whitestar
Member
Sorry for the long story but hope this helps someone......
Had the day off yesterday (Sept. 10/2013) so decided to go for a ride out in Milton/Burlington (Rattle Snake point, Kelso, Campbellville) area yesterday in the heat just taking it easy on the cruiser as usual, enjoying the back roads for a few hours then decided to call a friend and see if he's up for a ride after work. Wearing helmet, leather boots, jeans and t-shirt. We meet up an hour later. By this time its around 6ish... We decide to take Snake Road and then head up to Ridge Road in Hamilton. We are headed west on Britannia and around Guelph Line road I get stung by something in the neck just below my adams apple. Felt like being stabbed with a needle. I'm riding and rubbing sting cause it itched and burned like hell, but I'm not allergic to stings so thought nothing of it. I've been stung before and continued to ride the rest of the day without an issue. I keep monitoring my breathing to make sure I don't get an anaphylactic reaction like my friend (he got stung on the forehead between the eyes last month while riding and looked like the elephant man for a few days).
We get to Cedar Springs Road. My friend asks me if I'm alright cause he's allergic to stings. I say its all good and we head south. A few minutes later my hands start tingling, but I thought its cause I've been riding for 3 or so hours at this point. Then my legs start tingling and my ears start to plug up. I'm thinking we'll stop at gas station for some water just before Snake Road cause my friend needed gas anyway. Few minutes later vision starts to get blurry, but the gas station is like 5-10 minutes away at most. No big deal, or so I thought. Riding along my vision continues to get worse and worse and at this point I'm not thinking straight. I'm leaned forward, all tensed up and concentrating on the road ahead and nothing else. I'm looking for a spot to pull over but there's no real shoulder except for a small patch of gravel so I'm riding along looking (just barely at this point) for a good spot to pull over. I know something is not right but too dazed too stop right away. I signaled to pull over but then decided against it (I don't know why, its all a blur). At this point my friend thinks there's something wrong and pulls up next to me whistling (very loud like he normally does) and waving his arms. He see's my face concentrated on the road like there's no tomorrow. I don't remember any of this.
I then go to pull over again, but again I decide not to, this time it was because I saw the stop lights at Dundas and thought it would be better to pull over there on a wide paved shoulder. As soon as I turn right onto Dundas, I'm thinking the gas station is too far. Good call, cause at this point I can barely see as everything looks hazy and I feel weak. I pull over right away even though the shoulder wasn't paved (more gravel but at least it was hard packed). I just couldn't go any further. My body was shutting off. I stop the bike and go to put the kickstand down but it keeps slipping as bike is leaning too far left. Friend runs over, straightened bike and put kickstand down and yells to me to go lay down. Take my helmet and sunglasses off and he later told me my eyes were bloodshot and face was crazy pale white (and no I'm not that white, I have a tan). I go to lay down and just collapse. Everything is spinning. Warm tingling all over. At this point my friend thinks I'm having an anaphylactic reaction to the sting and starts waving cars down.
First guy pulls over and says sorry, I got take my wife somewhere. Second car that pulls over happen to be two off duty (husband and wife) paramedics. One of them called 911 while other was trying to take my pulse. I'm dazed and seeing stars at this point (lots of them). He was having trouble finding pulse. Ambulance get there and do their thing. Blood pressure dropped well below 90 (I'm always 120-125 over 80) when they took it, but I felt a little better by that point. It was even lower just before I pulled over. They said I was basically in the process of fainting but was fighting it. I've never fainted before so by the time my blood pressure dropped to the point of nearly fainting, I couldn't rationalize what was going on and my hard head kept pushing me along just a little further to a safer place to pull over (go figure). Cop comes into ambulance and asks for license and where the bike went down. Paramedics reply, "he pulled over on his own".
No report to write for him. He did watch my bike while my friend dropped his bike off at Ambulance Station and off duty paramedics brought him back to pick up bike (didn't get their names but THANK YOU!)
From the time I was stung to pulling over was about 15 minutes with the symptoms arriving about 8-10 minutes or so after getting stung. Lesson learned!! In the end, it all ended a hell of a lot better than passing out while riding and now I know that I am allergic to insect stings and need to carry an epi-pen with me. In hindsight, I know it seems logical that you would pull over as soon as you start feeling a reaction, but it happened so fast and I can't explain why but I was looking for good place to pull over. Strange, I know. Paramedics say it was combination of heat, dehydration, no food and then the sting just wiped we out.
Note: If you get stung by something, even if you're not allergic, pull over right away just in case!!! Hopes this helps someone.
Had the day off yesterday (Sept. 10/2013) so decided to go for a ride out in Milton/Burlington (Rattle Snake point, Kelso, Campbellville) area yesterday in the heat just taking it easy on the cruiser as usual, enjoying the back roads for a few hours then decided to call a friend and see if he's up for a ride after work. Wearing helmet, leather boots, jeans and t-shirt. We meet up an hour later. By this time its around 6ish... We decide to take Snake Road and then head up to Ridge Road in Hamilton. We are headed west on Britannia and around Guelph Line road I get stung by something in the neck just below my adams apple. Felt like being stabbed with a needle. I'm riding and rubbing sting cause it itched and burned like hell, but I'm not allergic to stings so thought nothing of it. I've been stung before and continued to ride the rest of the day without an issue. I keep monitoring my breathing to make sure I don't get an anaphylactic reaction like my friend (he got stung on the forehead between the eyes last month while riding and looked like the elephant man for a few days).
We get to Cedar Springs Road. My friend asks me if I'm alright cause he's allergic to stings. I say its all good and we head south. A few minutes later my hands start tingling, but I thought its cause I've been riding for 3 or so hours at this point. Then my legs start tingling and my ears start to plug up. I'm thinking we'll stop at gas station for some water just before Snake Road cause my friend needed gas anyway. Few minutes later vision starts to get blurry, but the gas station is like 5-10 minutes away at most. No big deal, or so I thought. Riding along my vision continues to get worse and worse and at this point I'm not thinking straight. I'm leaned forward, all tensed up and concentrating on the road ahead and nothing else. I'm looking for a spot to pull over but there's no real shoulder except for a small patch of gravel so I'm riding along looking (just barely at this point) for a good spot to pull over. I know something is not right but too dazed too stop right away. I signaled to pull over but then decided against it (I don't know why, its all a blur). At this point my friend thinks there's something wrong and pulls up next to me whistling (very loud like he normally does) and waving his arms. He see's my face concentrated on the road like there's no tomorrow. I don't remember any of this.
I then go to pull over again, but again I decide not to, this time it was because I saw the stop lights at Dundas and thought it would be better to pull over there on a wide paved shoulder. As soon as I turn right onto Dundas, I'm thinking the gas station is too far. Good call, cause at this point I can barely see as everything looks hazy and I feel weak. I pull over right away even though the shoulder wasn't paved (more gravel but at least it was hard packed). I just couldn't go any further. My body was shutting off. I stop the bike and go to put the kickstand down but it keeps slipping as bike is leaning too far left. Friend runs over, straightened bike and put kickstand down and yells to me to go lay down. Take my helmet and sunglasses off and he later told me my eyes were bloodshot and face was crazy pale white (and no I'm not that white, I have a tan). I go to lay down and just collapse. Everything is spinning. Warm tingling all over. At this point my friend thinks I'm having an anaphylactic reaction to the sting and starts waving cars down.
First guy pulls over and says sorry, I got take my wife somewhere. Second car that pulls over happen to be two off duty (husband and wife) paramedics. One of them called 911 while other was trying to take my pulse. I'm dazed and seeing stars at this point (lots of them). He was having trouble finding pulse. Ambulance get there and do their thing. Blood pressure dropped well below 90 (I'm always 120-125 over 80) when they took it, but I felt a little better by that point. It was even lower just before I pulled over. They said I was basically in the process of fainting but was fighting it. I've never fainted before so by the time my blood pressure dropped to the point of nearly fainting, I couldn't rationalize what was going on and my hard head kept pushing me along just a little further to a safer place to pull over (go figure). Cop comes into ambulance and asks for license and where the bike went down. Paramedics reply, "he pulled over on his own".
No report to write for him. He did watch my bike while my friend dropped his bike off at Ambulance Station and off duty paramedics brought him back to pick up bike (didn't get their names but THANK YOU!) From the time I was stung to pulling over was about 15 minutes with the symptoms arriving about 8-10 minutes or so after getting stung. Lesson learned!! In the end, it all ended a hell of a lot better than passing out while riding and now I know that I am allergic to insect stings and need to carry an epi-pen with me. In hindsight, I know it seems logical that you would pull over as soon as you start feeling a reaction, but it happened so fast and I can't explain why but I was looking for good place to pull over. Strange, I know. Paramedics say it was combination of heat, dehydration, no food and then the sting just wiped we out.
Note: If you get stung by something, even if you're not allergic, pull over right away just in case!!! Hopes this helps someone.
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