Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: antaro on June 30, 2011, 11:46:45 pm

Title: Facial stings
Post by: antaro on June 30, 2011, 11:46:45 pm
After lending my veil to a friend in need, I proceeded to get stung slightly above the upper lip. No swelling for the first 12(ish) hours and treated it with a bit of benadryl and some baking soda/water mixture. All was well until I woke up this morning. My upper lip has swollen a large amount (to comic proportions) and it appears to have gotten worse throughout the day. No difficulties breathing or anything like that, just a terrible swollen lip. I have been dosing with 50mg of benadryl every 4 hours with little help to be found.

Any tips to get this swelling down? Magic medication?
Haven't seen a doctor as I am assuming they would have little for me.

Thanks in advance!
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: AllenF on June 30, 2011, 11:48:57 pm
Scratching always makes me feel better.   :-D

Benadryl should work.
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: G3farms on June 30, 2011, 11:52:25 pm
For a better diagnosis we will need to see a full facial picture :-D
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: antaro on July 01, 2011, 12:00:52 am
Ha! My wife took some, but it will be a cold day before they are posted on the 'net!
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: L Daxon on July 01, 2011, 12:46:44 am
Putting ice on right after the sting helps me keep the swelling down, though I have been stung enough this year I hardly swell much any more.  Used to swell pretty bad.  I don't know if it is too late for you to get any good out of ice now or not.
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: Bee Brothers Apiary on July 01, 2011, 02:20:44 am
red lipstick helps  :-D
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: jaseemtp on July 01, 2011, 03:15:18 am
Sorry antaro not much you can do but deal with it.  I was careless with a swarm and was stung twice on the upper lip, not only did it hurt like mad, but my lip stayed swollen for two or three days.  It seemed during the day when I was talking alot the swelling went down and when I woke up it was swollen back up.
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: danno on July 01, 2011, 09:16:24 am
ever consider a career as a clown? Also some women pay big bucks for the Angelina look
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: BeeMaster2 on July 01, 2011, 01:20:47 pm
Try using Hydrocortizone 10 with the benadryl. After I took 7 stings to my right hand one day, my wife asked our Pharmacyst and She said to use both because they both work on differend parts of the swelling. By the next morning the swelling had started to go down and now I use both right away and it really helps. Until they start working you are just going to have to pucker up. :)
Jim
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: Bee-Bop on July 01, 2011, 01:40:28 pm
Never a lender, or a borrower be !!

Bee-Bop
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: antaro on July 02, 2011, 03:09:37 am
Well, for the record the swelling is down about 85% today. But only after I took 60mg of prednisone that I had in the ol' medicine cabinet.
The drug (which is a pretty nasty one for the record) did it's job.

Live and learn. And don't lend the veil.
Thanks for making me laugh, kids!
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: mikecva on July 02, 2011, 08:55:20 am
Sorry for the late reply but sleeping on an angle would have helped some with the nightly increase in swelling. What I have done in the past is: as soon as I am blessed with a kiss from one of my girls, I grab some fresh grass and rub it in the sting site. This seams to help. -Mike
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: gardeningfireman on July 02, 2011, 04:38:33 pm
Big lips? The better to kiss with!
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: Bee Brothers Apiary on August 17, 2011, 12:01:25 am
...Any tips...

why are your bees seemingly so defensive?
do they typically boil up at you when you work them?
if you had no veil, why did you work them anyway?
how often do you disturb them? and why?

no after the fact remedy sorry, is what it is.
i do have a few suggestions, fwiw.

-requeen if you can never work them without protective gear
-use bare hands for a better grip to reduce agitation.
-throw out the smoker and carry honey.
-pop the lid gently, open it so the lid hides you from the bees, allow the cover to block site of you for about 10 seconds, put cover down, slowly pour a thin line of honey on top of all the top frames, wait 2 minutes.
- once they form two lines on all the honey, work them at your leisure.

i'll put my honey up against anyones smokers, any bees, any weather, any time...dropped the smoker and the suit of armor a decade ago. still use both on cut-outs (38 this year), but not the smoke so much anymore.

good luck!
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: Kathyp on August 17, 2011, 12:08:56 am
the benadryl works best when taken right away.  after the swelling starts, it's not as much help i don't think.  ice, anti-inflammatory like motrin or aspirin, and patience  :-)

i know a lot of people do it, but i don't think it's ever a good idea to work bees without face protection. airway stings or stings to the eyeballs can land you in the ER even if you don't have bad reactions to stings most of the time.  not to mention how you look after....   :evil:
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: scrapiron on August 17, 2011, 08:25:50 am
(http://img803.imageshack.us/img803/7866/nosesting.jpg) (http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/803/nosesting.jpg/)

Uploaded with ImageShack.us (http://imageshack.us)

This is me last week. I got a bee under my veil, and as I pulled it off she stung me on the tip of my nose. Like you said, nothing for about 12 hours, then this! 
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: gardeningfireman on August 17, 2011, 09:32:33 am
You look like you just got out of the ring after a round with Mike Tyson!!!
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: Tommyt on August 17, 2011, 10:45:26 am
You look like you just got out of the ring after a round with Mike Tyson!!!
NOPE no teeth marks or missing ear parts :lau:
Maybe Alli in his hay day
......like a butterfly ...sting like a Bee

tommyt
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: Kathyp on August 17, 2011, 11:02:30 am
that's  outstanding....and you are brave to post it! 

are you sure you are not keeping bees so that you don't have to fess up to your wife getting after you with the frying pan?   :evil:
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: D Coates on August 17, 2011, 04:21:15 pm
Those nose stings hurt me the most of all.  I've had 3 and I'm always amazed how fast I realize I've been stung and how fast I get the stinger out.  The are times I don't even realize I've been stung on the forearms until I get home.  I don't even use a hive tool for fear of moving too fast and cutting my nose.  I swell up but hats off to you scrapiron, you make me look like I'm faking it.
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: Poppi on August 17, 2011, 06:03:51 pm
Geesh scrapiron...  that's bad guy!!   I broke my number one rule yesterday and didn't put on my veil because I thought..  eh, what the heck!  I'll just check the top box real quick to make sure my queen is laying since I just put that box on a few days ago..  everything was great and just as I went to put the last frame back...  up one came like a bullet from the hive and hit me right above the eye...  now that one hurt for a while...   I did the garlic thing...  and then remembered... dummy, bees don't like garlic..  hehe!!   Oh well...  lesson learned...  but I don't react to the sting nearly like you did...  in fact next day you couldn't tell I had been stung..   must be my resistance from handling venomous snakes and 7 bites.. only two of which were bad...  love my girls though...  I know she didn't mean it...  LOL!!
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: G3farms on August 17, 2011, 10:19:50 pm
Wow, all that from just one sting!!

I did a cut out the other day and took three to the left eye, one above the eyebrow, one below the eye and one to the side of the eye and did not swell shut.
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: stella on August 17, 2011, 11:22:53 pm
Put a penny on the sting for a while. Something about the copper. I havent tried it but it sure would be easy enough to try.

Orb youb couwb jusb waid ib oub.  (sorry, couldnt resist... he he he)
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: njoylife10 on August 18, 2011, 03:38:01 pm
The kids have all used a penny taped to it.  They all seem to think it really works.  Very little swelling and only a little itching.

njoylife10
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: scrapiron on August 18, 2011, 05:49:35 pm
HaHa Yea, that is just 1 sting. I guess I am mildly allergic or something. I tried several times to scrape the stinger out with no luck. Finally had to get the wife to pull it out.
OK antaro, Im callin you out... Lets see that pic!
Title: Re: Facial stings
Post by: antaro on August 19, 2011, 01:59:40 am
Ha!
You definitely have me beat, but let me see if I can track down a picture.