{"id":387,"date":"2012-10-02T18:36:41","date_gmt":"2012-10-02T10:36:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=387"},"modified":"2012-10-02T18:36:41","modified_gmt":"2012-10-02T10:36:41","slug":"stung-by-a-bee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/?p=387","title":{"rendered":"Stung by a bee"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two years ago I have visited the remote Medang waterfall<\/a> near KKB with my friend Siang Hui. It is quite a long hike, but you are rewarded with an impressive waterfall.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>While we were relaxing at the fall, taking a bath, making coffee and having lunch, I was stung by a bee. They are called sweat bees, although I think that they are actually wasps, because they don’t leave their stinger behind.
\nThe name tells it all, they are attracted by sweat. And I sweat profusely, so they like me. During the hike, no problem, because I am moving, but when I have arrived at my destination it doesn’t take long before one of these tiny(!) critters finds me and signals to his friends: come over here for a treat!<\/p>\n

They are not aggressive, but probably,\u00a0waving them away with my hands, I must have frightened one of them. I was stung in my back, it was not very painful and I did not pay much attention to it.<\/p>\n

However on our way back, a bit later, I started to feel uncomfortable. I felt that my mouth got swollen, I could not swallow properly, my voice sounded funny and I felt faint. I told Siang Hui that I wanted to lie down a bit. Of course he was concerned, but he kept his cool.<\/p>\n

After about half an hour I started to feel better and we walked back (still more than one hour!) to our car. First I was thinking about going to a clinic, but my recovery was so complete that there was no need.<\/p>\n

Of course the question was, what had happened? I had the feeling that it was related to the bee sting, and searching the Internet confirmed that it had been an allergic reaction!<\/p>\n

Actually I had experienced the onset of an anaphylactic shock<\/a> ! Which can be life-threatening. It was an unpleasant discovery that I had developed an allergy for bee stings. I bought an Epipen<\/a> and took it with me on my next jungle trips. With an Epipen you can inject yourself with a dose of epinephrine (adrenaline), in case of emergency.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Such an Epipen is not only expensive (~ RM 300), it has also a limited shelf life. Mine has passed its expiry date already.<\/p>\n

Of course I was more than ever trying to keep those bees away. Because each following sting gives a stronger and faster reaction.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Two weeks ago I visited another waterfall with my friend Rani, see my earlier post<\/a>. I was stung again, really a minor one, but still about the same effects.
\nAnd here too we were very far away from medical help. I had my Epipen ready, but after a while I recovered, so I did not need it. Kudos to Rani for his support!<\/p>\n

When I wanted to buy an new Epipen, I was shocked to hear that they are no longer available in Malaysia! In a few weeks time a friend from Amsterdam will come here for her holidays, so I am now trying to buy one in the Netherlands and let her take it with her.<\/p>\n

Recently a friend of mine, Harry Nian, died while on a solo expedition looking for new waterfalls in Terengganu. His last (unsent) sms was, that he was stung by many bees and could not move….. Anaphylactic shock?<\/p>\n

I am rather scared at the moment to go back into the jungle..:-(<\/p>\n

I am looking for a cream or spray that keeps bees and wasps away, found some information on the Internet, but no idea if this will be effective. And I have heard that there exists something called “immunotherapy” where you can overcome your allergy by regular (controlled) injections with tiny amounts of the venom. If a reader of this post has more information, please let me know!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years ago I have visited the remote Medang waterfall near KKB with my friend Siang Hui. It is quite a long hike, but you are rewarded with an impressive waterfall. While we were relaxing at the fall, taking a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-malaysia","category-waterfalls"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2LqIR-6f","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=387"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387\/revisions\/419"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stuif.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}