The Sting...

I was talking to my sister on the phone today, which we haven't done in a couple of weeks. After a while, the kids went outside to play. Shortly thereafter, Mandy came in the house screaming at the top of her lungs. I hastily hung up as I ran down the stairs to see what was the matter.

Amid all of the screaming, it was difficult to determine just what had happened. Fortunately, Andrew was right behind her and was able to tell me what had happened. Mandy had been stung by a yellow jacket.

Now, I don't know if you have ever been stung by one of these, but they hurt like heck. She was already leary of them, as we had had an angry nest outside the front of our house a week ago. But this time, she didn't even know it was there. She had been minding her own business when she felt a tickle on the inside of her thigh. She ended up squeezing her legs together in an attempt to make the tickle go away. Instead, she felt intense pain as the yellow jacket stung the inside of her thigh. My poor baby didn't know what to do.

She ran home, opened the door, and proceeded to scream. I took her into the kitchen, got her some ice, and made a baking soda paste as fast as I could. Andrew went back next door to ask for some liquid Benadryll, as all I had were pills. I got some of that into her system pretty fast. After about 10 minutes, she started to calm down enough to ask for M&M's. At this point, I pretty much knew she would survive.

45 minutes later, she was doing much better. The Benadryll worked and the swelling around the sting went down completely. She is left with a nasty looking sting site (no stinger attached) that is a little red around it. Otherwise, she is none the worse for the wear. I will probably give her anther dose of Benadryll before bed, as I picked up my own supply of the liquid gold at the grocery store today.

Now she almost proudly tells her brother that if he ever wants to know what it feels like to be stung, he could just ask her. Because she now knows, after all. Andrew has never been stung. Now Mandy has.