>After several years of bee stings, I recently suffered a sudden anaphylactic >reaction to bee venom from just one sting - in the neck. I'm now undergoing >de-sensitization therapy, being injected with increasing quantities of >bee-venom >every week and should be OK to work with bees again by the end of the year. >I'll carry my adrenaline syringe everywhere 'though. > >I've spoken to many, many beekeepers and bee scientists all over the world >who've had similar reactions and it seems more common than one would like to >think - to me at least, this phenomenon appears to occur much more frequently >than the suppositions and various hypothetical models would predict. > > >Perhaps not all beekeepers report an adverse reaction to their doctor? > >It really must be good advice for all beekeepers to have adrenaline or >epinephrine doses handy just in case. > >Does anyone on the list have or know of any actual data on the prevalence of >reaction to bee venom amongst beekeepers? >______________________________ Reply Separator >_________________________________ > REGARDING Immune Reactions to Stings > >So much has recently been written on this topic that I'll follow up with a new >post title. On Tues, 9/24, Dave Cawley reported on a large swelling of his >forearm following a sting to his wrist, and wondered what could have caused snip >suddenly develops it out of the blue. One must act prudently, of course, not >giving an Epipen injection whenever a small local swelling occurs, but one >will rather quickly known when a sting reaction is getting out of hand, and >Epipen is the single treatment of choice for this situation. > >Ted Fischer -------------------------- I'm only a beginning beekeeper and still have some local swellings after bee stings, but about two months ago a skilful bee managed to reach into the nerve above the end joint on my left ring finger. As a result I have lost a lot of sensation up that side of my finger tip, and it shows no sign of improving. It doesn't prevent me doing things, but it's a bit sensitive. Has anyone else experienced this? Thanks for all the tips. There must be hundreds of years of experience coming through this list! Bruce Laidlaw ------------------------------------------------- \ Bruce Laidlaw (\ / \ Head Teacher {|||8- / \ Foundation Studies (/ / \ East Sydney College of TAFE / \ (Technical & Further Education) / \ Darlinghurst / \ New South Wales / \ Australia 2010 / \ +61-2-9569-2854 (h) 9339-8648 (w) / \ http://pip.com.au/~abestuds/ / ================================================ (\ /) {|||8- Beekeeper -8|||} (/ \)