# My wife is ready for me to start sting therapy



## Gregory and Susan Fariss (Aug 19, 2006)

kc in wv said:


> She has never shown anything other than localized swelling from stings before. I am planning on doing one sting to her for arthritis to start.
> 
> How often would your repeat the treatments?
> 
> ...


I repeat mine every other day. 

Susan


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## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

Is the initial sting, worse then the pain from the arthritis? Trying to convince a loved one to try it...


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## Gregory and Susan Fariss (Aug 19, 2006)

Jeffzhear said:


> Is the initial sting, worse then the pain from the arthritis? Trying to convince a loved one to try it...


The initial sting does not last long! It does sting though. In my case, my pain is much worse than the sting. I do use ice to offset the stinging sensation though. I guess it depends on how bad your loved one's arthritis pain is and whether or not you use ice. 

If she decides to do the bee sting therapy you can get her to answer that for you. Before administering the sting, ask her to rate her pain on a scale of 0 - 10. Zero being no pain and ten being the worst pain she can imagine. Have her jot the number down. Then after the first sting ask her to rate it the same way.

I highly recommend using something to ice the site before the sting. I have a glass jar that I put liquid in and keep in the freezer just for this purpose. If you decide to do this, don't forget to leave space at the top of the jar for the liquid to expand as it freezes. You could probably use a frozen concentrated juice can if you keep that sort of thing around. 

And don't forget to do a test sting the first time and wait then about 15-20 minutes before administering anymore stings. The books I have recommend doing it beside the knee because it is far from the heart and not too low down the extremity, but Frederique Keller did mine about two inches above my right wrist. And have those EpiPens close at hand!

Susan


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## jim b (Oct 3, 2004)

I'm NOT an expert-this is just what i've heard and what I do.

I've heard that the initial session is more like ten to fifteen stings.

What i do is five or six around the site. By the time i get to number four it does't seen to hurt that much more for each additional sting.

Relief for me lasts about four months. This last time i re-injured, or aggravated, the knee and before i could work up the nerve to sting myself, it resolved by itself.

Again- one person's experience and one piece of hearsay.

Best wishes,
j


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## Gregory and Susan Fariss (Aug 19, 2006)

jim b said:


> I'm NOT an expert-this is just what i've heard and what I do.
> 
> I've heard that the initial session is more like ten to fifteen stings.
> 
> What i do is five or six around the site. By the time i get to number four it does't seen to hurt that much more for each additional sting.


The books I read recommend starting with six and slowly increase the number of stings per session. Frederique Keller's recommendation had me do eight but there was no instruction to increase the number of stings. 



> Relief for me lasts about four months. This last time i re-injured, or aggravated, the knee and before i could work up the nerve to sting myself, it resolved by itself.
> 
> Again- one person's experience and one piece of hearsay.
> 
> ...


Wow, I wish mine would last that long! The closest I've come to this is a few years ago after doing stings for about six months I was pain-free for several years. It would be great to do five or six stings and then be pain-free for four months. 
Susan


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## Jeffzhear (Dec 2, 2006)

Susan, Thank you for sharing your experience...Yesterday I was visiting an old-tyme beekeeper friend of mine and talking about the sting therapy and he had a book which he gave me called "Bees Don't Get Arthritis," by Fred Malone which I am excited about reading. The more I learn the more I can help her...


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## Gregory and Susan Fariss (Aug 19, 2006)

Jeffzhear said:


> Susan, Thank you for sharing your experience...Yesterday I was visiting an old-tyme beekeeper friend of mine and talking about the sting therapy and he had a book which he gave me called "Bees Don't Get Arthritis," by Fred Malone which I am excited about reading. The more I learn the more I can help her...


You're welcome, Jeff. If you don't mind, post an opinion on that book after you read it. That's one I don't have and I would be interested to hear what you think about it. I may want to look for a copy of it for myself.

Susan


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## MichaelW (Jun 1, 2005)

> I've heard that the initial session is more like ten to fifteen stings.


Wow! Any number more than ONE seems incredibly inappropriate to me. I've talked to too many people that have went into shock from bee stings. And even if you not allergic...

I'm not allergic to bee stings, but 10 or 15 stings would put me on the couch with serious worries. A bee sting will elevate your heart rate in my un-MD opinion, at least it does mine. and the more stings the more this occurs.

I'll also add the only time I've done apitherapy on purpose, the site on my wrist swelled up for about a week and itched like the devil. Benydryll creamed helped alot after about a week of scratching. I've noticed these kind of localized reactions decrease, (in me) over the beekeeping season as I recieve more stings.

So in summary start with one and wait at least 3-4 days before trying one more.


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## Gregory and Susan Fariss (Aug 19, 2006)

MichaelW said:


> So in summary start with one and wait at least 3-4 days before trying one more.


Michael, relax...

Actually, what the apitherapy experts recommend (Many of whom are MDs) is to apply one sting, wait 10 to 15 minutes and then apply five to seven more stings. 

Anyone who is going to go into anaphylaxis will have done it in that length of time. As for many people going into shock from bee stings, I would ask them to define shock. I would be surprised if more than a couple of them met the clinical definition of shock. 

Once it is established that one is not allergic to bee stings (as per the initial test sting) the Beltsville Bee Lab in Maryland had this to say about beestings:

"For the non-allergic individual, bee stings are reasonably harmless - it is estimated that if attacted by a swarm of bees an average non-allergic male would need at least 1,500 separate bee stings before the venom becomes life threatening (10 stings per pound of bodyweight)."

Bee Venom Therapy is more widely used and accepted in other countries than it is in the US. There's actually a fair amount of information available if you are willing to dig for it. 

Susan


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