Allergic to Honey Bees

My office phone rang.My daughter told me quickly that Pa had been stung by hundreds of honey bees and was on his way by ambulance to the local hospital. While I grabbed my purse, left school and drove to the local rural hospital, my daughter explained that daddy had been unable to get the lid off the hive. He had taken a board and hammer and tried to prize the sections of the hive apart. When the lid had come loose, bees swarmed him. He had dropped his tools, run to the four-wheeler on his 90 year old long legs and raced  the four wheeler away from the hive. Bees were inside his sleeves, pants, and shirt as well as clinging to areas of exposed skin on his neck , ears, and face. In his hurry to escape, he had dropped his glasses and run over them with the four wheeler tire.  By the time I reached the emergency room, the physician had given him prednisone and Benadryl to stop his body’s swelling and other allergic reactions. The nurse had pulled over 50 stingers out of his head. When I entered the room, daddy said, “Well, I guess you are going to tell me that you told me so.” “ I guess you’ll want me to just sit in the house now and do nothing until I die or my feet rot off from high blood sugar because I don't get any exercise.  Now, I was truly speechless as I watched my daddy try to maintain his sense of control while his ears and nose had become the size of Dumbo’s. 

Our preacher stayed in the ER with us until daddy was released. When we got home, daddy realized he did not have his gloves, hammer, or glasses. He questioned me if my husband could go get them. When I told him that the bees were angry and that it would be best if my husband and everyone stayed away from the bees, he just looked at me like a sad swollen child. He actually poked his lip out when I told him that he must leave the bees alone. He told me the bees were his pets. The next evening, I was not really surprised to find that daddy had a sheepish grin. He said, “ Well, I have always heard that a criminal will return to the scene of a crime.” “ I just went over there to find my glasses, and only a few bees stung me.”

It would seem reasonable that being a nurse, I would explain how the body can have a more intensified allergic reaction with subsequent exposures to stings. Daddy, however, said I was raising my voice and that was when he took his forefinger and rubbed it across his lip making a buzzing sound. Mamma and I decided we could both really enjoy a cup of soothing herbal tea.

"Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth." 

Proverbs 27:1 NIV