So I’m out enjoying a leisurely ride on my featherweight Amira road bike. My friend Karoline and I are riding, catching up on gossip and enjoying a summer ride on the bike path. Flick…something hits me in the face at the top of my glasses and goes behind my glasses. It’s a bee and gets stuck on my cheek just below my eye and proceeds to sting the living S%#T out of me. I brushed it off and Karoline checked to see if the stinger was still in my face. It wasn’t and we were almost home, so we kept rolling. 20 minutes later at home, I saw Greg and his riding buddies finishing up a ride. They laughed at the progressive swelling under my left eye.
It was red, but seemed like no big deal. It looked like this:
It was puffing up FAST. I popped some Benedryl, put some ice on it and proceeded about my business. The weird droopy feeling on my face made me keep looking in the mirror. Four hours later, I looked like this:
I went to bed figuring it would be gone by morning. When I woke up, I looked like this! OH MY. I opted against a mountain bike ride due to my impaired vision. I went road riding instead and did hill repeats on Galena Summit. It’s a little better and I can now see out of my left eye, but it’s still not pretty. I’m going to a party tonight wearing big Jackie O. glasses.
Um, I think it is safe to say the Benedryl didn’t work. Hope your feeling better soon.
Guess the little Guy didn’t like u going faster than him.
I’ll bet it was not a bee, but rather a wasp or hornet. Actual bees, the domesticated honeybee, are scarce in the Wood River Valley, but wasps are plentiful. The bee leaves it’s stinger on the skin, along with the venom sack, which you can scrape off with a fingernail, while the wasp does not. There are many medicinal benefits to the sting of a honeybee, while those of a wasp are not therapeutic, and tend to invoke more of a serious immune response. The wasps and hornets can sting multiple times, their venom intended to paralyze or kill victims for storage in their nests, and also for self-defense. The honeybee only stings for self-defense and dies thereafter.
I’m commenting on this because I’ve been an avid “bee venom therapy” advocate for many years, and know that most people refer to hornets and wasps as “bees”. Very few people have allergic reactions to honeybee venom, while most of the dangers classified colloquially as “bee sting reactions” are actually from wasps and hornets.
I wanted to make that distinction for the benefit of the headlines that got my attention!
Benadryl is great first-aid for all such sting reactions. Some people tend to have even greater reactions to future stings, so that Benadryl capsules are essential for your emergency kit on the trail or bike. Keep it handy, it has a long shelf-life. People with actual life-threatening reactions to such stings carry an epinephrine injection kit; but most of those people have experienced immune responses to wasp and hornet venom, not bee venom.
Ironically, your high metabolism and hydration level on the bike ride may have induced a healthier immune response to deal with the wasp venom than if you’d been relaxed and drinking wine at a picnic. Also, if a person panics in response to the sting, like running to get away, I imagine the adrenaline stimulation of panic may have a similar effect as the epinephrine injection or the Benadryl. Indeed, panic is the opposite of the drowsy onset of coma, which would be the direction of a severe allergic reaction to the venom.
I’m glad your OK and that you have your Jacki O glasses handy.
I had the same thing happen on a 49mph descent on the civilized (road) bike. The bee hit the glasses, slid off the edge and stung me on the cheek. It wasn’t too bad that day but the next day I looked like I got popped in the face. Hope you are fully recovered.