When we were building, I was digging up some stumps at the back of the house. Found a hornets nest. I had about nine stings, most of them on my face and maybe two on my hands.
Face was puffed up for several days and sore but otherwise, no reactions.
Several years later, on a November 28, I was on the couch. Got up to go to town with the wife and felt a sting on my leg. A paper wasp had crawled up my sock and when I moved, got my leg.
I ended up in the emergency room for four hours and several vials of "stuff" injected into me.
Went to an Allergy Doc and after they did their tests, found out that (and I'm making these next numbers up since I have no clue, it's only for illustrative purposes)
On a scale of 1-10, I was allergic to a wasp on a level 3 and I ended up in the emergency room.
For those other SOB's, I was a 9-10 on the scale
Had it been a yellow jacket or hornet that stung me instead of the wasp, it might not have been a successful trip to the emergency room.
I spent the next 5 years going every single week for allergy shots. When finished, the Doc congratulated me saying that I was one of only maybe three people that he had ever seen go through the whole process without missing a single appointment.
I said great....but I knew I still had The Test.. (still knew that I'd get stung someday and THAT would be the real test)
About 18 months later, I was stung by a yellow jacket, right in the belly. I knew that my Test time had arrived.
Went inside, got the Benedryl ready, got the epi-pen ready....and waited for about an hour.
Other than the welt immediately around the sting site, nothing else happened. I passed the test.
