I relish life.

I have a wonderful family, a successful life in business, and a comfortable lifestyle surrounded by good friends and neighbours. I am an enthusiast of all things - food and wine, sport, wildlife, computers, playing golf, having fun, sharing and caring with all. I am also very blessed in having a strong religious faith too.

I did not realise it then, but my life was destined to change in the autumn of 2000. I was to become one of a small minority of allergy victims who was hypersensitive, so sensitive that traditional medical treatment proved too dangerous.

Wasp Sting 2000

Whilst walking from my car to my office I was stung by a wasp on the forehead and it was like being hit in the face with a brick. To say I was feeling ill was an understatement - I literally staggered into my office and fell into my chair with my head spinning. My workmates wished to call for medical assistance but I insisted that I was fine - embarassed that a wasp sting could make me feel so ill. I was actually off work for about a week following that incident but just put it down to a bad reaction.

In 2001 I was referred by our doctor to a wonderful consultant immunologist who tested me positive by a blood test for an allergy to wasp and hornets - she recommended that I start de-sensitization, a programme of injections where controlled doses of venom are introduced gradually increasing each week. At the start of the treatment I would be dosed with 1/5000th of a wasp sting and by the 12th week would end up with the equivalent of 2 wasp stings. Recent studies show that this treatment works for between 96-99% of allergy sufferers. For once things were not to work out for me and I was to be one of the tiny percentage who do not respond to this treatment.

January 2002: The First Week's Treatment: No problems!

The course started fine and the first dose of 1/5000th of a wasp sting was administered in hospital, I hang around for an hour to ensure no delayed reaction, and went back to work. Little bit of a headache but it looked like there was going to be no problem in sorting this allergy out.

January 2002: The Second Week's Treatment:First Anaphylactic Shock

The next week I turned up again at 10.30 am very confident that I would be back in the office for a meeting later that morning.

Unfortunately this time I had an allergic reaction to this dose of was venom. The reaction is scary and can differ from person to person. For me it started with the throat feeling "tight" and a tingling in all my extremities. I then became very cold and my body trembled uncontrollably. Then I get the most amazing stomach cramps and have a real flavour of the female perspective of giving birth. It was seriously painful! The medical team were wonderful adminstering adrenaline, steroids, anti-histamine - I never normally even take aspirin! Within a few minutes I started to improve and whilst I was left exhausted I was not really any the worse for wear. I had a minor repeat later that evening and went back to hospital where the staff once again administered more drugs and sorted me out. We left at 1.45 am the following morning.

It had been a long day.

31 January 2002: Anaphylaxis and Resuscitation

My third treatment was to take place on 31 January 2002.at 10.45 am. I returned to hospital and it was agreed that in view of my previous reaction we would go back to the initial dose and start again.

Due to my previous adverse reaction the medical team were taking no chances and drips, injections were at the ready and needles were inserted in my arms in anticipation of the need to administer drugs speedily. Within a few minutes of an injection equivalent to 1/5000th of a wasp sting I was in a bad anaphylactic shock which was so disappointing since I had been OK on this dose before. The first shock was treated and I was left to recover and monitored very closely which was just as well. At around 3.00 pm I went back into anaphylactic shock again, but this time in addition to a swelling throat, shaking body, and severe stomach cramps, I was struggling to keep breathing. I remember my heart pounding, the resuscitation team running in, and then for a period of time the time between hearts beat got longer and longer.

I was fully consious of this and knew that I was entering the dying process.

To cut a long story short, I was brought back to a stable condition because I was in hospital under controlled conditions. and I shall always be indebted to the medical team for sorting me out when I needed them. However, the traditional route of desensitization has proven not to be a safe treatment for me and we still are searching for a treatment before the next wasp sting, which may be my last.

I launched InsectStings.co.uk on St Valentine's day 2002 in order to improve awareness of the dangers of insect sting allergies to encourage allergic and potentially allergic individual. to seek medical advice and treatment - it nearly always works with everybody else! I am worried that there people walking around who may be as sensitive as me who could die because they were not aware of their allergy and had no remedial treatment available. They must be made aware of their problems and take the easy steps necessary to control their allergy.

For me its different.

For the first in my life, I am not looking forward to summer but also have a real purpose in making sure that a trivial insect sting should not affect me, the family I love, and others around me. I am also fighting for all the fellow sufferers who do not even know it.

I'll keep you updated.

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