Attack of the Killer Bee!

It was a lovely Sunday afternoon, the sun was shining and the air was warm. We were in Calgary catching up with some old friends. Not old as in age, I wouldn't want to be insulting, but old as in known each other for a number of years. Trevor and Corey were outside on the deck, Trevor was admiring Corey's handy work with building the deck. Then a large bee starts buzzing around. Trevor is oblivious to it but Corey notices it.

Corey is thinking to himself,

"Maybe I should shoo that creature away...nah, don't want to make it mad."

He does nothing.

The two men are just leaning against the railing, shooting the breeze when wham! The crazy bee decides that it would be good time to commit suicide and sting Trevor on the wrist. Of course it hurt, bee stings do. Trevor comes inside, applies some 'Afterbite' and attempts to get some sympathy from me. He has been stung on numerous occasions and beyond the 'stinging' sensation nothing ever comes of them. Mosquito bites, on the other hand, cause him to grow this enormous welt which he proceeds to scratch until he goes crazy and the bite turns into a bloody mess.

Anyway, we go on with our visit and drive home that evening. No problem.

Trevor gets up Monday morning and goes to work. No problem.

By mid-morning his wrist, hand and arm half-way to his elbow have swollen up. By early Tuesday afternoon the state of his arm and hand had become much worse. Trevor was quite worried. His hand looked like a cartoon character's hand when they blow it up, like a balloon. It actually looked quite funny despite the situation.

Trevor went to the doctor and when the nurse took one look at him they hustled him in within ten minutes. (You know it's serious when...) His doctor, a good-natured, laid-back guy, was immediately concerned. It's not everyday he sees a balloon hand! He quickly diagnosed the likelihood that the stinger stayed inside Trevor and the swelling was the body's reaction to the foreign object. He froze Trevor's hand and cut the sting site open and rooted around in Trevor's wrist with a little claw-like instrument in attempt to extract the stinger. Bee stingers are small so the doc couldn't tell if he was successful or not and it was possible that his body had already absorbed it.

The doctor bandaged Trevor up and sent him on his way. Trevor left armed with a couple of prescriptions and strict instructions to go straight to the hospital if he experienced any sign of a fever because that would indicate blood poisoning!

Blood Poisoning!

That's bad.

It was just a little old bee sting!

Scary!

Fortunately there was no midnight trip to emerg. and by morning Trevor's hand was almost back to standard size.

Who would've thought?