Yesterday afternoon D. decided that he was going to do a little weeding in our flower beds.
Since he’d spent the morning edging the driveway, cleaning off the deck, transferring pinestraw from one place to another, and basically taking care of all the outside chores that I do my very best to ignore, I fully supported his decision to continue with his alarming level of productivity and get after those pesky weeds.
He started with a small bed of azaleas that’s in the center of our backyard, and about five minutes into the weeding, he came face-to-face with a pile of yellow jackets.
I don’t think “pile” is the scientific term, by the way.
I believe the scientific term is, in fact, “posse.”
And one of the members of the yellow jacket posse? Officially a hater.
Because he stung D. right on the bridge of his nose.
When D. came inside I offered to do what my grandmother always did, which was to soak a cotton ball in Clorox and rub it all over the affected area. But the more I thought about it, the more confident I was that placing Clorox so close to the eye area was probably not one of my better home-remedy ideas. So we decided we’d run to the store and pick up some Benadryl.
And I’m certainly not saying that the swelling was immediately noticeable, but when D. went in Publix to get the medicine, a total stranger pointed at him, then gestured to the Benadryl box and said, “LOOKS LIKE YOU NEED TO GO AHEAD AND TAKE SOME OF THAT!”
Really, I can’t imagine anything quite as fun as being singled out in a public setting for an unexpected bout of facial swelling. And I have no idea why that person reacted like she did. I mean, other than the right side of his face being twice the size of the left side of his face, D. looked COMPLETELY normal.
We thought the swelling might subside a little bit overnight, but we were wrong. In fact, when D. woke up this morning, the large patch of puffiness that was spanning the center of his face had an extra-special allergic addition: a right eye that was swollen completely shut.
Which means that he’s essentially been winking at me all day long.
And trust me, girls: you have not been wooed until you have been unintentionally winked at by a man who’s experiencing an abnormal amount of facial swelling thanks to one lone hater in a posse of killer yellow jackets.
Oh, it’s a tender memory that I will carry in my heart forever.
However, D. is encouraged by the fact that since half of his vision is gone due to the fact that HE CAN’T OPEN HIS RIGHT EYE, his hearing seems to have improved at least twenty percent.
So see? That totally takes the sting out of the whole ordeal.
Well LOL’ing at your post aside…bless his heart that had to be horrible :( Get well QUICK wishes for him. :) xoxo melzie
What, no picture?????
(tee hee hee)
Hope he’s feeling (and looking) better soon.
Alesha
Yikes! A paste of baking soda and water draws out the poison. And I just read that dirt from the garden will take the sting away, but not sure if it does anything else.
You could double dose the Benedryl, too, for a day or two.
I read this just after watching the episode of “My NAme Is Earl” where he and the woman he likes both swell up from stings and then try to kiss. So that’s how I pictured you.
I was going to mention the baking soda and water paste, too. My Dad always seemed to find himself in the midst of your coined phrase “yellow jacket posse.” Not fun at all! So sorry for your D! Perhaps he needs to give up weeding altogether…what with poison ivy and bees and lions, tigers and bears (oh my!)…I am sure proud of my tall weeds :) Have a wonderful week! We are prepping for our long journey…I’ll be missing your stories.
Holly
Awesome. Completely awesome. With complete sympathy I say that this may be the best story I’ve heard in a while. Thank you very much. :)
OW! Poor man! Speedy healing for him!
My total, total sympathy goes out to him. And that is totally why I don’t garden, have limited flower beds and why they are full of weeds. Yikes.
LOL as usual, but it almost seems like Emergency Room time.
I’ve actually heard that putting a penny on a sting draws out the venom of it – something about the copper.
That, and it makes for a good photo op at the same time.
Just sayin’…
While I’m here, I wanted to say thanks for your previous post with the Nicole Nordeman video – beautiful reminder. I’ve been lurking for a while and I love your website. You have been blessed with a wonderful family and you have such a sweet spirit. I always look forward to what you’re going to write about next.
Blessings for a good week!
~Jen
So sorry ….
I’m deathly allergic to bee venom of most kinds, so I’m creeping out for D.
Ba dum bum
Hope D recovers quickly, but that the eye winking will continue for MUCH longer!
I’ve always heard that wet tobacco (crushed cigarette, snuff or chewing – they all work) will help draw the poison out and reduce the pain and swelling. And the bonus part? The pleasant smell.
ahem.
The Mighty Hunter has some allergic reactions that worry me enough to get an Epi-pen for him. A sting on the head or face or neck with that much swelling needs to be watched very closely. It could restrict his airways very quickly and need some serious attention – ER kind, hopefully there will be a cute doc involved. To make sure D doesn’t catch you admiring the God-given physical beauty of this fictitious ER doc, stand on his right side, where that eye is swollen shut.
Hope he’s better soon.
That does not sound fun. I was picturing Hitch, too. I can’t even imagine how painful that was!
This is the exact reason I don’t do yardwork anymore. That and snakes. And spiders. And getting hot. And dirty. Yuk!
I’m envisioning Will Smith in the scene from “Hitch.” Poor, poor D! I’d know how to pray for him better if I had a visual, you know. :)
That’s the one thing that bugs me about the south (pun intended, I guess): everything’s poisonous! There’s so much that can get’cha when you’re outside! When we lived in Maine, it was heavenly, because when I sent the kiddos outside to play, they were really free to explore and I didn’t have to worry about little things like red wasps and copperheads. The kiddos came in screaming for a jar to catch “the coolest bug ever” a few weeks ago, and my hubby went out to see what they had “trapped,” only to find out it was a 10-inch long centipede!!! My hubby didn’t so much catch it for the kids as he did hack it in half with a shovel.
Fun times.
So what is pinestraw and why do you move it? Is it any relation to congealed salad?
I know that it is already mentioned, but really a baking soda paste put on immediately is truly the cure all for bee stings in my house. My husband got hit 5 different times down his neck and he said it provided instant relief. Much safer on the facial region the, oh– bleach!
that’s just terrible. i guess ya’ll stayed home from church today to keep from scaring the small children (the abnormal facial proportion) and young ladies (the winks). i sure hope he’s feeling better soon.
Oh man… I was really hoping for pictures. I sure hope it’s better soon, though.
On a serious note, make sure he stays away from them for a while (not that he would search them out, of course), but if he gets stung again soon after having such a reaction, it could be very dangerous. I went through the same thing when I got stung twice in less than a month by a red wasp. The second time was in the foot and it swelled up extremely quickly. The doc told me if I got stung again, to get to the ER immediately. Ok. Just wanted to caution you (just in case it hasn’t been mentioned).
Oh Boomama,
This brings back memories of a couple of summers ago when my man came running in the house yelling for Benedryl. When I asked what for, I noticed he had developed a horrible lisp. Apparently when he uses the riding lawn mower, he sings. Brace yourself, a wasp flew in his mouth and stung his tongue. I am not kidding. It was swollen for two days. I still laugh about that anytime I catch a glimpse of him cutting the grass.
In all seriousness, I hope your man is back to normal asap!
How terrible. I am so sorry for him, but I had to laugh reading about it. :-)
I was going to suggest the baking soda paste as well. It’s what we always used. Well, unless we were at my great-grandma’s house. She would put wet snuff on it. Yes, she dipped. I still get grossed out thinking about it. But, it worked.
Ya know, the movie Hitch was on TV last night and I was watching it while I folded clothes. But, then I was laughing to hard to be bothered with the folding of the laundry so I just sat down and watched it. Because its a good movie. But, what I’m trying to say is that if D looks anything like Hitch after the shell fish then I just don’t know how you aren’t pointing and laughing all day long. Oh, and apparently putting a straw in your bottle of Benadryl and drinking it like a juice box helps.
We are raising honeybees – this is our first year. My dh took a sting on the hiner today as well as the back of leg. Right now they’re at the itchy stage which is really attractive when the caboose is involved. At least there is an excuse for the bum-itching, I suppose.
Hope he’s better soon!
P.S. Me again – have you ever watched Hitch? Now that allergic reaction involved seafood but still – that had to have been THE funniest part of the whole movie (except where the client tried to kiss Hitch who had his mouth open…get out the Depends!!). I do love me some Will Smith.
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
~TaunaLen
Another “pun”derful post, Boomama!
BTW, my uncle once put a wad of chewing tobacco from his mouth on my bee/wasp/yellowjacket sting. I guess you probably didn’t have any of that, huh?!
Or maybe you did and it just wasn’t actually in your lip at the time. I mean this is Alabama for cryin’ out loud! :-)
OH, the poor man.
Clorox? I would have thought Windex. But maybe that’s a Yankee thing. ;)
Poor D! I hope he’s not in pain. You need to keep a close watch on him, if he has any difficulty breathing get him to the ER quick.
i mean, nothing says “in sickness and in health” like a little facial swelling. i had an allergic reaction to some fish on my honeymoon. let’s just say i did NOT take many honeymoon pictures of me looking a klingon. poor D. hopefully you dispensed LOADS and LOADS of spousal sympathy. i’m sure he would only expect the best.
Luisa – Windex is a Greek thing.
BooMama – sorry about D. Hope he feels better soon.
OH NO! Poor thing.. hope the swelling goes down soon. But i love the unintentional winking thing. SOOO CUTE!!!!
I think the hater bee’s brother stung me on the lip once…I looked like the stinkin’ nutty professor for 2 whole days…my baby girl, then 2, wouldn’t let me hold her she was so scared and my oh so compassionate husband couldn’t stop laughing…You tell D. I’m feeling it for him..And don’t you laugh at him! It will hurt him deeply.
So sad, but so funny!
Ouchie!
I know this has already been said but, the baking soda and water paste works well.
I was attacked by an evil hornet when I was a kid. Crazy thing flew up my sleeve and got me 4 times before I could kill it. My friends little grandma came running and according to her she had 2 sure fire remedies. Next thing I know I was being slathered down with tobacco juice and purple onions! Course I’m not sayin they helped or anything :0)
Just saying she was a sweet little granny and I was a very resistant patient when it came to rubbin me down with onions and anything that remotely resembled brown regurgetated gooo! LOL
Course now I keep epi pens on hand and benedryl. I’m also guessing with such a bad reaction this time…He just might need to have an epi pen on hand for any future attacks. :0)
Hope he feels better soon!
Trina
And, I bet he’s thrilled to be able to contribute humorous blog fodder for our enjoyment :)
Praying he’s much better soon!
A posse of yellow jackets
came out in force
as D was weeding
the flower bed…of course!
The hater, he got him
on the bridge of his face
Guess next time he’ll have to
garden with mace!
Well wishes from Georgia
What happened sure did stink
But maybe, just maybe
He’ll continue to wink! ;-)
We watched Hitch the other night, and this incident TOTALLY made me think of that scene where he’s wandering the isles looking for Benedryl after eating shell fish. Poor guy!
“Swell” idea–I get it now…I’m slow, but that was indeed funny…just had to tell ya!
You just give that big winkin’ guy of yours a hug, won’t ya? Sounds like you’re in need of a landscape budget, since D is out of commission, and will probably have flashbacks…
I just had to come out of Lurkdom to be sure you know how to get rid of the nest. Yellow jackets nest in the ground and love pine straw. Don’t ask me how I know.
I concur with the baking soda paste. Best stuff EVER for stings!
If you have never seen the movie Hitch, with Will Smith, you totally need to now…his was a seafood allergy, but none the less, his face and the Benadryl are worth the laughter. We will be praying for D and his nose…I hate to bring this up, but please do not hold this against us GA Tech fans. :)
Ditto on the baking soda paste (little water with baking soda) — always worked for me. Just get it on the area quickly and let it dry on the area.
My cousin Sharon was stung by a yellowjacket. After she screamed and hollered she grabbed some of her husbands tobacco and placed it on the sting. The swelling went down real fast and she was no longer in pain.
Sharons father does something else rather unusual. He catches sweat bees and places them on his knees. And yes, he lets them sting him. He says it helps his athritis. (sp)
I am certain my grandmother would say that some sort of vinegar solution would also help D out. Vinegar cures and fixes everything.
I just have one word for you…
Turpentine.
You need to get one of thoser sting pens to keep in the junk drawer… it is only ammonia, which is the absolute BEST for stings, not clorox or windex.
— I was really hoping for a picture, too.
Mississippi kisses to your hu.