One beautiful summer evening last year had me cooking a salmon over the coals on my patio. It had been raining, and the patio was rather wet. The salads and potatoes were ready and the salmon was just about there. As I took a step back I felt a pain on the sole of my foot. A bee had got itself wet and was unable to fly away.
My son helped me to remove the sting. We tried to scrape it off but it would not budge. Eventually a pair of tweezers did the job.
Within 30 seconds my vision started to blur. My speech began to slur. I blacked out for a while and was sick. The ambulance got me to the hospital's trauma unit. Adrenalin was administered. I was wired up to all sorts of machines. My blood pressure dropped to almost nothing. I began shivering. I was in anaphylactic shock. A wonderful doctor looked after me all night as I gradually regained my strength. A year later, she has joined my GP's practice. We were both excited to see each other again! The experience had caused us to bond.
I got to have a second chance in life. Sometime during that night I lost my fear of death. I still want to live I want to live more than ever. But I no longer find prospect of dying something frightening. I have generally become more positive and am able to appreciate life more than ever.
What is more, I'm still not afraid of bees. I carry adrenalin at all times and wear a Medic Alert bracelet. I treat bees with respect. I don't go out barefoot. But I don't take any lengths to avoid them. If they want to buzz around my flowers and trees that is fine. They mean no harm.
No comments:
Post a Comment