Casey:
If you are going through the desensitization process, you need to avoid bees
completely until you are stable. There is no suit in the world that anyone
can recommend that would be safe until you are desensitized.
Then, when you start working with bees again, you need to wear LESS effective
suits, not more effective suits. You need to get stung more often, not less
often, in order to maintain your immunity. Before I developed my allergy, I
usually worked with a full suit, because I didn't like getting stung.
Nowadays, unless I am loading or unloading a truckload of bees, I don't wear
a suit. I just wear a veil. No gloves. I still don't like getting stung,
but if I want to keep bees, it is the price I must pay.
If you wear a good suit, you will just end up getting bee venom on the suit.
If you inhale the bee venom when it dries, that could end up triggering you
back into an allergy again.
Useful suggestions from someone who has been desensitized: Keep your Epi-pen
with you at all times, avoid all contact with bees until you are stable, and
wear the least effective suit possible when you begin working bees again (if
you don't get stung once or twice each time you work your hive, the suit is
probably too effective).
Good luck, and always keep in mind that this is your life we're talking about
here.
Shawna Roberts
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