Earlier this week I got stung by a bee for the first time in 13 years.
The last time I got stung, it was one yellow jacket on my ring finger. The next day my entire finger was so swollen I couldn’t move it. Then the two fingers surrounding it also swelled up. We went to the doctor where they prescribed me an epipen. They said, though I didn’t have an anaphylactic shock this time, that I had a pretty severe reaction and it might be possible to have one the next time.
Who knew the “next time” the doctor was referring to wouldn’t occur for 13 years. I am pleased to inform everyone I did NOT have an anaphylactic shock, and in fact the reaction was all in all a lot better than when I was 12.
The last couple weeks our grass has continued to grow longer and denser as our lawnmower sat broken in the garage. It wasn't badly broken; it was just that our pull cord was old and the last time I cut the grass it snapped when I filled the gas up mid-mow. Our grass sat for a week with an awkward uncut strip in the middle of the yard. Then after the first week the grass was all about the same height.
On to Monday, Tay and I got to feel what it’s like to become real adults. While I spent an hour fiddling with the lawnmower, she went around killing weeds. I was able to fix the lawn mower with some paracord I found in the garage as a brand new pull cord.
It felt like a real adult thing to do!
That evening I cut the front yard and now it looks like people actually live in our house. It was late and we were hungry after that so we decided to cut the backyard on Tuesday.
That’s when it happened. There must’ve been a small nest at the top of our hill in the backyard. There I was, minding my own business, listening to a podcast, cutting the grass. The dogs were inside and my beautiful wife was sitting on the patio working on the computer. Then, all of a sudden, I felt a sting on my left ankle. You know how sometimes when you cut the grass you run over a stick or something and it shoots stick shrapnel all over the place? That’s what I thought it was for a second.
But then it hit me. I thought to myself, “no, this is more than that.” That’s when I felt the second sting and then started running down the hill with the lawnmower still running.
Unfortunately, when I made the new pull cord, it was a little too long and I used the remainder to tie the lawnmower handle so it wouldn’t turn off if I let go.
So now I’m running down the hill, the lawnmower is rolling down the hill still on (automatic grass cutting), and I have probably 5 or 6 yellow jackets on my pants and left ankle. It was terrifying.
I ran up to Tay who was still sitting and showed her my leg. Her first thought was that I had a bunch of bristles from a briar or something in my pants and wanted her to pick them off. According to her, I had a panicked look in my eye but forgot how to use words. As she sat staring at me about to try and wipe a “briar” off my pants, I yelled at her that they were yellow jackets and we took immediate action. Once we were safe and sound inside without any bees, we got the dogs in.
Even poor Lucy got stung on her ear which is now at least twice the thickness of her other ear. She wouldn’t even come inside at first, but just stood in a panic on the step with her tail down. Finally she got in after enough coaxing and the bee that stung her stayed back.
Whoo! No bees inside and I could still breathe so we were all good. All in all I think I got 3 stings on my ankle and foot and 1 on my opposite knee. Lucy got the one sting on her ear. Luckily, Tay didn’t get any stings, and even if Merlin did he’s invincible apparently so it wouldn’t have done anything. Plus his fur is too thick for a yellow jacket.
We were safe and sound, but the adventure was not over yet. We looked outside and the lawnmower was still on, sitting in the backyard. I guess it was nice it rolled down the hill so it wasn’t close to the nest, but we still had to figure out a way to sneak out there and shut it off without getting more stings.
This is when I loaded up with some armor. I threw on thicker pants, my motorcycle jacket, gloves, and even my motorcycle helmet. I wrapped a towel around my neck like a cape and ran outside like a superhero (or a crazy person). I was able to get the mower off without seeing another wasp.
Now I was inside, safe and sound. About half of the grass in the backyard got cut, but that’s ok. The rest can wait until winter, haha!
In reality, we are making plans to try and find the nest and kill them all. But we’ll update y’all on that later. I think it’s a fairly small nest since only like 6 bees came out to attack. When we looked back outside there wasn’t a swarm or anything, so it shouldn’t be too hard to kill them.
This entire adventure has taught me a couple things, though. First of all, even though my foot is too swollen to put on my climbing shoe today, I am still thankful I didn’t have a worse reaction. I haven’t been stung in forever and it’s always been over my head. I’ve carried epipens on camping trips cause I never knew if the next sting would close my throat or not. Finally, after over a decade of waiting, I know the answer. I got 4 or 5 stings at the same time and nothing happened. When I was a kid, I remember whenever I got stung, my entire body reacted. It was as if I could feel the poison coursing through all my blood within seconds. This time, even with multiple stings, it was not anywhere near that bad. Praise God!
The other thing I’ve really been reminded of is that nature is real and still out there. We live in a broken world and even nature itself is there to remind us. Bees, snakes, and many of those pests can actually hurt us and affect our lives. Not to mention natural disasters. I told y’all I was reading this futuristic dystopia about a world so advanced humans defeated all diseases and even death of old age. However, the one thing those fictional future humans couldn’t stop was nature. Natural disasters still happened, and even in this world death by fire was the end all be all.
I thought that was really cool of the author to put in. He understood there is something about nature that really reflects God’s ultimate power. No matter how far humans advance, God’s power will always reign supreme, and I think nature is an amazing reminder of that truth.
That was hysterical! But I’m glad you did not have a serious problem. Keith’s been fighting with yellow jackets living in the stone wall around the front door! They are persistent.