[jyl]

On Saturday night, I closed my hand on a kitchen sponge and felt a stabbing pain in my palm.

Opened my hand and saw a bee or wasp curled up on my palm. Flicked it away, took the tip of a knife and scraped a brown thread thing from the wound. Didn't keep the insect to examine.

My hand hurt all night, all the next day, started swelling. Last night (Sunday) I inspected the wound, used tweezers to look for a stinger, squeezed the palm, didn't find anything. My hand hurt a lot more after that, I actually took a pain med to get back to sleep. This morning (Monday) the hand was swollen more - on my palm to the base of my thumb, and on the back of my hand to the thumb. A patch of redness on the palm around the wound, and the swollen area on the back of my thumb is red too.

I started taking benadryl, which helped the swelling a little, and also started holding an ice pack. I also cut open some benadryl gel caps and applied the liquid inside directly to the skin, which seem to help a little. Tonight (Monday) a full 48 hours after the sting, my hand is a little less swollen.

No swelling or redness or dark lines on my wrist or arm. No difficulty breathing.

This is weird because I'm not usually affected by bee stings, at most ten minutes of mild discomfort. This sting is acting completely different. Either I have developed a sensitivity to bee stings, or it wasn't a bee, or I managed to get the wound infected.

My wife wants me to go to the doctor, I'm refusing to go unless the hand is not better by tomorrow morning, then I'll visit a urgent care clinic.

Have you had such a reaction to a bee or wasp sting?