I've also used the venom for pain.  Mostly in joints as I was dx with  
a degenerative condition last year - that finally explained the pain.   
Before diagnosis though- for the pain, my mentor - an older very wise  
bee keeper, showed me how to pickup a bee at the hive with bare hands,  
place it's stinger on the point of pain.  His advice is leave it there  
for 5  minutes. Repeat in a month untill no pain.  It took three  
stings for my thumb joint that was a few years back.  Worked great and  
can hold a pen to write.  Now I'm working on the lower thumb joints.  
Cant use the thumb to grab anything yet so to pick up heavy stuff-  
gotta use the whole hand. I'm two stings into it. Getting  
progressively better.  Interestingly though, I was stung by a wasp a  
week ago, right on the spot on one thumb and that was markedly  
different.  It's less intense in pain than the other thumb!
So do wasp stings also fit this category as being beneficial therapy?  
Don't know.

As the stings are known to be cumulative, I'm trying not to do this  
too agressively as being the beekeeper also provides me with a few  
stings from time to time working the hives.

I've caught my veil on fire once with hot hot smoke- the nylon  
melted.  Got quite a few stings on the side of my face. Not pretty.   
 From then on my family gets very upset when I get stung at all.  My  
dr insists I keep the epipen at hand.  So far, local reactions have  
been minor. (except the face time).

Last summer- my daugher stepped barefoot on a dead bee.  The stinger  
went into the bottom of one of her tiny toes.
She had by then been stung maybe 4-5 times in her whole 8 years of  
life.  This time however, she had an anaphalitic reaction, and was  
rushed to the hospital.  So now we are always with pen and bendryl

Great to see the benefits of the venom, but also beware if it becomes  
intolerable by the body- be prepared.

Lucy

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at:
http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm