![\"pincushionback\"](\"http:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/pincushionback.jpg\")
<\/a>![\"pincushionagain\"](\"http:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/09\/pincushionagain.gif\")
<\/a><\/p>\nPlease follow me on Twitter<\/a>, and “Like” the Facebook author page<\/a>. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the right side of the page) to be eligible for free e-books and other benefits! <\/p>\n Very good, class. Yes, that’s me on the left. A human pin cushion. The tell-tale is the grid pattern on my back. That indicates that I served as a playground for an allergist who was trying to determine what caused me to try dying in my front yard last year.<\/p>\n That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but not much. The fact is, had I not wasted a huge amount of time studying first aid in another lifetime, I would have gone into anaphylactic<\/a> shock and been in real trouble. As it was, I knew there was a risk that I was allergic to the “bee sting” I got and looked for trouble. First sign of breathing issues and we were off to the urgent care. A lovely shot of epinephrine (EpiPens <\/a>save lives) and a fist full of Benadryl<\/a> put me right as rain. <\/p>\n Now, the sting didn’t just cause some breathing issues. My leg swelled up, my belly got hard (heck of a way to get a six-pack) and I couldn’t wear a boot for months. Yup, swelling stuck around for a long time. This was my clue that trouble was afoot. Consequently I carried the injector with me all the time for the next year. Except on days when it snows. Which in Minnesota means I left it at home for half that year.<\/p>\n A friend told me that he had the same issue, but he’d been desensitized to the venom. I dawdled through the summer and finally went to the allergist on the first anniversary of almost croaking due to a bug.<\/p>\n Thus the back. They start out by drawing a very nice grid and marking the blocks to see where the results are strongest. I was injected with bee, hornet, wasp, white face, and yellow jacket venom. They start with small doses and get larger. I am allergic to yellow jackets. Joy.<\/p>\n So, for the next 5 years I will be getting shots<\/a>. It starts out as a weekly dose for about 6 months (all figures are wild guesses) and then every month or so for a while. Eventually it trails off to every eight weeks. Oh, and I can have a reaction every single time! (But that risk is minimal, don’t worry Mom.)<\/p>\n The end result is that I will have the same risk of a reaction as the average person. Right now I run a better than 60% risk of a severe reaction when I get stung. I’m not good with that risk since I travel to places where the hospitals are not all that magnificent.<\/p>\n Am I looking forward to the shots? Yes. It means I don’t pitch over when a bug gets angry. But every week? Um… yes. I’m just thankful that modern medicine can do this for me. <\/p>\n In the meantime, I have a couple of cans of 21 foot death for any of those killers who next in my yard. No chances being taken until I have a leg up on this deal.<\/p>\n ********* ********** *********** ***********<\/p>\n I have a favor to ask of my readers: would you kindly share this blog with your friends, family, and colleagues? We hit a million views in 2014, and while the readership continues a nice growth trend, it could be a lot better. Just hit the Facebook like button, share it on your timeline, tweet the blog with a link, and tell that person at the next desk that there’s this lunatic who writes about all sorts of stuff that they might like. <\/p>\n I appreciate your help. When we hit 2,000,000 readers I will give away something cool to a drawing from the subscribers (that’s the box on the right toward the top) who have helped promote this mess. No used sheets, probably not honey, more likely gift cards. Be a part of it. I’ll update from time to time where we’re at in the count. Thanks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Let’s get started with a quiz! For the big prize, tell me the difference between the two items presented below: Please follow me on Twitter, and “Like” the Facebook author page. Don’t forget to subscribe (the box is on the …<\/span> Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4528,1],"tags":[4534,4532,4533,4529,167,4531,162,4535,4530],"class_list":["post-8670","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bee-stings","category-uncategorized","tag-allergist","tag-anaphylactic-shock","tag-bee-sting","tag-benadryl","tag-commotion-in-the-pews","tag-epipen","tag-joseph-courtemanche","tag-pin-cushion","tag-yellow-jacket"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8670","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8670"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8670\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8676,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8670\/revisions\/8676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8670"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8670"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commotioninthepews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8670"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}