prickvixen: (Default)
prickvixen ([personal profile] prickvixen) wrote2005-06-12 06:36 pm

(no subject)

Huh. So that's a bee sting.

I'm biking to the store, and something small banged against my helmet, as things often do, and I kind of absently wave my arm at it, and then it's on my arm, and it's a bee. And I kind of freak out, like I do, and try to scrape it off of my arm onto my side or something, and then I feel something like a needle pricking me. "Fucker just stung me!" I exclaim, and I scrape it off a moment later. I think when you sound that offended at being attacked, that's a sign that it's not very serious. Also, under the panic and annoyance was this kind of relief, the moment I felt the sting, like 'well, that's one less thing to worry about.'

I pull over and flick the stinger out of my arm; I think it might've been a yellowjacket rather than a bee, because it was smooth and came right out. The pain from the venom itself was like a neuromuscular toxin, like when you work out too much and your muscles hurt. It was pretty bearable, but as minutes passed it grew, and I started wondering if it was going to really hurt, if my arm was going to swell up, etc. About five minutes after that, it had pretty much dissipated. I had a little lump on my arm and a red area, and that was going away, too. The area feels a little tight and stiff. Actually, I got a little high off of it. I'm not sure if it's the toxin or the adrenaline. It's just remarkable how inconsequential it was.

...because when I was a kid, I was mowing someone's lawn, and apparently a bee got me on the neck. I never found a stinger or anything, so again, maybe a wasp or something. I stopped halfway through the lawn, went home, was crying and bawling and carrying on, and it seemed like it hurt for hours. This lawn-mowing thing was getting way too dangerous, just so I could buy Dragon Magazine every month.

I'll probably still freak out when there's a bee flying around me, but I hope maybe I'll be more sanguine about it now.

[identity profile] ff00ff.livejournal.com 2005-06-13 08:39 am (UTC)(link)
I was lucky enough to be stung by the only species of scorpion in North America that is associated with fatalities That link describes temporary loss of the use of an affected extremity, but I was stung in the back, I just got tingling in my fingers and toes. It was incredibly painful around the area where I was actually stung. I've never been stabbed, but I would compare it to that.

[identity profile] ff00ff.livejournal.com 2005-06-13 08:47 am (UTC)(link)
Here is a picture or two of the species that I was stung by. They are scrawnier and uglier than most.