Bee 'Bite'

We had our first bee sting. Poor little Pea was the victim. I got home from work Monday and the girls were begging to go to Pa's house for a quick swim before dinner. Chris was agreeable to the idea so I quickly changed out of my scrubs and we headed over. Mom and dad weren't home so we figured we would let the girls swim for an hour and head home to eat. The girls had been in the pool for abut five minutes (Emma had jumped in like a wild girl about 10 times) when suddenly Emma started crying. She was standing on the ladder in the deep end so I assumed she had just bumped her leg and gotten another big bruise to match the others. She always has bruised shins, always. She kept crying and her cries became more pain filled, so I rushed over to see if there was blood. When I got to the edge of the pool I realized she was holding her hand in pain. Then, I saw the bee on the edge of the pool and realized what had happened. Emma had seen the bee floating in the pool and tried to get it out. (She likes to help Pa by throwing leaves INTO the pool and by rescuing bugs from the pool). Poor gal didn't realize that the bee would not appreciate her saving him from death by drowning. She had a stinger in the tip of her middle finger. Chris got the stinger out, but not without a fight. Emma did not want us to touch her finger. It was red and swollen and she was so upset. It was awful to watch her hurt so bad. We headed home and applied ice and baking soda paste. She cried and was pitiful for about an hour and then finally calmed down. We gave her a dose of Benadryl and Motrin and she slept all night. The next morning she ran into the living room to tell Pa that the bee 'bit' her. She was pretty proud of her injury. We now know one of our children is not allergic to bees. I hope we don't have to find out about the other child.