# What stung me? Was it a bee? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 13, 2013, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stung-me-was-it-a-bee/650212 "2013-02-13T20:30:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![wedgehed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8edcca/32.png) [@wedgehed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgehed)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stung-me-was-it-a-bee/650212/21 "2013-02-14T15:16:29Z")
When I was a kid, I fell on top of a ground nest of yellow-jackets. I received multiple stings to my face, ears, & head. I looked like I had gone three rounds with Muhammed Ali. ---
**Author:** ![fstbk1968](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3bc359/32.png) [@fstbk1968](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fstbk1968)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stung-me-was-it-a-bee/650212/22 "2013-02-14T16:46:58Z")
I have found that the pain associated with bee stings can vary greatly. When I was a boy, I was often stung and the pain was often minor. As I got older I have noticed that the pain (and reaction) has gone up dramatically. Maybe I am becoming more sensitive to bee venom? Now days, if I get stung the pain is rather intense (feels very much like a burn that won’t subside for several hours) along significant swelling. My wife will get stung and to her it’s nothing more that quick poke, similar to a needle stick. ---
**Author:** ![TerpBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@TerpBE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TerpBE)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 5:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stung-me-was-it-a-bee/650212/23 "2013-02-14T17:12:54Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > Two years ago, I had a heart attack(went “a-fib” as they say) I’m not a doctor, but there’s a significant difference between a heart attack and “a-fib” (atrial fibrillation). It’s like saying “I had a stroke (or ‘migraine’, as some call it)”. ---
**Author:** ![Belowjob2.0](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Belowjob2.0](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Belowjob2.0)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stung-me-was-it-a-bee/650212/24 "2013-02-14T18:29:30Z")
> [@california\_jobcase](#): > > Southeast? The most painful thing here is a cow killer, otherwise known as a velvet ant. They’re really a solitary wingless wasp, but they don’t leave their stingers. Paper wasps aren’t close in the pain department. I thought about velvet ants too. They’re rated as high as the T Hawk on the pain scale. But no wings in my mind equals not bee-like. I was surprised to see the experts rate paper wasps as high as they do, since I’d often fooled with their nests as a child, but never got stung. But the paper wasps the experts cite are specifically in the genus[Polistes](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polistes). So other wasps that make paper nests aren’t the same. (Maybe because the yj/bf types swarm in much larger numbers, they’re venom doesn’t need as big of a punch.) I’ve been stung by baldfaced hornets and yellow jackets, and it doesn’t seem like the intense pain people talk about with cowkillers or polistes wasps. ---
**Author:** ![FrankJBN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/f0a364/32.png) [@FrankJBN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FrankJBN)\ **Post date:** [February 14, 2013, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stung-me-was-it-a-bee/650212/25 "2013-02-14T22:01:56Z")
"I’m not a doctor, but there’s a significant difference between a heart attack and “a-fib” (atrial fibrillation). It’s like saying “I had a stroke (or ‘migraine’, a” What is your definition of a heart attack? The way I look at it in a heart attack the heart malfunctions and doesn’t beat right. When the heart goess a-fib it malfunctions and doesn’t beat right. Plainly you are not a doctor, but you think a similar comparison is stroke and headache? Of course that a genuine doctor in the emergency room said to me both times, “you are having a heart attack” doesn’t enter into it, I guess. He just didn’t understand medical terminology as well as you. Oddly stroke was one of the concerns when the heart was beating in a wildly arrythmic pattern. The scariest thing to me was seeing blood pressure at appallingly low numbers. ---
**Author:** ![TerpBE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc8723/32.png) [@TerpBE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TerpBE)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2013, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stung-me-was-it-a-bee/650212/26 "2013-02-15T17:31:52Z")
> [@FrankJBN](#): > > The way I look at it in a heart attack the heart malfunctions and doesn’t beat right. When the heart goess a-fib it malfunctions and doesn’t beat right. Plainly you are not a doctor, but you think a similar comparison is stroke and headache? > > Of course that a genuine doctor in the emergency room said to me both times, “you are having a heart attack” doesn’t enter into it, I guess. He just didn’t understand medical terminology as well as you. Here’s a cardiologist who specifically addresses the question, and clearly says they are not the same thing: [http://www.bannerhealth.com/Services/Health+And+Wellness/Ask+the+Expert/Heart+Care/\_Is+Afib+a+form+of+heart+attack.htm](http://www.bannerhealth.com/Services/Health+And+Wellness/Ask+the+Expert/Heart+Care/_Is+Afib+a+form+of+heart+attack.htm) BTW, I was once admitted to the hospital with A-fib, and in my case no one ever mentioned or compared it to a heart attack. I’ve also had migraines that have had stroke-like symptoms (confusion, partial loss of vision, tingling in hands and mouth on one side), so it’s not that ridiculous to compare them. Also, it’s a misconception that “migraines” are always headaches. They are neurological events that sometime occur with little or no headache. In your case, however, is it possible that you had A-fib and a heart attack at the same time? Even though they’re different things, it wouldn’t surprise me if one could cause the other. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-stung-me-was-it-a-bee/650212.md?page=1)