Please don’t even consider it until you have seen an allergist. Please. I want you live long and prosper! 
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I hate doctors’ offices too. In fact, I have to go with a blood pressure diary, because mine always goes sky high when they measure it. At home, it is usually 130/85. At my last visit, it was 189/98 - the nurse ran off to get the doctor right away, while I was sitting there laughing. I just knew it was going to be very high! 
Anyway, I agree with you, it is a pain to sit and wait, surrounded by sick people. Sometimes, it is worth it, though.
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Never had more than 2 stings and mostly through gloves etc so not full stings. Made the mistake of trying to scrape a stinger out with my glove on (was a direct sting) in my leg and got a full venom injection. That was fun… my lesson use your hive tool to scrape them out. Glad you’re ok 
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Fantastic report, thank you so much for taking the time to write this. Now a load more people can learn from it!
What you describe here, reminds me very much of piloting CRM (Crew Resource Management) best practices. If anyone in the cockpit has a concern, it must be taken seriously, regardless of the age/experience/seniority of any other crew member. I think it is an excellent way to go. There is another concept in flying - most serious accidents result from an accumulation of minor mistakes. For me, if 2 things weren’t right, I wouldn’t fly. Say for example, my charts are out of date (but I am flying in an area I know well, so i shouldn’t need them), and my favorite headset develops a minor fault - no flying. I think it is a great rule.
My goodness, your mentor has had a fabulous learning opportunity too! Thank you so much for sharing it all, and not just quietly disappearing from the Forum. 
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You are lucky. My “insurance price” was over $400 for one. I did get my first sting a month ago. Just one on the arm. Swelled like a balloon, most of my upper arm turned red and hot, and a month later it still hurts! My dad always had that kind of reaction, but no allergy.
Now I don’t even go out to open the observation windows without a ventilated jacket, veil and pants. I save the full suit for inspections…
mb
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Crikey!
Our prescriptions in Wales are free and we take it all for granted.
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OK, this afternoon we went to inspect our community garden hive. It has been very active, we have seen the queen, and the brood pattern was outstanding last time.
We went with a plan today:
- Minimal smoke.
- Inspect the bottom brood box first (this queen is a “runner”, and can be hard to find if you start at the top)
- Look for signs of varroa (I saw it in our other hive - DWV on a couple of bees)
- Maybe add a super - the hive was very strong 2 weeks ago.
Thanks to @Cowgirl I also had some human resource plans.
- Make sure antihistamines and EpiPen are with us for my husband (garden is 2 miles from home and 6 miles from hospital).
- Thoroughly soak myself with water before suiting up.
- Get my husband to ask me cognitively challenging questions every 5 minutes.
As a bit of background, I had an episode of near heat stroke this summer (while cooking, not while beekeeping) and I didn’t want that to happen in the community garden in a bee suit. I didn’t see it coming, and I wasn’t aware at the time that my temp was just over 40C. My husband noticed because I suddenly seemed sluggish and incoherent. No, I hadn’t been at the wine bottle… At my current age, I seem to be very heat sensitive.
What was the plan to prevent it on a hot afternoon when we really needed to inspect? I drenched myself with a hose (face, hair, shoulders and arms) before suiting up - it was 80F in the garden, with 80% humidity, so I decided it had to be done. I looked like a drowned rat. Very pretty… NOT!! Very practical, certainly, and not uncomfortable. I stayed perfectly lucid, and managed to annoy my husband with my answers to his questions, so I was definitely functioning normally!! 
Anyhow, this is getting lengthy now, but I was shocked to see how starved our colony is. I was thinking of supering, but no way is that right for this colony. Probably 20lb of honey in one brood box. Some pollen. Brood all in the center 2 or 3 frames, decent but not spectacular pattern, none in the lower box. No stores in the lower box at all. We saw the queen in the upper box and she looked healthy. Also saw at least 3 bees with DWV - even my husband admits it now. Didn’t see any varroa, but that isn’t surprising.
So we stuck with our inspection plan, but we had to change our management plan (no super). Overall it went very well. We will probably feed next week and sugar roll test for varroa. Whatever the results of the sugar roll, I feel the need to treat for varroa. Oh and David got stung. Once. No anaphylaxis, but I was sharpening the needle on the EpiPen… 
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I am pathologically camera-shy, so absolutely NO PHOTOS!!! 
However, if you ever come out here and do a hive inspection with me, you will get to see it!
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Now that is dedication.
I often look like a drowned rat after inspections but not from hosing down…a shower and a nice cold beer and all is well with the world 
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You can’t beat a really nice hand crafted ale
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Soooo RIGHT! We are from a medical family, and keep Epipens on us&ready for use, along with Benadryl and a credit card looking thingie to remove stingers in our pockets, even though no one has needed anything but the credit card thingie to remove stingers as yet, thank God!..Better to be safe than sorry!
And you are correct…in our minds…Don’t second guess yourself or a companion…When in doubt…ACT! It could save a life!! We have had bees for generations, and LOVE BEEKEEPING!!..but our beekeeping memories are happy, maybe due to our safety rules! Thank you for that fresh perspective about safety rules from a new beekeeper!!
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K26,
I also second the ventilation type suits. I have both kind but when I’m out working hives n getting honey with a mentor who has many hives ( 60 to 80 plus ) I wear the ventalation suit. My mentor n others are getting one or more string n I’ve gotten none. “Knock on wood !” So far. I’ve done this large scale 6 to 8 hour job three times now with one sting while others get one or more. I do have a person check all my zippers n possible opening before I enter the beeyard. Even the ventilation suit is worthless if not zipped n checked fully.
Ta ta,
Gerald 
Ouch! That stings…
Still, I am glad you went in. You did the right thing. I’m glad you are here to share your story with us. I have been extra careful after reading your story.
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Having worked in US health care, I would suggest that you call your insurance provider. When I took my hubby to the ER with kidney stones, they billed us, but we were actually covered. We declined to pay (except for the co-pay) and called the insurer, who sorted it out. The ER had entered the wrong insurance information for us, so they billed us direct. It would have been very expensive too, he had an IV, large doses of pain meds and an emergency CT scan. We were there for about 7 hours. Worth a try - the insurers can only say “no, you get to pay all of this”.
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Oh wow. Pricey, but it’s a pittance when you look at the big picture right?
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hmmm, in Australia- I believe that would have cost nothing. It’s odd to me that the USA is one of the richest countries in the World but your health care can be so expensive. What would have happened to you if you had no money on hand to pay- and no insurance?
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Something called Medicaid in most of the US, or Medical in California. If you use it, and you don’t pay your medical bills, when you die, your estate is sold to pay off everything - your heirs get nothing until the bills are paid.
Not all hospitals accept Medicaid though, so be careful where you get sick… 
Cowgirl, did you ever see the allergist and what was the outcome?
Against my wife’s wishes: Without a bee-suit and out for my walk through the woods, I saw a tiny cluster of bees on the ground behind one of my hives that got blown over in the wind-storm a few days ago. I wanted to make sure the queen wasn’t in the cluster. The bees were very lethargic and wet. I carefully sorted through the cluster revealing no queen and a bee came out of nowhere and nailed me on the forehead. I went in and took one Benadryl and one Tagamet and had no reaction besides a bump no bigger than a mosquito bite.
The last time I was stung in the head I wound up in the ER.
That makes 5 honey bee stings and 1 wasp sting without reaction since my ER visit.
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I think we need to renew ours as well. I’ll look into the multi-dose vials as well.
There are several generic versions now which are a fraction of the price. You will have to ask your doctor specifically for the generic, and then make sure the pharmacy understands that you don’t want to be ripped off by Mylan Inc any more… Here is an article about how to get one of the new choices:
http://www.consumerreports.org/drugs/how-to-get-cheaper-epipen-alternative/
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