It’s never a dull day as a mother. Since I became one 9 years ago, I’ve received all sorts of calls from school ranging from kids running a temperature (haha no big deal now) and vomiting (this one I dread) to my son having a concussion after being knocked by someone at the canteen and this one recently:
“Hi Ben’s mum. We wanted you to know your son was stung by a bee,” the admin lady from the General Office said.
She then went on to assure me that the sting was taken out in the morning but had to do her due diligence to inform me that his finger where the bee stung him was swelling 5 hours after she did so.
Right. My trooper actually continued life in school for 5 hours before feeling discomfort and needed more medical help and went back to the General Office again.
This happened on 30th April and after school, I brought Ben to the GP. He got checked, some cream and oral medication, and things were pretty much under control. He did feel weak and ran a fever on Day 1 but by Day 5 he said he felt ok.
But at Day 7 his finger swelled a little too ridiculously and looked so out of proportion we had to rush him to the A&E.
See his right middle finger?
After a 3-hour wait at the emergency, what the doctor diagnosed was that he probably needed another dose of antibiotics.
And that was when the nightmare began.
By the third day of this new second round of antibiotics which he started, he began having hives from neck down to every single bit of his body from back and groin to arms and belly. The poor boy missed two papers for his mid year exam, lost sleep and was tortured every single minute by an unbearable itch, and he could only conclude, as I would:
“Dang it, you stupid bee! Why the heck did you sting me!”
And this was only the front view. There’s the back, arm, groin and leg view too!
Believe you me, I have never seen my son so upset. He is usually a pretty chill child but he was really, really bummed to have such a severe allergic reaction to we-don’t-even-know-what-because-we-were-back-at-A&E-two-more-times-after — and every doctor we saw friggin’ refused to even conclude he was allergic to the medication.
It is not suggestive, they say. If it was the medication, his hives would stop when you stop taking it.
But it went on for helluva weeks and this poor boy had only just managed to recover after THREE WEEKS.
So, do I have any advice for having been there done that?
Yes, for sure! For one, please make sure if your child’s been stung by a bee to check that the sting is taken out. Ben’s sting was, and he watched the bee die. Hurhurhur.
Second, please have a doctor check the site of the sting and monitor it for swelling and secondary infection.
Third, if your child requires any steroids or antibiotics medication, stop the moment you see any signs of rash. Our mistake was to only check his swelling and ignored his comments of “I have some heat rash coming up” only to realise that it was full blown hives and not heat rash.
Lastly, I would think on hindsight we should have prepped his body better to handle the venom, the secondary infection, the new medication as much as we could by loading on the probiotics and vitamin C. I had completely forgotten about that – giving him probiotics – and for that I’m sure his gut must have been overworked with all the antibiotics the doctor were making him take (it was 4 times daily for 7 days, CCCCRRRAAZZZZYYYYY).
I am glad that the episode is almost over – Ben still has some itch here and there to handle – but we are quite certain now we are not fans of BEE + HIVES. Kinda like a bad joke you pulled on us, Bee, but RIP.
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