Wasp Sting

Yesterday afternoon Garrison went for another swim in his pool in the backyard. He had the same reaction as the first time. It took him a minute before he moved around and actually started playing. But, after playing for a few minutes, he stood up and held his hands out to me wanting to get out of the pool. When he got out of the pool he just walked around the patio and played with golf balls that Terrell has collected on one of our tables and played peek-a-boo with me by hiding behind a chair. Finally he came back over to the pool, so he got in for a few more minutes before wanting out again. The second time he got out of the pool, he seemed to be into everything... he wanted to play with the grill, put his hands on our (nasty) recycling bin and trash can, pick up the hose pipe and try to move it around, etc. So, after telling him no for the 10th time, I decided it was time for us to go inside.

As I was gathering up everything we had taken outside and getting ready to pick him up to bring him in, I saw a wasp land on his hand. I think my very first reaction was "oh my, I have got to get that thing away from him".... then a split second later I heard him crying that cry, the one all moms recognize. That yucky, mean wasp had decided to sting my baby and would not fly off of his hand! I just started yelling at the wasp (like that was going to do anything to the wasp or help in any way) and swatting/shooing it away and finally it flew away. I couldn't believe how long it stayed there on his hand... at least it seemed like a long time. At this point Garrison is screaming and I am rushing him inside trying to stay calm. (I don't do so well at staying calm in situations like these. It's something I've definitely got to work on. ) As soon as we got inside I grabbed his juice out of the fridge and grabbed his Tigger cold pack out of the freezer and sat him down on the counter. I gave him his juice and tried to put the cold pack on his hand which had a red mark from the sting and was already starting to swell a little. The juice actually seemed to help because he would drink a little and then scream a little and then drink a little more and then scream a little more. But, his screaming finally turned to a more normal cry. In the meantime, I am trying to stay calm as I call Terrell to ask him what to do. (I would have probably gone straight to the internet to look up wasp stings, but our computer had a virus over the weekend so it was away and being fixed). Terrell told me to go ahead and call the doctor to see if I could talk to a nurse. I got the answering service at my doctor's office because it was after 4:30 and had to go through a long process to finally talk to someone. I had Garrison pretty much calmed down, but the swelling was getting worse and he wouldn't let me hold the cold pack on the sting so I was trying a cold wash cloth. The nurse told me to clean it with soap and water, keep an ice pack on it (off and on) for as long as I could, and to put a baking soda and water "paste" on his hand. She also went through all the things to look for in case he had a severe reaction. After talking with her for several minutes, I called Terrell back. He had looked up wasp stings on the internet and gave me some other information and suggestions. Then I called my mom to tell her what happened and she looked it up on the internet too and told me about her personal experience with wasp stings. So, once I washed his hand and we were both completely calm and composed we went over to Ingles and bought some baking soda, came home, made the "paste" and applied it to his little hand. For the rest of the night he was completely fine and the swelling and redness slowly started going away. He woke up one time during the night, but his hand was fine and he went right back to sleep after being held and rocked for minute.

It was a bit of a traumatic experience for both of us, but today all is well and the only thing you can see on his hand is a little red mark. Terrell got home late last night, but today he will be searching for a nest just in case there is one near our patio. I have actually never been stung by anything that I can remember, but my little man who isn't 16 months old yet has already been stung. I hope that doesn't mean we can look forward in the future to lots of incidents like the one yesterday... I just keep telling myself, "it was only a sting and it will probably happen again, but he's not allergic or anything... he'll be fine. I hope it doesn't happen again, but if it does, he'll be fine."