I had an awful experience last week, and I'm wondering if anyone here can shed some light. I'm not sure whether or not it's related to my screwed up physiology.
I was out picking wineberries in the front yard Wednesday when I was stung by yellow jackets 5 or 6 times (awful!!). I'm not sure the exact number because several were clustered on top of my foot and it's now one huge swollen painful mess upon which individual stings cannot be distinguished. I came in and took 50mg diphenhydramine and 500mg acetaminophen, applied a baking soda poultice and ice, and went to bed early, hoping to escape the pain in sleep.
Every time I fell asleep, I had an instant adrenaline rush that woke me up and caused my lower body and sometimes arms and torso to clench and spasm while my heart raced and I shot wide awake. I'm not exaggerating when I say this happened literally hundreds of times over the next few hours. I tried to stay awake so I didn't have to keep going through it, but the benadryl kept pulling me back under. I couldn't stay awake for more than a few seconds. And I couldn't stay asleep for more than a few seconds. It was awful. Forget water torture..do this to me again and I will tell you ANYthing to make it stop.
Finally, around 5AM I was able to sleep for 10-20 minutes at a time.
I would blame the yellow jacket venom if not for the fact that I have experienced this once before. I can't remember exactly what triggered it the first time, though. I think it may have been after learning I'm now allergic to scallops and evacuating every molecule of food from my digestive tract over a period of several hours. If I'm remembering that correctly, it would indicate a relation to histamine release.
Has anyone ever experienced anything similar? Any advice to stop the cycle if it happens again? I would do most anything to avoid this particularly torturous experience in the future.
I was out picking wineberries in the front yard Wednesday when I was stung by yellow jackets 5 or 6 times (awful!!). I'm not sure the exact number because several were clustered on top of my foot and it's now one huge swollen painful mess upon which individual stings cannot be distinguished. I came in and took 50mg diphenhydramine and 500mg acetaminophen, applied a baking soda poultice and ice, and went to bed early, hoping to escape the pain in sleep.
Every time I fell asleep, I had an instant adrenaline rush that woke me up and caused my lower body and sometimes arms and torso to clench and spasm while my heart raced and I shot wide awake. I'm not exaggerating when I say this happened literally hundreds of times over the next few hours. I tried to stay awake so I didn't have to keep going through it, but the benadryl kept pulling me back under. I couldn't stay awake for more than a few seconds. And I couldn't stay asleep for more than a few seconds. It was awful. Forget water torture..do this to me again and I will tell you ANYthing to make it stop.
Finally, around 5AM I was able to sleep for 10-20 minutes at a time.
I would blame the yellow jacket venom if not for the fact that I have experienced this once before. I can't remember exactly what triggered it the first time, though. I think it may have been after learning I'm now allergic to scallops and evacuating every molecule of food from my digestive tract over a period of several hours. If I'm remembering that correctly, it would indicate a relation to histamine release.
Has anyone ever experienced anything similar? Any advice to stop the cycle if it happens again? I would do most anything to avoid this particularly torturous experience in the future.
