[Gathnet] Rachel's bee sting

[SKM]

All,
    Interesting day...
    A few weeks ago a local official was quoted as saying that bees are 
as dangerous as rattlesnakes. Well, at least for our family, this is true.
    Yesterday Rachel was driven home from a good family friend's home. 
At 5:05 PM she stepped on a bee as she was walking on the breezeway 
outside our home. I think she must have been given an unusually large 
dose of the sting poison, because it was extraordinarily painful for 
her. Within 2 minutes her face and hands began to swell, and the margins 
of her lips turned white. It was obvious to us that she was having an 
anaphylactic reaction. After some panic, we gave her Benadryl. After I 
missed it, Anita found an epinephrine injection pen in our cabinet. It 
was out-of-date (2000), but we gave it as fast as we could.
    We called 911 at the same time we gave the injection; an ambulance 
and firetruck was there in 5 minutes. By the time they got her out the 
door, she was substantially worse, but the rate of swelling had slowed. 
She was on a helicopter to Children's Hospital (San Diego) by about 
5:40. Rachel went by herself (I was too heavy to ride along); I drove 
there and got to the ER about 6:45. Apparently she had begun to have 
some difficulty breathing on the helicopter, but she was starting to get 
better quickly. The ER staff were very nice. The swelling went way down 
in a few hours, and we were able to drive home at 10 PM.
    Rachel is well; I am recovering.
    Rachel has had a lot of localized swelling before, but this is the 
first time it has been systemic. Thank God we have good, local help, and 
that we had been partially prepared.

Love,
Scott