My brother Richie has a girlfriend. We'll call her RG for "Richie's Girlfriend."
RG is allergic to bee, hornet, and wasp stings.
RG is deathly allergic to bee, hornet, and wasp stings.
Every time RG goes out in the summer, she brings long-sleeved clothing and her epi pen (sp?).
And every summer, RG gets stung.
Every summer.
We don't understand this at all. We were discussing it this week as a family, and our family members have mostly been stung once in their life or never at all. We can't understand how RG gets stung every summer. And apparently doctors have been saying that her reactions get progressively worse and the next time it happens, she may actually die, epi pen or no epi pen.
And the day after we were discussing it, RG got stung.
She didn't die.
But she got very sick.
How? How does RG manage to get stung every year?
Discuss.
(Please note that RG does not provoke the insects in any way. This time, the insect stung her through her jeans. She was just standing there.)
8 comments:
Um, that is really weird. I have never been stung by a bee or anything like unto it. That's why I'm deathly afraid of them. Does she have some kind of weird mental disease where she likes to be sick? (I've been watching way too much CSI and Law and Order lately)
Mosquitos seem to long for my blood beyond any comprehension. (Got about ten bites in two square inches on my leg during our trip to Canada.)
Maybe her scent says "intruder" the way mine says "delicacy."
Does she shower in honey? Does she have a pistel and stamen? Does she wiggle her butt in a particularly insectual way? Maybe she is sending the bees a signal they understand, since that is how bees communicate. Also, I have found that bees really like meat. Does she shower in pastrami?
That's all I can think of.
Let's analyze this situation.
If every summer she gets stung, and every summer she carries the epi-pen...
it would appear to me that the epi-pen serves a second function of attracting the bees that it combats.
After all, I never carry epi-pens and I've only been stung once.
(No, seriously, though, that is really weird.)
Info about avoiding bee stings that I found online:
"Wear appropriate clothing. When hiking in the wilderness, wear light-colored clothing, including socks. Avoid wearing leather clothing. When they defend their nests, Honey bees target objects that resemble their natural predators (such as bears and skunks), so they tend to go after dark, leathery or furry objects. Keep in mind that bees see the color red as black, so fluorescent orange is a better clothing choice when hunting."
"Avoid wearing scents of any sort when hiking or working outside. Africanized honey bees communicate to one another using scents and tend to be quite sensitive to odors. Avoid strongly scented shampoo, soaps, perfumes, heavily scented gum, etc. If riding, avoid using fly control products on your horse with a "lemony" or citrus odor. Such scents are also known to provoke or attract honey bees."
I also read somewhere that bees are more likely to sting you if you're using, say, a cosmetic product that contains beeswax.
Also, I read that eating bananas makes bees more likely to sting you, but I've read that same thing about mosquitos biting people.
And swatting at bees, moving around a lot, etc, apparently don't help with avoiding stings.
have you ever seen the movie pure luck? some people are just special. they never seem to avoid a horrible incident. (on pure luck martin short also happens to be deathly allergic to bee stings, and gets stung. maybe you should watch it with RG.)
I don't have an explanation, but I do have a remedy.
She needs to train to become a bee keeper. Either she learns to deal with bees, or she dies trying (most likely on day 1).
Did I mention that since I eliminated processed food and simple carbohydrates from my diet, I have not been bitten by a mosquito, even once? And I used to be bitten every time I walked outside. No longer. Perhaps the secret of the bee stings is in the diet as well. I mean, it's the answer to everything else.
If that's not it, I agree that the epi pen is attracting them and making them mad. RG should stop carrying it.
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