Bee Careful

Sunday afternoon, I discovered I have a very strong reaction to bee stings. I knew I was allergic to insect bites and I assumed that included bee stings. I've been stung by bees and wasps before, but have never had a reaction except for some swelling around the sting site.

I was mowing the backyard and apparently disturbed some bees that were swarming around the ground. I felt a sharp sting, and initially thought I may have been bitten by a snake, but as soon as I looked at my ankle, I realized it was probably a bee sting. My ankle stung a lot, but I wasn't very concerned. I continued mowing for about 20 minutes before asking Justin to finish mowing. At that point, I began itching a lot! I decided to shower. Before I jumped in the shower, I realized my lips were beginning to swell quickly. My whole body, except for my back, was itching and breaking out in a rash. I later found out those were classic hives. Justin came inside a few minutes after I began showering and I told him I thought I needed to go to the hospital.

He kept insisting I get out of the shower and go see a doctor immediately. I finished showering quickly, but much to Justin's dismay. He told me if I died it was my own fault. I dressed and we headed to an urgent care center down the road from our house. I was still very calm since I wasn't having trouble breathing. We filled out the usual paperwork before they took me back. Justin actually did the writing while I sat in the chair and scratched. Even the bottoms of my feet were itching. They took me in and initially asked if I was stung around my eye. Apparently, that was incredibly swollen. I was scratching everywhere! My face was very red and my tongue had swollen by that point and I was speaking with a lisp. I told Justin I thought my bottom lip was going to explode because it was so tight from the swelling. The only pain I had was from the actual bee sting.

Later, the nurse told me that after she took my vital signs, she immediately grabbed the doctor and insisted that he see me right then. My blood pressure was slightly elevated and my pulse was 168. A normal resting pulse for someone my age should be around 90. I did tell her I had been mowing and was probably still a little "excited" from that. The doctor came in and quickly said they would need to give me a shot of benadryl, a steroid, and a pepcid (apparently, pepcid helps with swelling). I took the pills and shot (in my tush!). The doctor initially said he wanted to shoot me with the epipen (epinephrine) because he was very concerned about my throat swelling. I asked him if I could wait and see if the benadryl helped since I wasn't having trouble breathing. They agreed to monitor me for a few minutes before using the epinephrine. After about 10 minutes, the hives started getting better and my lips began shrinking. They watched me for about 45 minutes before deciding I was ok to leave.

I have several medicines to take (steroids, benadryl, and pepcid) and I also now have to carry epipens in case this happens again. The doctor told me in the future, use the epipen, but make sure I call 911. I asked him if this would happen again if I was stung again and he assured me it most definitely would and would probably be a life threatening situation since the reaction would almost definitely be worse.

I'm doing fine now, thanks to Justin. The worst part is my ankle and tush sting. My ankle burns and stings where I was stung. My behind is just sore from the injection. Justin said she really stabbed me which shocked him since I told them how afraid of needles I was. Honestly, the bee sting hurt much worse than the needle. My eyes are still a little swollen, but everything else seems to be back to normal. I got about 90 minutes of sleep Sunday night. They told me the benadryl would probably make me sleepy. That didn't happen.

My reaction to going to the doctor reminded me of when Pam on The Office was in labor and kept coming up with reasons to not go to the hospital. I wasn't avoiding it because I was scared; I just wanted to make sure I was clean since I had been mowing. I tried to get Justin to hop in the shower while I was getting dressed since he had also been working in the yard, but he told me I was crazy.

The urgent care facility we visited is North Atlanta Urgent Care. They were great! I highly recommend them. They were fast, caring, and really seemed to know their stuff.

Hopefully, that was our excitement for the week.

Déjà vu?

I guess this post isn't technically a déjà vu experience since Justin and I have been through this before.

Thursday evening, Atlanta was hit by some pretty nasty storms. My commute home was fine, but as soon as I pulled in the driveway, it got really bad. My car was being pelted by sticks and pinecones. Justin got home about ten minutes after me and he said a lot of the traffic lights near us were out. Shortly after arriving home, a couple of our friends picked us up for Mexican food.

It was dark when we got home, but nothing seemed out of the ordinary. We got up Friday morning, got ready for work, let the dogs out and back in and then we headed to work. Justin got home a few minutes before I did and I knew he was outside because the dogs were essentially glued to the back door. This is what I saw:


How did we miss this Friday morning?! I seriously doubt it fell during the day Friday, so it had to be like this when we left Friday morning. I think we're both pretty observant people, but I am now questioning that label. Seriously, how did we miss this?

About eighteen months ago, a storm came through and snapped off the top of this tree. Luckily, it landed on our fence, but didn't get the neighbor's car that was parked very close to the fence. We cleaned it up, which was not an easy task. We've talked about having someone take down the remainder of the tree since it was obviously going to rot and become very unstable, but we just never did it. Mother Nature took care of that for us Thursday night.

The tree trunk fell on the fence at the very back of our yard. We got very lucky again since it missed the condominiums that are just on the other side of the fence. It did damage the fence, but it can be repaired. The trunk did destroy another small tree beside it when it toppled. That's what all the leaves and bushy stuff is in the photo.

Justin and I have been discussing clearing out some of the bushes and stuff in the back of the yard, so this kind of jump starts that project. Justin posted an ad on Craigslist last night while we were eating supper and within an hour or so, he had six or seven offers to remove the tree. A man is coming this afternoon to actually do the deed. I hate that someone else is doing that, but I'm glad it isn't me. I don't know if you are aware of this, but trees weigh a lot. Even chopped up trees weigh a lot. We don't have a wheelbarrow, so we used our dolly the last time to remove the tree. That actually worked very well since the pieces fit quite nicely on the dolly and we just rolled it to the road for the county to retrieve. Our lot is somewhat narrow, so it's impossible for a vehicle to get to the backyard.

We obviously don't learn from previous experiences. When we lived in Tifton, a hurricane came through and snapped off the top of this tree. It fell on our fence. We cut it up and moved it to the road for the city to pick-up. We discussed having the trunk professionally removed, but never did it. A year or two later, a storm came through and caused the rotten trunk to lean. Justin was concerned that it might fall on our neighbor's house, so he used a rope and a nearby tree as leverage and pulled the trunk down. I called him Lumberjack Justin after that. I have pictures of him posing with the tree, but I won't embarrass him light that. We did get the remaining tree down so we were left with a small stump.

At the movie

We watched Bridesmaids Saturday night, which was hilarious, and stopped by the photo booth in the lobby on our way to the car. We weren't even married the last time we were in a photo booth together.

It has been at least eight years since we took photos in a photo booth!

A DUI, perhaps?

A couple of Saturdays ago, Justin and I worked in the yard. Afterward, we showered and were headed to eat supper. As we walked into the living room, we could see blue lights flashing outside. We both peered out the windows to see the excitement.

Three police cars were parked in the road in front of our house with blue lights on. There was also a vehicle that appeared to be slightly damaged. It looks like the car may have lost control on Clairmont and turned very quickly onto our road. Once on our road, he took down our neighbor's mailbox across the street. He then hit the power pole, which snapped.


As we pulled out of our driveway, we noticed a man in the backseat of one of the police cars. I think he may have spent the night in jail. As minor as the crash appeard to be, it could have been much worse if our neighbor had been at his mailbox, like he was earlier. Justin and I were in the road cleaning the debris from the edge of the road in front of our house earlier that afternoon. Luckily, we weren't out there when this crash happened.

We dined at Lunacy Black Market that night. I'm planning a post to tell you about the couple who were a little too lovey-dovey while they dined. I'll also tell you about the two breasts I got to look at while I dined.

The power pole remained broken for a few days. It was replaced last Monday while we were out of town. I'm not sure if the power disconnect had anything to do with it, but Justin's wine refrigerator wasn't working when we returned home Monday afternoon. It was a sad day at Casa de McCall.

Sushi Yoshino

Sometime last year, Justin and I ate at Sushin Yoshino. It's a small restaurant that I believe is in the Brookhaven neighborhood. It's at the intersection of Johnson Ferry and Ashford-Dunwoody. We have eaten there several times since last year since the food is so good. The servers are friendly and the sushi is even better. They have hibachi-type food, but Justin and I have always eaten the sushi.

I think my favorite roll is the angel roll. It has a piece of fried shrimp with cream cheese and is topped with crab and a yummy sauce. The crab on the top is shredded and kind of looks like hair. Angel hair perhaps? Last Saturday, Justin and I ate lunch at Sushi Yoshino and it was some of the best sushi we've had. Justin said the smoked salmon was the freshest and most delicious salmon he's eaten on sushi. I've thought about how yummy the food was all week. I had to have it again!

Saturday morning, I counted down the hours until I could order sushi for lunch. We ordered and I went to pick up the yummy goodness. I felt like a glutton because our food came packaged on this huge platter. It didn't stop me, though.

When I got home, we dug in. It didn't take long for the platter to go from this:

to this:

I think I want Sushi Yoshino one night this week!

Here comes Peter Cottontail...

...hopping down the bunny trail.


Happy Easter! This bunny cookie was given to me by a coworker. It was delicious! From past experience with decorated cookies, I've discovered most don't taste very good. They're very pretty, but the taste is lacking. This cookie was the total package. It was pretty and the cookie was buttery and tasty. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Valenza

Sunday evening, Justin and I talked about going out for dinner. We eventually decided to stay at home and eat salads. We did decide that we would eat somewhere new Monday night, so after work, we headed to Valenza.

Valenza is located in a neighborhood called Brookhaven. Brookhaven is fairly near our neighborhood, so we've tried to eat at several restaurants in that area. Like the other Brookhaven restaurants, we enjoyed delicious food.

We didn't make a reservation since it was a weekday, but I would think one would be necessary on the weekends to avoid a long wait. The online menu is not their current menu. I ordered the caramelized scallops with spring pea risotto and lemon oil. It was delicious! Justin ordered the roasted butternut squash ravioli with pecans, brown butter, and sage. His was also delicious.

For dessert, we shared the warm chocolate tart. It was served with vanilla cream and milk chocolate sauce. It tasted a good as it sounds. I could have eaten three or four. All of their desserts sounded good, so I need to try more of those.

I guess our only complaint is the cost. My entree was $27 and Justin's was $16 (I think). We didn't leave hungry, but it did seem a little pricey for the amount of food. The quality of food was good, so we will probably visit Valenza in the future.