee sting. Note the difference between my right, and left, stung foot. |
I was cranky this morning. I am not usually cranky, and especially not usually in the morning. I am one of those disgusting morning people.Wayne is not.
“What’s that saying about a bee and a bonnet?” Wayne asked. “A bee in your bonnet,” I replied. Actually it means fixated, rather than cranky, though in my case it’s fair to say since being stung by a bee yesterday, the two go together.
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| This morning, more swelling. It just looks like I gained 50 pounds on the left half of my body. |
In case you’re wondering, in this case, a bonnet is a hat, usually an old fashioned women’s hat, as the saying originated in 1700s.
We were about to pull off St. Helens city dock, when I stepped on a bee on our boat deck I didn’t know was there. I realized it in a hurry, as it stung me on the inside of my “ring finger” toe of my left foot. It hurt! Worse, I tend to get bad swelling from bee and wasp stings. The worst was when I got stung on the underside of my wrist by a wasp in St. Marteen. Then, I didn’t have access to any antihistamines (ex. Benadryl) for several days as it was a Sunday when pharmacies were closed and we were setting sail for a more remote area. I was swollen and uncomfortable for days, exacerbated by the tropical heat.
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| Normally what I’d wear to avoid splinters, dirt or bees. My flip-flops have been with me since New Zealand. |
“Must’ve been that blue brush you bought,” Wayne teased, remembering the bee trying to pollinate our deck brush in New Zealand. I recently bought us a new deck brush, again, blue. And Wayne warned me when I bought it.
While I didn’t see any bees on our deck brush, after I got stung I notice we were getting swarmed. Not sure why. As we headed down the river, one by one, they abandoned ship. Normally, I’d be on deck, cleaning up dock lines and fenders while Wayne drove.
Instead, I made sure to take quicker anti-allergy action than I did in St. Marteen. I took Benadryl and rubbed it on as a topical, too. And after doing some more research (hooray for Google on a phone connection while underway), I popped an aspirin, got Wayne to find and pull the stinger, and wash the area in soap and water. A wet paper towel on this cool, breezy day served as my cool compress. I got off my feet, elevated the stung one, and took it easy. Wayne did more than his fair share of boat and domestic work.
I did find out my type of extreme swelling is not unusual, regardless of treatment. It is not, however, as I was warned before, a life threatening issue unless confusion, accelerated heartbeat or breathing trouble ensue. Then it’s time to pull out and epi pen and get more serious help if needed.
Still, it’s annoying. I can only hope the swelling doesn’t get much worse and that the itching subsides sooner rather than later. Swelling increases are normal up to 48 hours after a sting, and can take as long as 10 days to go away.
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| Serendipity’s bow, overlooking Sauvie’s Island, where we’re currently at anchor. Sauvies is in the Portland Oregon area. |
Location Location
We are currently at anchor off Sauvie’s Island (N45.47.410 W122.47.179), where I’m being rather uncharacteristically lazy. I still have a couple more cross-country posts to catch up on, and will, as well what happens when you come back to a boat you’ve left for eight months.
As well as enjoying summer in the Pacific Northwest, my goal is to refresh my marketing skills by completing an Online Marketing Certificated Professional (OMCP), start, finish and self-publish my first book, and figure out what to do for a living, where, once summer’s over.
Bee stings aside, life is good.
