Bees usually don’t go looking for trouble. If you don’t bother them by poking around their nests, chances are you’ll never get stung. And even if you do, most bee stings cause little pain, usually lasting from a few hours to a few days.

Unless, of course, you’re allergic–in which case you need emergency care. But for the vast majority of the population, a little tender loving care is all you’ll need.

Scrape out the stinger. One of the best ways to remove a stinger–and avoid any additional pain–is to “scrape”–it out of the skin with a credit card, a knife or a long fingernail, advises John Yunginger, M.D., professor and pediatrics consultant at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. “The biggest mistake people make is trying to pull the stinger out. In doing that, you squeeze the tiny venom sac attached to the stinger and accidentally release more venom into your skin.” If you scrape the stinger out, this sac goes undisturbed.

Rub an aspirin on the sting. “Rubbing a wet aspirin on the area where you were stung can help neutralize some of the inflammatory agents in the venom,” says Herbert Luscombe, M.D., professor emeritus of dermatology at Jefferson Medical College of Thomas Jefferson University and senior attending dermatologist at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, both in Philadelphia. If you are allergic or sensitive to aspirin taken by mouth, though, you shouldn’t try rubbing it on your skin.

Get tender relief with meat tenderizer. “Make a paste with meat tenderizer and water and apply it to the sting,” says Philip Koehler, Ph.D., an entomologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture Laboratory at the University of Florida in Gainesville. “The reason meat tenderizer works is because insect bites and stings are made up of protein–and meat tenderizer breaks down this protein.” Use Adolph’s, McCormick or another product that contains papain–the active venom-busting ingredient.

Bee Stings

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Natural Remedies for Wasp Stings

1. Baking soda mixed with a little water to form a paste and then applied to the wasp sting area is a useful remedy for easing the irritation. A small dressing can be applied and secured with tape to keep the baking powder paste in place. This is useful at night when the warmth of the bed can make any skin irritation worse.
2. An application of a paste of water and meat tenderiser is is a popular treatment and works because the papain in the tenderiser breaks down the proteins, one of the main constituents of wasp venom. This is best applied and then kept in place with a small dressing to avoid it being rubbed off.
3. Pure aloe vera gel is another natural method of cooling and soothing the sting area. Aloe vera is known universally as a wonderful healing skin treatment and it contains no harsh chemicals, additives or medications.
4. The application of mud to the stung area is an American Indian treatment which works by drawing the venom out of the skin in the same way that a clay face mask draws impurities out from the skin of the face. This needs be nothing more elaborate than mud from the garden. Leave for 10-15 minutes to allow the mud to dry completely.

Further home remedies include the following:

* the inside of a cut onion to rub over the wasp sting site.
* white or cider vinegar applied with a piece of cotton wool.
* a copper penny. Placed on a wasp sting this apparently reduces the swelling, redness and irritation and has something to do with the copper content of the coin reacting favourably with the body’s own chemical makeup.

Please note, however, that if after using these remedies the irritation persists or worsens or the redness spreads, do seek medical advice. The above first aid measures are simply for use in the home and for anyone who has no out of the ordinary major reaction to insect stings and bites, and if there are any doubts or concerns do not hesitate to ask a doctor’s or pharmacist’s opinion.

Read more at Suite101: How to Treat Wasp Stings Using Home First Aid: Natural remedies and pain relief for treating wasp venom http://flying-insects.suite101.com/article.cfm/how_to_treat_wasp_stings#ixzz0xDEcZcmk

SOURCE: flying-insects.suite101.com

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Bee stings are either annoyingly painful or deadly, depending on if the victim is allergic to the venom.
The best way to reduce any reaction to bee venom is to remove the bee stinger as quickly as possible. If a bee sting victim has had any allergic reactions to bee stings in the past, consider the possibility of anaphylaxis, a life-threatening allergic reaction.

1. Safety first! Get away from the bee. Bees release a scent when in danger to attract other bees. If you’re still around when reinforcements get there, they’ll sting you.
2. Follow universal precautions and wear personal protective equipment if you have it.
3. Remove any stingers immediately! No need to scrape off bee stingers, just remove them. It’s OK to pull stingers out with your fingers. The longer bee stingers are allowed to remain in the body, the more severe the reaction will be.
4. If the victim is allergic to bees, check to see if the victim is carrying an epinephrine auto-injector (EpiPen). If so, help the victim use the EpiPen. If the victim is supposed to carry an EpiPen and does not have it, call 911 immediately! Do not wait for symptoms to appear.Watch any victim closely for signs of anaphylaxis.
   • itching
   • redness
   • hives (raised welts)
   • shortness of breath

   If there is any concern that the victim may be developing anaphylaxis, call 911 immediately. Antihistamines, such as diphenhydramine (Benedryl), can slow an anaphylactic reaction, but will not stop it.

5. Non-allergic victims will almost always develop local reactions to bee stings. Redness, swelling, and pain are all common at the site of the bee sting. The pain will usually go away pretty quickly, but swelling may last for more than a day. Use an ice pack to reduce swelling at the site.It’s common to develop some itching at the bee sting site. Antihistamines or calamine lotion should help.
6. Take the victim to the emergency department if the victim was stung more than 10 times, or if there are bee stings inside the nose, mouth, or throat. Swelling from these stings can cause shortness of breath, even in non-allergic victims.
7. Use ibuprofen or acetaminophen for minor pain relief. For tenderness at the site, try a bee-sting swab  to dull the pain.

1. Conventional wisdom says to scrape bee stingers away from the skin because pinching the venom sack could push extra venom into the victim. In fact, how fast you get the stinger out is much more important than how.
2. Honey bees leave a stinger behind when they sting a victim. Wasps, yellow jackets, and hornets do not leave a stinger. These relatives of the honey bee can also cause an anaphylactic reaction.

SORUCE: By Rod Brouhard, About.com Guide

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How to Address Potential Christmas Home Health and Safety Issues

It is important to take the proper precautions to ensure that your home is safe during those winter holidays.
Step 1
Put short table cloths on the table on which you will be serving Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner. Young children just learning to walk and stand may accidentally grab long cloths and could fall or pull hot food items or dishes onto themselves.

Step 2
Remove all bones, gristle and hard-to-chew pieces of meat, especially from turkey or other poultry, before feeding the meat to children under the age of six, to prevent choking.

Step 3
Before adding nuts or hard-to-chew diced fruit, like apples, to any salad or deserts, set aside a portion of the food items large enough to give to (or feed) children under seven years old. Even older children are often in a hurry to eat on the holidays and may gulp their food or not chew enough to keep items like nuts from becoming a choking hazard.

Step 4
Make sure there are no artificial (or real) grapes, nuts, holly berries or other small items in holiday centerpieces as they pose a choking hazard for young children who may think the centerpieces are real.

Step 5
Keep candy dishes on top of fireplace mantles, grandfather clocks, china cabinets or other very tall pieces of furniture and out of the reach of young children.

Step 6
Place the electrical cords for strings of Christmas or other lights at the back of the tree so that they cannot be easily reached by young children. Unplug the cords when you retire for the night. When you put lights around a window, try to position a big easy chair, couch, recliner or other piece of furniture with a back, so that you can keep the cord behind the furniture.

Step 7
Water real Christmas trees daily and completely fill the tree stand to keep the tree needles from drying out before the holiday is over. A dry tree is a fire hazard. Wrap a sheet or holiday tree holder cover around the bottom the tree so that young children will not be tempted to play in the water and possibly pull the tree over on themselves.

Step 8
Hang plastic ornaments on the lower branches of the tree if there will be any young children in your home over the holidays. Try to purchase shapes other than round ornaments as young children may think the ornaments are balls to be played with.

Step 9
When cutting paper and wrapping packages, make sure that you don’t leave scissors, pieces of ribbon, knives or sharp-edged paper cutters out where young children could get to them. Place tools used for cutting and wrapping in a locked cabinet or on top of the highest kitchen cupboard to prevent easy access to the tools.

Step 10
Do not place candles on trees or on tables that are low enough for young children to get to them, as candles start several dozen fires a year and children could get burned on the hot wax. When leaving home or going to bed, double check to make sure that any candles or tapers you lit have been put out and placed well out of the reach of young children. Do the same with lighters, matches or other implements used for lighting them.

Step 11
When leaving home for several hours, unplug your indoor holiday lights, including those for the tree to avoid the potential for creating a fire hazard. Do not leave your porch light on when you leave for an extended period of time because that indicates to thieves, who are very active during the holidays, that you are not home. Leave one or two lights on in your house, but not the bathroom light.

SOURCE: ehow.com

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Sacramento – Governor Schwarzenegger has signed Assembly Bill 83 (Feuer/Benoit), legislation which encourages individuals to act as “Good Samaritans” and voluntarily help rescue others in peril. The legislation goes into effect immediately.

Author of Good Samaritan Assembly Bill 83

Assembly Member Feuer was moved to introduce AB 83 by personal experience. While driving home from work on a Los Angeles freeway we witnessed the driver of a pickup truck swerve and lose control, overturning in traffic. Feuer helped pull the driver and his family from the overturned vehicle while others blocked traffic on the busy freeway.

Now Good Samaritans have no reason to hesitate to responsibly help someone in an emergency out of fear that they might be sued, ” Feuer said. “This legislation encourages Californians to look out for each other at a time when public resources are all too scarce. I’m proud of the broad coalition that came together to make this common sense law possible.” The bill garnered unanimous bi-partisan support in its passage through the Legislature, and it created a broad and unusual alliance of support from law enforcement and rescue agencies, as well as the plaintiffs and defense bars and the American Heart Association.

Assembly member Mike Feuer´s website: http://www.assembly.ca.gov/a42Read the rest of this article from californiachronicle.com

The Saga of “Crabby Craig” the Morton’s Neuroma Post op goes on.
Tonight Crabby Craig headed for the shower. A challenge indeed, as the post op dressing has to stay dry and intact until the stitches are removed. Hmm? What to do!
We did a “Dry Run” before there was any water involved to make sure that the patient could get into the shower safely. Hmm? How to get the patient safely in the shower? Use the bed side commode in the shower for stability, and to sit on. Crabby Craig is elevated on another shower stool. Used a walker to get the patient into the shower.
The PLAN:
Wrap the foot and dressing in a washcloth … then cover well with plastic food wrap and tape with micropore plastic tape. Next whole leg goes in the “waterproof” leg shower bag, and more tape goes on the top of that to make sure not water sneaks in. Patient was Estatic to have running water and be able to wash her hair without getting Crabby Craig Wet. Post Shower all the plastic coverings were removed… and the dressing was DRY not one drop of water near the foot!!
Yea! Crabby Craig was relaxed for the evening! Patient was Clean and safe, feeling better after a warm shower.