Happy Anniversary?

Monday was Gabe and my 7th wedding anniversary, and we celebrated in high style at the Fairview Southdale emergency room. Gabe got stung by three or four yellow jackets on his way out the door that morning, and found out in short order that he is definitely allergic to yellow jacket stings. After his first ambulance ride, an IV of Benadryl, an epinephrine shot and some steroids, he is on the mend. I now carry two EpiPens in my purse: one for Gabe and one for Sully.

We learned a lot about allergic reactions and yellow jacket removal on Monday. Some key learnings:

• Yellow jackets are really angry little bugs.
• A person can have recurrent allergic reactions from his or her initial exposure to the allergen. So, even though Gabe was stung in the morning, he got hives again that afternoon and woke up with itchy palms on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings. His system is still trying to fight off the protein from the yellow jacket sting.
• Mailmen must be invincible, because even though the front door was swarming with yellow jackets, we still had our mail in our mailbox right at our front door. I really hope he wasn’t stung.
• Pest control people really don’t care if you have been hospitalized due to a run-in with yellow jackets. They are busy people, and may or may not show up or call you back. I finally got someone out to our house by the time I called the fifth place, and they were prompt and thorough (although maybe a bit expensive, but I don’t really know what the going rate is for yellow jacket removal).

I told one of my colleagues that this may be Darwinism at work…the Sandholm/Pipho line may not be among the “fittest” for survival, and we’re going to get phased out through lethal allergic reactions. What a nerdy way to go.

One of Gabe’s colleagues also was able to find the humor in all of this and welcomed him back after his ordeal with the following little present. Love it.