# Wasp sting reactions



## SarahFair

Thursday night I was stung on the elbow by what I'm assuming was a hornet. I didn't see it but I suddenly felt like someone drove a hot metal wire into my elbow. I jumped and let out a few yelps before I took an understanding to what was going on.

Over the next 30 minutes the pain grew and it looked like a golf ball under my skin. I didn't get to bed about 2-3 in the morning because the pain was so bad.. woke up the next day and the swelling had gone down but expanded around. You could literlly feel the heat coming off my elbow until last night..
Friday my finger joints and back started to seriously ache.
Yesterday I didn't get out of bed till 11 and was tired all day and today I didn't get out of bed till noon and have been overly exhausted all day. Not a yawning tired, but a foggy dragging let me just lay down right here real quick tired. I can not shake it.
About an inch or two above the sting spot my arm became spotted white and was tingling to the point you can't ignore it. Throughout the day the tingling and numbness has extended down my arm and to my fingers..
Its stopped for now but comes and goes.




I've been stung before and never had these kinds of reactions. Last year a wasp got me in the crook of my arm and bore a hole in it before I got it off. All it did was slightly swell and hurt for a few hours.



Has anyone had these kinds of reactions to stings?


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## JpEater

Did you take any Benadryl? That should help counteract the reaction.


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## SarahFair

Naw.. I'm allergic to it.
I finally took some ibprofin Thursday night to get some sleep.. but that's the only thing I've taken


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## lbzdually

Sounds like it stung you right on a nerve.


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## 35 Whelen

How about Claritin?  Or try ice, baking soda paste, apple cider vinegar.


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## SarahFair

I've used vinegar and ice to no avail.
Ill check out claritin at the store tomorrow..

The actual sting site only hurts occasionally or if there is pressure on it.


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## Jeffriesw

I've been stung numerous times over the years, sometimes multiple times at one time. But this past May, I was stung on the wrist as I was spraying a paper wasp's nest. Within just a few minutes my hands and feet were going numb. I thought maybe I was having an allergic reaction to the wasp spray, so I jumped into the shower to make sure I had none left on me.
As soon as I came out of the shower, I noticed in the mirror that I was covered in whelts from head to toe. I had my son son drive me to the hospital, before we could get to town, I was having trouble staying coherent and could not breathe, He pulled into a fire station and the paramedics put me in the ambulance and took off for the ER. They started 2 IV's in me, one of benadryl and one of epenephrin (sp) and then a third IV of epi.
My blood pressure got as low as 47/30 before they got me stabiblized. Spent the night in the ER and then some time in the cardiac wing as a precaution due to bad heart valves.

Now I have more epi pens around me than buffy has vampire slaying stakes


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## SarahFair

Oh my goodness!

After this one I've seriously thought abought investing in epi pens


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## dick7.62

Wasp stings did not bother me years ago(they never felt good) but things changed and I became more sensitive.  Recently I have had them swell and be sore for 4 days or more.  I have never had to go to the emergency room but have been on the verge of it.  I now have an EpiPen just in case.  Both my children had to go to the emergency room for wasp stings when they were young(they are grown now).  Stings didn't bother them at first either.
Allergies can change.  They can get better or worse.  It sounds like yours(insect sting allergy) could be getting worse.  It is something that you should watch carefully, maybe get an EpiPen.
My family has been dealing with allergies for 40 years.  We found that sting allergies are nothing to play with.  Fortunately my children grew out of their sting allergy.
A friend and I worked together and he was stung at work and was having a bad reaction.  He came to me because I was almost an allergy expert and had allergy medicine.  He was having such a bad reaction that I said get to the emergency room, which he did.  The doctor said if he had not gotten there when he did he could have died.  He had never had a bad reaction before either.


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## dick7.62

Swamp Runner your reaction is exactly like my friends that I mentioned in post 9.  He was covered with whelps and was acting very strange.  He probably got to the hospital quicker than you did.  He is lucky he came to me quickly.


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## NCHillbilly

If it was a regular wasp, that is a really unusual reaction. If it was one of those big yellow giant European/Japanese hornets, that's about par for the course. I have a scar on my arm from one of those stinging me nearly thirty years ago. It did about like you describe, plus killed the tissue for about 1/4" around the sting site. And I've been stung hundreds of times by yellowjackets, wasps, hornets, and bees with no more than a few minutes of pain, swelling, and itching. I call those big guys "flying copperheads."


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## Michael F. Gray

I was teaching emergency school bus evacuation drill to students several years ago when stung on the elbow by a wasp. Swelling got bad enough I went to a physician. Doctor stated they often feed on carion/road kill. I was unaware of that, and the bacteria or germs that caused my infection were believed caused by that contact. Lengthy corse of antibiotics following two IV bags in ER were required to overcome infection. Took about ten days for swelling to return to normal. Left untreated could result in major problems.


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## SarahFair

I'm not sure what it was..

We were at a ball field that had woods behind it.. I was just walking along the edge picking nearby balls out. I hadn't reached down for a minute when I got stung. I was on the phone when it happened so it took a second to register what was happening.


Not 2 minutes later after I had sought refuge in the car the SO was stung on the back of the neck by a yellow jacket. 
But he as no where near the area I had been stung.. 
His just swelled and itched for a couple hours then went down.


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## mickbear

i'm a beekeeper and also did surveying for 25 years.'vi been stung hundreds of times ,hornets,bees,wasps,saddle backs,yellow jackets you name it i'v been stung by it.some times i get stung when working my honey bees,i just take a zyrtec (sp) and rub vinegar on the spot.last year i got hit on my legs about 5 times while weedeating near one of my hives.eveything was fine for about 3-4 hours then i noticed swelling and reddness aroundone sting.it got worse as the day went on so i went to the doc the next day and he told me the almost the same thing that michael's doc told him.he said that sometimes when you get stung, as the stinger is going in to you any bacteria at that spot gets pushed into you and causes and infection.


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## shakey gizzard

You can "become" allergic to things that never used to bother you!


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## dawg2

shakey gizzard said:


> You can "become" allergic to things that never used to bother you!



This.  Sometimes you have allergies that actually fade away.  Some people can develop allergies to things (food, stings, pollen, animals, etc) that never bothered them in the past.


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## SGaither

Just recently a co-worker's brother in-law was stung by a wasp, went into (sp?)  shock, then into a coma and died at the hospital only 3 or 4 days after being stung. Like many of us, he had been stung numerous times through his life but for some reason that only God knows this time the sting affected him much worse.


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## Bucky T

I'm lucky.  Bee stings only turn into a small red dot with a white ring the size of a dime for me.  And that last only for an hour or so.  No swelling.

Hurts at the sting site, but that's about it.

Mosquitos don't leave marks on me.  Neither do ticks.

Ants will leave a little red bump that will itch for a day or two and noseeums leave a little red dot that fades out in an hour or two.


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## hobbs27

If it swells and hurts bad, that's normal, if it don't you got lucky.If you can't breathe you're having an allergic reaction.I'm also a beekeeper and I get stung regular and I can tell you some areas..face,elbow,belly are more sensitive than others.Blue star ointment helps the affected area.


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## Ronnie T

Several years ago my wife was stung by a small honey bee on top a a toe.  She was in absolute screaming agony for over an hour.  Ended up at the ER.  Has been stung many times before and after this one, with not much pain to speak of.

I guess it just happens sometimes.


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## greg_n_clayton

I too have been stung by them often in the past with little after effects. Since my heart troubles, they hurt me worse and swelling is way worse than it use to be !! Was stung a few weeks ago on a finger. Next morning, my hand was swollen pretty bad back to my wrist.


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## Jeffriesw

dick7.62 said:


> Swamp Runner your reaction is exactly like my friends that I mentioned in post 9.  He was covered with whelps and was acting very strange.  He probably got to the hospital quicker than you did.  He is lucky he came to me quickly.



Yep, all told, if was probably only 20 to 25 minutes before I was at the fire station with the paramedics trating me from the time I was stung. They told me later they did ot think I was going to make it. My heary rate and BP bottomed out and it took them a while to get it going. I can remember hearing them talking on the ride as they were takeing me to the ER, I distinctly remember hearing them say, "he's crashing" several times. It did not bother me at the time, due to being in shock I guess, But a day or two later it made me stop and think about it for awhile.
I thank God everyday that I lived through it.


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