Sure, Skeeters Are Annoying But...NSFDinnertime

[craig]

...Watch out for spiders. Two weeks ago I was moving boxes around in a freight trailer and noticed a brown insect scurrying off when I moved a box. I didn't think anything about it until the next day when a tiny but painful bump appeared on the underside of my forearm. It got worse so I went to the clinic to have it checked. The Doc put me on antibiotics but it continued to get worse.

Finally my wife insisted I go to urgent care to have it looked at. From the research I did it looks like I was probably bitten by a Brown Recluse. The doctor at ER concurred and told me it was one of the more impressive insect bites he had seen.

The following is a photo diary of my ordeal in three uploads.

Before I left for urgent care I snapped this one.

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The bite had abscessed and necrosis was setting in. The doc cut it open and stuffed it with sterile cotton. Photos by wife's cell phone.

IMG00171-20100710-1948.jpg (17.25 KiB) Viewed 132 times

Then, this caught everyone off guard.

alien.jpg (32.1 KiB) Viewed 132 times

[E-lad]

Awesome!

Great pics Craig. A friend got nailed by a Brown Recluse and those absesses popped up on other places too. I hope you escape that fate! Keep us posted!

[Tilia]

Uff, I'm really glad I live in Central Europe.

Spiders aren't insects, btw.

[Whateverman]

A brown recluse isn't to be messed with. Spider bites in general are pretty nasty...

[craig]

Spiders aren't insects, btw.

Bugger off, ped-ant. I knew that, I think.

[zilch]

Tilia: in der Umgangssprache, wenn man von "Insektenbissen" spricht, heißt das auch "Spinnenbissen". Ich bin mir sicher, daß auch der Artzt weiß, daß Spinnen keine Insekten sind.

Craig: that looks pretty ugly and painful. Here's to a swift recovery.

[Benjamin Franklin]

I bow to our new arachnid overlords, and I hope you get better soon, and nothing important necrosises and falls off.


What do you call 4 spider bite victims in a hot tub?

Soup!


Is a ped-ant an insect?

[Tilia]

Tilia: in der Umgangssprache, wenn man von "Insektenbissen" spricht, heißt das auch "Spinnenbissen". Ich bin mir sicher, daß auch der Artzt weiß, daß Spinnen keine Insekten sind.

Macht es nicht richtig. Und erschreckenderweise hab ich sogar schon Ärzte getroffen, die Zecken für Insekten hielten.

[zilch]

Tilia: in der Umgangssprache, wenn man von "Insektenbissen" spricht, heißt das auch "Spinnenbissen". Ich bin mir sicher, daß auch der Artzt weiß, daß Spinnen keine Insekten sind.

Macht es nicht richtig. Und erschreckenderweise hab ich sogar schon Ärzte getroffen, die Zecken für Insekten hielten.

Natürlich hast recht. Ich hoffe, daß du diese Ärtzte zurechtgewiesen hast.

[BeamStalk]

I have been bit by brown recluse spiders at least 3 times, goes with my line of work pulling cables through small enclosed places. Luckily, I just get a small red welt at the most from them, apparently I am fairly immune to the bite. Haven't checked against the other dangerously poisonous spider here, the black widow.