Extortion

I heard about a potential lifesaver for me!

Since I was so heavily stung (thousands of bee stings) I am now highly allergic. When I was stung, my body converted the bee venom into anti venom. If I get stung by even one bee now, these anti venoms will swing into action (or is that Anti action?) and it will be just as if I were stung by another swarm.

Is kind of crazy that I am now really allergic to myself!

I was told about something called "Epipen" which I understand is one ampoules worth of pure adrenelin! Cost - R 800 plus.

I was given (note GIVEN) 2 ampoules of adrenelin, and a syringe and needles. All I need to do is to break the ampoules and to get the adrenelin into the syringe and just stab it into my arm - no searching for a vein! Apparently an Epipen is only a fancy way to inject one ampoules adrenelin into yourself!

Sure Adrenelin only lasts a year before it reaches its expiry date, but a saving of R 1 600 is worth the effort involved in breaking an ampoule! I need to ensure that I replace the ampoules every 10 months or so - no problem at the doctors. Epipen also only lasts a year, but costs at least 200 times as much!

Something else I have discovered, is that since I became so allergic to bee venom, I have been diagnosed as diabetic. Giving up processed sugar was not that difficult and I have lost huge amounts of weight - at least 8 longs sizes. Apparently I am still noticeably losing weight. At Church there is one member (no names, no packdrill) who commented to me "You are getting fat!" In whose world does losing kilos of weight and inches off of your waist line anywhere near equal to "getting fat!" Her (yes, it is a "her"!) ex husband said to me "Why dont you marry her?" but I think that I would far rather be stung by another swarm of bees! To those who know the LDS Branch that I belong to, will no doubt know who I am talking about! Maybe I AM getting anti fat! I am wearing longs that I "grew out of" at least 1 and 1/2 decades ago, if not more!

Something that bugs me is that my arm - ever since I was stung - feels tender, if not sore! I think (dangerous concept that!) that the bee venom was converted into anti venom - in HUGE quantities - and my muscles are kind of still complaining about this state of affairs.

Does not really help that "comfort food" is generally quite high in processed sugar. I found the last time I had my blood sugar checked, I had eaten an innocent bran muffin before, and the reading was higher than normal. Now I eat fruit and wonder if the natural sugars are in any way elevating my blood sugar levels! I feel (important that!) that I need a certain amount of sugar - even if it comes in tiny quantities in "comfort food"

I am still kind of terrified that I will be stung whilst on Speaking assignment at one of the units in the District but practically, I should not fear too much! In 50 years, I have been stung on 2 occasions - first time a year ago, by one bee (no problem) and then by thousands of really angry bees who swarmed all over me! (HUGE problem, one that kept me in Intensive Care for 4 days!)

I kind of figure that if I was meant to be dead, I would have died:-

When a speeding delivery truck slammed into my car - which slammed me into a coma

When I was beaten unconscious with a hammer, then stabbed 8 times

When I was stung nearly to death by a swarm of really angry bees!

Kind of makes me feel invincible, although I realise that I have some serious problems! I just wonder what Customs will say when I arrive bearing heaps of (legal) drugs? I often feel that I am kind of a drug addict - I cannot survive easily without some of these drugs!