Thank you Sarah (xarmygirl) for your amazing brush with death from
a "simple" wasp sting. Wasp venom had a very similar effect on me
too and like you I needed resuscitation - although I tend to gloss
over that on my website because such an extreme reaction is rare.

It is such a scary situation but fortunately
desensitization/immunotherapy does work even though it can take a
long time for the ultra-sensitive and allergic like Sarah and
myself. Typically it takes about 12 weeks but I know that a number
of people on this forum have taken longer.

For the ultra sensitive like Sarah and me a simple epipen just does
not seem to do the job and so desensitization is the only sensible
option to take if you want to live a normal life. Once you have
reached the maintenance dose then in theory you can go out again and
relax. In practice, I still take my epipen everywhere because the
emotional fear arising from anaphylaxis just takes over. I know I
will almost certainly be fine if I am stung but there is always that
nagging possibility......

You have been going for 18 weeks and are on week 6 - well my weekly
treatment took me around 26 weeks (see the hospital diary on the
website) and it is very sensible indeed to take everything really
slowly. Your description of the immunotherapy like mine is an
extreme. For the great majority of people they have their jab and
leave none the worse for their jab an hour later! The more acute
the original anaphylaxis then the more effect the jabs seem to have.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us Sarah - other people
simply can't understand why a "simple" wasp sting causes us so much
concern!

I am sure others who read this message board completely understand.

David