Mowed fields all day, ended up at emergency clinic

[riptides]

I'd say something ingested or inhaled, not topical. And you mentioned a bout of Lyme disease in the past. Your immune system is compromised.

Glad you are doing better. Maybe an EpiPen is in your future with a reaction like that.

 

[BRMyers]

I'd say something ingested or inhaled, not topical. And you mentioned a bout of Lyme disease in the past. Your immune system is compromised.

Glad you are doing better. Maybe an EpiPen is in your future with a reaction like that.

I was thinking the same thing. Systemic response and the flare up responded to treatment without any outward rashes left in localized areas. Your immune system could be over active right now due to fighting off a recent cold/flu virus (a bug you may not even be aware of) and something in the field triggered your body's immune response. Good chance you may never know what triggered it. May never happen again, but if you have developed an anaphylaxis reaction to something in the field, you will want the epi pen. Consulting with your doctor, he/she may want you to take diphenhydramine before you go into the field, which then brings the problem of being sleepy. Good luck.

 

[PNHuber]

Had a bad experience with something like that Saturday before last. Was in the garden weeding and was stung on the ear by a honey bee. I have an apiary so I have hundreds of thousands of bees on my piece and have been stung more time than I can remember and no ill effect. Within a few minutes my hands started swelling and itching then I felt sick. Let my wife know I was having a reaction and we jumped in the car for her to take me to urgent care. By the time we got there I had lost control of my arms and legs, they were just shaking so bad I couldn't do anything with them. They took me into a room and starting preparing shots, happen to be wearing button fly jeans that morning, been a long time since a woman tried that hard to get into my pants. When she got my pants down to give me shots there was a bright red rash from my knees to my waist. Got a shot of Benadril and some steriods, started to feel better, then I crashed. My wife said that the rash ran up my chest to the top of my head so fast it was shocking and she yelled for the doctor who had left me there for awhile. Doctor freaked out when he came in the room then starting yelling to his staff to call an ambulance. In the ambulance that hooked up an IV and prepped for me to stop breathing and gave me three of four more shots before starting to transport me. Once at the ER they hooked me up to monitors and gave me four more shots. Got stung at 9:00 AM finally started clearing up at about 1:30 PM and was released at 4:00 PM. Actually thought I was going to die. Dr didn't think it was the bee but a combination of plant allergies I was already dealing with (very allergic to Oak which was the primary nectar and pollen coming into the hives at the moment) and the sting just put me over the edge. Be very careful with allergic reactions and if they appear bad, just call the ambulance and forget urgent care. Dr attributed me arriving well at ER to the work performed by the ambulance crew. Be careful out there.

 

[Ford850]

I'd guess Queen Ann's Lace or Milkweed, but it could be almost any weed that you've gradually become more allergic to over the years of exposure. You keep poking the bear (immune system) and eventually it's had enough and will over react.

 

[Stu Cozza]

Please let us know if a diagnosis and conclusion are found. That sort of stuff anaphylaxis) can be a severe problem. Benadryl (50 mg), lots of water, and maybe some Acetaminophen if there is pain (such as found with insect stings) are a good start. I have seen a lot of allergic reactions when I worked the ER's (and other areas).

 

[radios1]

it sounds like you need a hard cab to keep the weeds from getting to you!. it will help..

 

[dodge man]

Do you have seasonal allergies? I do and a few years back got hives pretty bad but not as bad as you. Mine were mostly on my torso and it is pretty scary because they seem to just keep spreading. I went to a dermatologist and he’d aid it’s very difficult to find what is doing it. There is just so many things you could be exposed to during a day. They gave me Zyrtec and another medicine which is actually often used before surgery to help knock you out. I did read up on on it and it is often used for hives. I only took it a couple times because it made me so tired.

Keep some Benadryl with you and take 1 or 2 if it starts to happen again. I had the hives maybe three days in a row and the Benadryl seemed to help a lot. Mine have never came back and I have no idea what caused them.

 

[riptides]

Had a bad experience with something like that Saturday before last. Was in the garden weeding and was stung on the ear by a honey bee. I have an apiary so I have hundreds of thousands of bees on my piece and have been stung more time than I can remember and no ill effect. Within a few minutes my hands started swelling and itching then I felt sick. Let my wife know I was having a reaction and we jumped in the car for her to take me to urgent care. By the time we got there I had lost control of my arms and legs, they were just shaking so bad I couldn't do anything with them. They took me into a room and starting preparing shots, happen to be wearing button fly jeans that morning, been a long time since a woman tried that hard to get into my pants. When she got my pants down to give me shots there was a bright red rash from my knees to my waist. Got a shot of Benadril and some steriods, started to feel better, then I crashed. My wife said that the rash ran up my chest to the top of my head so fast it was shocking and she yelled for the doctor who had left me there for awhile. Doctor freaked out when he came in the room then starting yelling to his staff to call an ambulance. In the ambulance that hooked up an IV and prepped for me to stop breathing and gave me three of four more shots before starting to transport me. Once at the ER they hooked me up to monitors and gave me four more shots. Got stung at 9:00 AM finally started clearing up at about 1:30 PM and was released at 4:00 PM. Actually thought I was going to die. Dr didn't think it was the bee but a combination of plant allergies I was already dealing with (very allergic to Oak which was the primary nectar and pollen coming into the hives at the moment) and the sting just put me over the edge. Be very careful with allergic reactions and if they appear bad, just call the ambulance and forget urgent care. Dr attributed me arriving well at ER to the work performed by the ambulance crew. Be careful out there.

YIKE!

Holy cow man. Good reaction to get in the car and go!

Glad you are doing, better. OMG.

Welcome to TBN, quite an intro!

 

[747driver]

Thats some scary stuff that has happened to you ! Glad you took immediate action and went to the dr. I had a scare of somewhat 4 weeks ago. I had quit working on our new addition and took a break. 2 hrs. alter my right elbow and hand started swelling up and warm to the touch. When i woke up next morning my arm was turning a blackish purple and much more swollen. This happened on a saturday, so i called my dr. on monday morning. He called me back and put me on a video conference with him as we live 45 minutes from the office. Said...looks like a brown recluse spider bite ! I never felt anything but there were 3 bite marks. He got me on 'Doxycycline Hyclate that day and immediate action was working. Took 2 weeks for the purple to go away...dr. said it was due to my blood reacting from the bite venom. Any how i now have to go to a orthopedic dr. tomorrow as there is still a bump on my elbow which the dr. said is a bursa sack still holding infection and probably needs to be opened up and drained ! We live in a National Forest so the insects run and fly rampantly ! We do have epy pens on hand !! Everybody is correct in that as we age ( i am 68 ) our bodies no longer have the immune systems we had when we were young !!

 

[EddieWalker]

I was immune to poison oak until my late teens, when it hit me hard. Now here in Texas, I have poison ivy to deal with instead of poison oak, but they are both similar enough to each other to know that this had nothing to do with either.

As a contractor, I've been bit by spiders a few times and your symptoms remind me of a spider bite more then anything else. Especially in the speed of the reaction and how quickly it went away.

Why was it so dusty in the cab of your tractor?

There is always a chance that you mowed something that worked it way through your AC system or leaks in your doors, or however the dust got into your cab, but this seems like a very unlikely.

I did the test for allergies where they make a small cut in your back and they put a different substance in each cut to see what you are allergic to. I think it was something like 70 cuts. I'm allergic to dust. But what's odd is that my allergic reaction to dust stopped when I moved to Texas and started living on land with red clay. Apparently not all dust is the same. California dust affects me, Texas dust doesn't.

From what I've been told, and experienced, allergies and reactions to toxins varies as we mature. There is no set date when it hits us, but what was fine one day, can no longer be tolerated all of a sudden. You can guess what it was, but that's just guessing. You will have to have the test done to you to see what you are allergic to in order to deal with it. Hopefully it will be something that is easily treated and you can continue mowing without any more incidents.

I would also look for spiders or other bugs inside the cab, seal it up better, and set off a bug bomb inside of it before using it again!