Hi Rachel,

Welcome to the group; as others have said, we all sympathize with you and your
son. Rachel, since we've been emailing so much off board before David found
your request amid the spam (thank you David again for hosting this group and for
all your efforts!), I thought it would be good for me to repeat a bit of our
conversation here for the benefit of others who may come looking for help later.
Have I missed anything that might help someone else Rachel?

Rachel emailed me after reading our sting saga on this board. Her question to
me, like her post here, was how do I cope. In short, I told her that
information was comforting for me. I started with this board even before our
first allergist appointment. I was then able to ask our allergist a million
questions I never would have thought of. Then I read several books, studied a
few websites, and I finally felt like I had a handle on the practical dangers
posed by fire ants. Then I brainstormed how to make our son's life as normal as
possible while keeping him as protected as possible during the build up stage of
immunotherapy. Those brainstorming ideas are in other messages on this board,
so I won't repeat them here.

Here is a list of the books and websites I've read and found helpful in
understanding the life cycle of the Red Imported Fire Ant in the southern part
of the United States, especially Louisiana and Texas

The Fire Ants, by Walter R. Tschinkel

Fire Ants, by Stephen Welton Taber

The Fire Ant Wars: Nature, Science, and Public Policy in Twentieth Century
America, by Joshua Blu Buhs

http://www.lsu.edu/ants/index.shtml This is LSU's webstite devoted to fire
ants.

http://fireant.tamu.edu/ This is the Texas A&M website devoted to fire ants.

I'm always looking for more information and book recommendations. Please let me
know any good ones I've missed.

By way of update, our son is doing well. He is on maintenance shots now, but he
hasn't been stung again either. So, we assume he will be fine, but I will
always have our Epi Pens, Benadryl, and a mental map of the nearest hospitals!
Also, he has not been stung again by a wasp, so we don't know any more of that
story yet.

Again, welcome Rachel, and I hope all this has helped you find your own way of
coping. Good luck to you and your son. Keep us posted on your progress and
vent when you need to!

Kim