I m a cancer survivor (3 years), 57 year old male, who runs 20 miles a week and spends at least 4 days a week weight lifting. 2 weeks ago I was stung by 4 bees, and after the 4th sting, started to feel my skin tingle and breathing started to become difficult. Within a minute, I was on the floor panting, breathing as fast as I could, with my heart pounding. I was like this for about 30 minutes. I don t remember much. I believe I kept passing out. Much of it, I was blind and could only focus on breathing. At one point, however, I woke up in incredible pain. My face was bleeding, my left elbow was cut and in pain, I was laying in fetal position on the floor. I must have stood up in desperation and passed out (again) falling on furniture to cause this. However, once I awoke and overcame the pain, I resumed a position on my hands and knees and continued to fight for my breath. My vision came back slowly, and eventually I recovered. My wife (a nurse) found me resting an hour later and insisted I go to the ER. My heart was also in a-fib. I was given CT scans to check for stroke or lung damage, as doctors couldn t believe it was anaphylaxis since I recovered without treatment. MRI scan in brain done as well. Echocardiogram. Nothing unusual came up, other than high white blood cell count (20). Since coming home, however, I ve noticed weakness in my left arm. It was much weaker than my right. When I tried weight lifting, my left side couldn t keep up at all. And while the right was stronger, it was much weaker than it had been prior to the bees. Even simple tasks, like holding a cast iron frying pan, was easy in the right hand, but my left hand was trembling trying to hold it level. My right arm has the strength of a weakened man, the left arm of a 10-year-old boy. Over the last 4 days, strength is returning slowly, but incomplete at this point. I have 2 questions. 1) Is it possible my fall, while blind, landing on my face and left elbow, would trigger an involuntary fight or flight response that would have released adrenaline into my blood stream, and thus bringing me out of anaphylactic shock? 2) Can anaphylaxis cause muscle damage, or is it possible there was nerve damage or something else that caused my sudden weakness in my left arm. (My left leg seems fine, I have no numbness anywhere, face works/feels normal, no vision problem, etc.) I m confused by sudden loss of strength. This was done by bees, not a car accident.
posted on
Tue, 1 Aug 2023