Yup, a serious post from me today. Pretty well as serious as it gets.
When I was eight, a wasp stung me. Within minutes, I had fallen asleep, and
couldn’t be wakened. My terrified parents
rushed me to Emerg, as my heart rate fell and my body went into anaphylactic
shock.
What I can tell you is that people who are allergic to venom
cannot ‘tough it out.’ They aren’t awake
to do so. And what happens next is often
a complete respiratory shutdown. That
means death.
My cousin’s teenaged daughter had a terrible experience when
she was a lifeguard. While she was
working, a man in his mid-thirties died in her arms. He had never been stung before, and thus no
one knew he had an allergy. Such a
tragedy haunts you and everyone around you, for years later.
Those people understand the seriousness of a wasp or bee
allergy. Thing is, a lot of people don’t.
Our northern culture
is one that worships summer
In Canada, it’s considered outrageous not to enjoy every
moment of summer. Let me go further: it
is almost considered a sin. We are
scolded for not being outside as much as possible. Bookworm?
Get outside! Don’t be a weakling.
Here’s what it means to be allergic to bee and wasp stings:
I can’t eat outside in bee and wasp season, which is pretty
well from May until the first frost in October.
I can’t be outside around people who have food and drinks.
Translated, this means no outside patios at
restaurants. No backyard or corporate BBQs. No pool parties. No large events outside where food is being
served. No Wonderlands and CNEs.
In September, it doesn’t matter if food is being served. I don’t spend much time outside at all during the day, because of the
yellow jackets. Doctors warn me that if
you are allergic to bee and wasp stings, you are most likely allergic to spider
venom too. Avoid them. Never touch them.
Have someone else remove them.
I can’t go camping. I
can’t travel to third world countries. My
specialist tells me not to be more than twenty minutes from a hospital at any
time.
I’ve adapted pretty well to these restrictions. I carry an epi-pen at all times, which will
give me ten minutes. Enough time to get
me to the closest hospital (if I’m awake enough to inject it. Hopefully someone else will be with me. I try not to think about that too much.) It sucks, but better safe than dead.
Don’t make it
difficult for people with bee and wasp allergies
No, we can’t come to your BBQ. I’m sorry you decided to have your book
launch or wedding outside. Please enjoy
it, but don’t insist that I be there, or make me feel guilty for
declining.
Please don’t shame me
into taking a risk on my life, so that your plans won’t be upset.
Don’t say the following:
1. ‘Don’t bother
them, and they won’t bother you’
Of all the things I get told, this useless statement angers
me the most. And yet, I can’t count the
number of times people have said this to me.
I’ve been stung four times. On none of those occasions did I deliberately
bother the wasp/bee in question beforehand. I didn’t even know the insect was there.
4. ‘If the wasps are bad,
you can just go inside.”
I’m sure people don’t realize how cavalier this sounds. They can’t know how little value they are
putting on my life, right? Would you
knowingly go to a party where rattlesnakes are commonly found in that patch of
grass at this time of year? Would you
say to someone, ‘don’t be silly, they hardly ever strike…’
My allergist said it
best: “Tell people, ‘would you be comfortable eating dinner outside with a
rattlesnake lying six feet away from you?’
Because that’s the sort of danger we’re talking about here.”
Thank you for reading this!
You may save someone’s life.
On the other hand, you may come up with a really neat plot idea
for a murder mystery. Remember to credit
me in the acknowledgements.
