Just a thought to those beekeepers out there that haven't seen how quickly
anaphylactic shock can come over us, I have an experience to share:

My dad decided to help last November ('99) in a late removal of Apistan from
the remaining half of my beehives.  The bees were sore since the temperature
was 60'ish and  repeatedly stung me through two layers of clothing.   The bees
were 'zeroing in' on the smell of sweat since I was doing all the lifting -
rather than  my dad whom was removing the strips.  That is, until he happened
to catch his face mask on a tree and resulted in a quick sting to his chin.

It wasn't even 2 or 3 minutes later when he walked away rather slowly and
complained that his hands were 'tingly'.  He decided to lay down for a minute,
which I took for a clue to get him into the truck in case he was going into
shock.  He only had 10 or 15 feet to go and passed out right before I could
help him into the passenger seat.  He revived before I had time to read the
directions for the 'best' use of my Epipen.  Looking back I should have taken
him directly to a hospital regardless of his refusals "I'm fine, I'm OK".
Later that night he broke into a rash, itching and fatigue but completely
recovered the following day.

By his example, we may only have 4 or 5 minutes to get to our Epipen, and most
of those minutes you're not thinking with clarity.  Most of us are by
ourselves when working beehives, out in the middle of nowhere.  Keep your
Epipen close.  Know how to administer the shot (where to, what direction) and
most of all, know when to find that shot.

Storage - His doctor recommended keeping the Epipen stored inside a thermos,
insulated against extreme heat/cold, extending the life of the shot.  Now that
we know he has a reaction, he supposedly has to carry that pen around with him
for the rest of his life (outdoors anyway).   The weird thing was, he's been
stung by wasps/yellow jackets before without incident.  Earlier in the the
summer, he was stung on his finger when visiting my apiary - with average
swelling reaction.

Any other thought/suggestion/advice on this topic?


Matthew Westall

     //        Earthling Bees
 >8(())))-     "Take me to your feeder"
     \\        Castle Rock, CO,  USA