Joel Vs. The Wasp

My poor Joelie has not had much luck this year avoiding bee stings. He says he can't remember when he was stung last before this year, but now in the last few weeks he's been stung 6 times!! The first sting happened while up on a 32 foot ladder working on our soffits. His shorts rubbed against the wasp that was flying around his leg and it stung him. He swelled up and down his leg like crazy, with pitting edema (his fancy term), where he could stick his finger in the leg and the dent would stay there.

A couple of weeks ago we went fishing at his Aunt Paula's and he happened upon a wasp nest in the mud. One got him on the cheek as he was trying to escape. I had read an e-mail from my friend Michelle that said to put a penny on it right after your stung and it won't swell so much. He didn't believe it and didn't want to stick a penny on his face, but he did put one on for a while (not the 15 minutes they recommend). His face swelled that time, but not very badly!

Then yesterday Joel was nice enough to go into the shop to help Dad out and he gets attacked by some wasps while he was cleaning out the dust collector. He got stung on the temple, the back of the neck, the back of his leg, and his shoulder. This is what his face looked like last night:


And this morning when he woke up at 4:30:

Needless to say he had to call into work in the wee hours of the morning to say he couldn't come in today.

At least we've got Daddy home for our PA day now :) The poor guy though!!

This is what his leg looks like:

Not quite as noticeable as the face.

He's almost ready to admit that the penny thing might have actually helped. He didn't put any pennies on yesterday, although I'm not sure how he would have managed to do that with 4 different stings so spread out.

My poor guy.

Mel