Flight Of The Bee

Well, I’ll tell you. The flight of the bee ended when that sucker stung me yesterday. I was walking across the yard, Younger Boy in hand, when I felt the sting … straight through my jeans. And it really hurt. But I’m a trooper and I hoped, hoped that maybe it wasn’t that bad. Well, then I realized that my jeans had pulled the stinger out and as I took a step, stung me again. Bastard jerk jeans … cause the initial bee sting wasn’t painful enough.

It was a painful ride home. And I’m not allergic, thank the lord, but I am really, really, super sensitive to venomous stings. In fact, in the 10 minutes it took to drive home, I started to feel the dizziness. Being stubborn, and sometimes stupid, I thought. “Ah hell, maybe it will go away.” I made a baking soda and water paste to suck it out (hopefully). And tried to work a bit and relax. (Not so easy when your leg is painfully throbbing.) I put Younger Boy and Middle Boy down for their nap, sat down to do some work. And about an hour later, I had a sickly feeling in my stomach. I was still fairly dizzy and I started wondering if maybe I should go to the hospital.

But, since my throat wasn’t swelling, I wasn’t breaking out in hives, and the worst was my leg hurt like hell I decided that a Pepsi and a Motrin would have to do. Well, that didn’t do too well at all. About 30 minutes later I was super dizzy and disoriented that I knew I couldn’t drive to pick up Older Boy, much less drive to the hospital.

That was scary. Luckily for me, the boyfriend’s sister and her husband were home. So they came over. She stayed at home with the boys, the boyfriend picked up Older Boy from school, and her husband took me to the emergency room.

I’ve been stung before, that ended up with a trip to the emergency room too. And this time was no different from the other times. I got the same old dosage of Benedryl, that messes me up even more, and a tip sheet of how to make ice packs and baking soda pastes.

So now I wait anxiously for the boyfriend to come home with some more Benedryl for me … because my leg hurts and itches. And we live on the second floor, and all those stairs don’t help me feel any better. Thankfully, the boyfriend got off work early enough that he can pick up Older Boy again.

Anyway, it was scary knowing that I wasn’t well and worrying "What about the boys." I was getting dizzier and dizzier by the minute it seemed as I waited for his sister and her husband to get here. I was sitting on the floor with Middle Boy debating if I should tell him that if I fall asleep to make sure to ask who is at the door in the chance that I passed out. I’ve never had anyone but me and the cat to worry about before. If I got sick, the cat laid on me and cuddled with me and I drank orange juice and ate soup until I got better, and all was well. But now … man, there are three other human responsibilities that rely on me to make sure they get to school, get fed and are cared for. And I just feel the need to state once more that it was damn scary being that out of it and not sure if I would be conscious enough to answer the door when they arrived.

Not only that, but man, I have got to take better care of myself. Not that I woke up that morning and thought “Hrm, I think I’ll be reckless and get stung by a bee today” but the whole “I’ll shake this off” thing ... because I didn’t shake it off. I could have been at the hospital a whole hour and 40 minutes before I got so bad that I was sitting on the floor leaning up against the couch. This parenting stuff is tough stuff, and I had a scary reality check. Not only do you have to take care of the kids, but you have to take care of yourself so that you CAN take care of the kids.

Not that I didn’t have respect before, but I have an even bigger respect and understanding of this parenting thing now. I guess you learn the lessons as they come along.

Exciting Off Topic News: My cousin is the Grand Master at a local Dojo, and we’ve brought Older Boy and Middle Boy there. Both the boyfriend and I are so proud of them both. I know that we both think that this form of martial arts and environment is exactly what both boys need to find confidence in themselves and a whole new attitude on life. And they both seem to love it. I can still see the big grin on Older Boy’s face as he did his first lesson. And he stuck that thing out. So Proud!