A Blessing and A Curse

One of the most challenging aspects of Teddy's diagnosis is that he has an extremely high threshold for pain. That's dangerous on a non-verbal child who can't articulate what hurts and often shows no sign of discomfort until things are seriously wrong. When he's tired or upset, he will cry more easily for pain, but it usually takes a whole lot to faze him.

That turned out to be a blessing yesterday when we knew exactly how much pain and discomfort he should be experiencing. He was playing at the park with his staff, went down the slide and came off covered in bees (likely yellow jackets). His staff reported to us that Teddy got stung twice on the face, and that his staff got stung a couple times as well shooshing the bastards off Teddy (my words, not his). When Dave was helping Teddy out of the vehicle, 6 half dead bees fell off Teddy's jacket, and Dave picked off one more later in the house. Dave pulled one stinger from another spot. Based on the welts, our best guess is Teddy got stung 5 times on his face.

He had welts and was a bit swollen, and we immediately gave him Benadryl and kept a close eye on him for an allergic reaction as this was the first time he was stung. Aside from the welts, you wouldn't have known he was stung. No crying. No rubbing his face. No scratching.

I just got stung last week Friday, and that still itches at time. I used ice packs for several days and couldn't sleep one night because it itched so much. Apparently I'm a major wuss compared to Teddy.

We e-mailed his staff to find out how he reacted in the moment he got stung. The answer was that he cried for a minute and then seemed fine.

Five stings. One minute of crying.

It's a blessing and a curse, but yesterday it was a blessing.