Adrienne Roberts Denes' Lakewood mail box is littered with the same junk mail as everyone else, but unlike her neighbors, an unusual package is delivered every other week that creates quite a "buzz."
Live bees are mailed to Denes house for an alternative therapy that stings away some of her multiple sclerosis symptoms.
Denes, who was diagnosed with MS in her 40s, and now is in remission, found out about the unusual treatment from a
60 Minutes story about five years ago that featured a woman known as "The Bee Lady" who also has MS.
Pat Wagner was accidently stung by a bee and to her surprise felt relief from some of her MS symptoms, including pain, loss of coordination and muscle weakness.
Frustrated by drugs and therapies that weren't working, but feeling a bit crazy, Denes boarded a plane to Maryland to visit "The Bee Lady."
Using a pair of tweezers to hold a live bee, Wagner brought a honeybee's stinger to Denes' skin. What followed, Denes said, was tremendous pain.
"I was screaming," Denes said. "You could probably hear me all the way from Maryland."
She was so focused on the excruciating pain from the bee she voluntarily let sting her, she didn't notice the pain in her stomach was instantly gone. That pain, which felt like a tight band squeezing her organs, hasn't returned since.
Despite the success, she laid the bee sting therapy, also known as apitherapy and Bee Venom Therapy, to rest. She continued dealing with her laundry-list of symptoms, which left her unable to work and at one point wheelchair bound.
The pain from the bee stings was too much for her to stomach until four years ago when she learned that other MS patients use ice to numb their skin before stinging themselves.
She decided to give it another try. This time, the pain from the bee sting wasn't as bad.
Since then, 40 bees at $7 a box are mailed to her so she can sting herself about eight times every other day on the left side of her body, which experiences the brunt of her MS symptoms.
"If I don't sting myself, my left leg feels like a block of cement," she said.
She no longer feels a thing when she stings herself, even without ice.
She's seen gradual results, thanks to the bee venom that stimulates her immune system, which is being attacked by MS. Denes fit body hasn't deteriorated like many MS sufferers.
Although she takes a cane when she leaves the house and gets fatigued easily, it's nothing like her life pre-bee sting therapy.
"I see my doctor and he says, 'whatever you're doing, keep doing it," Denes said. "I think, 'yeah if he only knew what I was doing."
It's not just Denes who buzzes about the treatment. There are thousands of MS patients and others who suffer from chronic pain who use the therapy that is largely not recommended by most doctors, according to www.health.discovery.com.
Despite what most doctors think, bees haven't just kept Denes functioning, they've kept her thriving.
During election season, Denes was involved in the political process in a major way. She was a busy bee, so to speak, as a grassroots
Barack Obama volunteer.
She was a precinct captain and a Jefferson County delegate. She went door to door, she opened her home as a call center and on Jan. 20 when Obama is sworn in as president, Denes will be there along with her bees, which will be mailed to Washington, D.C.