Daren's Blog

The past two weeks I’ve been running 6 times a week, which have been difficult to do since I was working 40 hours a week. But it was necessary in order to get back into shape, and it was worth it.

Today I ran about 7 miles, a distance I haven’t ran in 4-5 years when I was doing cross country in high school. Running has brought a lot of good memories back, and I’ve realized how much I miss running. It’s challenging, and it really makes you push yourself physically and mentally. I’m surprised with myself, maybe even a little proud, for keeping up with running 6 times a week. It’s only week 2, but my motivation has been unwavering. I just bought some new running shoes (which is always exciting) and today I officially signed up for the Carlsbad Marathon.

I’ve been thinking about it for some time. These past two weeks has been more like a trial, to see if this is something I really want to accomplish. And, yes, I do. I’ve made it my priority to accomplish this goal. There’s no better time to do it (because I will always be busy).

So the marathon is 119 days from now –  January 24, 2010.  I think the most difficult part of training will be winter break, when I go back home. I’ll have to really find ways to motivate myself.

I’m hoping to run it under 4 hours, which is about a 9 minute mile pace. Please make sure I don’t slack off! I’m glad my good friend is running it (he’s the one that motivated me) and my boss is too. My boss plans to run it at around the same pace, and company’s always good.

Last Thursday I got stung again. This time it was near my elbow. I had a similar reaction when I got stung on my hand; my elbow swelled up so you couldn’t see my bone anymore. Fortunately I could still move it around and the swelling is going down a lot faster. It could be because I’m still on antibiotics, but I’m thinking that my body reacts differently to stings depending where I get stung. I didn’t get any reaction such as swelling on my neck before. My hand exploded. So, my elbow falls somewhere in between that.

My research advisor suggested to wear a bee suit, but I get incredibly hot even in shorts and shirt. Wearing one of the lab’s bee suit is like wearing the loaned, maybe-washed P.E. clothes because you forgot your own. Actually it’s not that bad.  I just don’t feel comfortable sweating freely in something that’s not mind.  I would love to have this meshed bee suit, but it’s pretty pricey and I don’t think I’m willing to put down $130.00 just for a jacket. I’ll try wearing long sleeves for now….

Here’s some pictures as of late. This first one is a picture of a feeder inside one of my 24 foot long tunnels, lined with black duct tape to give the foragers an optical illusion that makes them think they travel farther than they really are. Wow that was wordy.. I think one of the reasons why I got stung was because there were simply too many bees to keep track of.  Sometimes bees just land on your hand and if you’re not careful, you can accidentally get one angry by closing your hand or brushing it against something (which is what I’ve done, and one of my lab volunteers as well).

Flight of the bees

This picture below is of our stock colonies outside. Stock colonies contain a colony of honeybees inside a Styrofoam box. We place a feeder (mason jar) upside down with a water-sugar mixture to supplement them. In this case, the colony’s feeder was invaded by another honeybee colony and some wasps, if you can see.

One of our colonies got invaded by another colony, and wasps

Trigger’s been doing well. It’s been about a month and he’s adjusted quite well.  He had some issues with his litter box (pooped on my bed), but I was able to resolve the problem. I think he didn’t like World’s Best Cat LItter, so I switched to Feline Pine, which he loves, and I love. It’s made out of recycled pine, which makes it environmentally friendly and smells good. The pine pellets turn into dust when in contact with liquid. Even Bill Nye the Science Guy approves!

Tirgger often uses me as a pillow.

I was doing some trials outside like I normally do on Thursday. I wanted to get a lot done so I was rushing and capturing bees in plastic viles to incubate them after feeding them control and pesticide solution. Unfortunately I did not realize that I was making a bee upset by pressing it against an object while capturing another bee. So I got stung on my right hand.

No problem. I’ve been stung before. Wash with soap and water and put ice on it. I even put a little hydrocortisone cream too. A day later my hand looked like this.

Right hand was stung by a honey bee

I couldn’t use my right hand because it was so swelled up. My thumb couldn’t touch my other fingers and I couldn’t bend my wrist up. The swelling was slowing going toward my elbow. I didn’t expect this much swelling to occur, especially after 24 hours. The next day I called the hospital and asked the advice nurse and she advised me to come in the next day.

I could’ve driven myself but that obviously wasn’t a good idea. Fortunately my roommate took some time aside and drove me. It was a very quick appointment and they perscribed me some medication. They were worried about a bacterial infection so they gave me antibiotics (cephalexin) and stuff to reduce the swelling (prednisone).

After 3 days, I regained about 90% functionality of my hands. It still irritates me but I can deal with it.

I’m going to have to see if I can get an Epi-pen at the greenhouse. I’m sure someday we’ll need it, especially since this is the second for me in 3 months, and three total in 3 months, as far as I’m aware of.

Surprisingly I’m not very deterred to continue my research. I think even if I was stung 10 times, I would pass it off as something that happens and would probably blame myself, like I wasn’t careful enough or something. It’s like my cat this morning. He pooped outside his litterbox. In 7 different spots. But I’m pretty sure that was my fault, since I didn’t take into consideration his sensitive diet (I think it’s the treats that I give him. He loves those so much).