Desentization

Here is the question: If you take several stings over a short period of time, will it desensitize your body to bee stings? Apparently many people say it does and many people do it, but I have never done it myself. I have always tried to avoid being stung by the honey bees because I am averse to pain and itching. I therefore normally suit up in protective clothing and wear a hat, veil, and gloves as well as either a bee suit or at least long sleeve shirt and long pants. Some times it is good to put a rubber band around pants cuffs too so the bees don’t crawl up your pants and sting you on the leg somewhere. I decided that the only way to find out for myself if I can desensitize myself to bee stings is to try it and see how it works, hence my decision to do so.

Apparently getting stung in one place does not necessarily affect the pain or reaction of getting stung in a different place on my body. I took a sting (full dose of venom from a guard bee taken from the front of the bee hive) to the middle of the back of my left hand this morning, and it was (at least it seemed) much more painful than the sting to my arm last week. There is also noticeable swelling and tightness in my skin. It has been a couple of hours so the pain is not so bad now, but the swelling and redness are also very apparent. I guess 3 stings are not yet enough for desensitization. It’s a good thing I did not take a sting my right hand as well this morning (as I had initially planned to do) because I have a lot of work to do today.

I added a couple of pictures to show the progress of the sting aftermath. Yesterday evening I was almost having regrets that I took the sting. This morning it is subsiding, but still quite swollen. It feels better and I will be interested to see what happens at the next “experiment.” If I wanted to get my wedding ring off right now, I would have to have it cut off, and I had to loosen my watch band a couple of notches to get it to fit my wrist.