I woke up at about 9:00 tonight with a great deal of pain in my left hand. Turns out I was bitten by a spider, even though I was wearing a carpal tunnel glove which covered the bite site (the webbing between thumb and forefinger). Once I got out of bed and turned on the lights, a visual inspection of the painful area was made, and a pea-sized bump, red and thick, appeared.
After some deliberation, I went to the East Jefferson MC emergency room. I got in and out in about two hours, though most of that was spent waiting. A doctor examined the bump, said there weren't any abcesses, then left. Half an hour later a nurse came by and gave me prescriptions for Minocycline (an antibiotic) and Darvocet (a weak opioid painkiller), and then I was free to go.
I obviously don't know what kind of spider (or if it even was a spider and not some other crawling nasty) bit me, since I was asleep when it happened and there were no bugs in my CTS glove when I removed it after getting out of bed. Given its reputation around here, I'll hazard a guess and say it was a brown recluse, which was probably hiding in my CTS glove before I picked it up and put it on before going to bed. As a result I probably won't be wearing a CTS glove to bed anymore.
It doesn't really sting much now, but it's still a little sore. And I've got a headache, but I don't know if it's related to being bitten.
I tried taking a picture of the bite site, but my digital camera is of poor enough quality to prevent non-blurry shots at close range. But that's alright, you don't want to see it anyway, it's fugly, even though there's been no necrosis.
Anyway, it was decidedly not fun.
After some deliberation, I went to the East Jefferson MC emergency room. I got in and out in about two hours, though most of that was spent waiting. A doctor examined the bump, said there weren't any abcesses, then left. Half an hour later a nurse came by and gave me prescriptions for Minocycline (an antibiotic) and Darvocet (a weak opioid painkiller), and then I was free to go.
I obviously don't know what kind of spider (or if it even was a spider and not some other crawling nasty) bit me, since I was asleep when it happened and there were no bugs in my CTS glove when I removed it after getting out of bed. Given its reputation around here, I'll hazard a guess and say it was a brown recluse, which was probably hiding in my CTS glove before I picked it up and put it on before going to bed. As a result I probably won't be wearing a CTS glove to bed anymore.
It doesn't really sting much now, but it's still a little sore. And I've got a headache, but I don't know if it's related to being bitten.
I tried taking a picture of the bite site, but my digital camera is of poor enough quality to prevent non-blurry shots at close range. But that's alright, you don't want to see it anyway, it's fugly, even though there's been no necrosis.
Anyway, it was decidedly not fun.
~ a year ago I woke early one morning with an itchy lump on my rump, figured it was a flea bite from my girlfriend's cat, went back to sleep. Woke a few hours later and it was a big lump, hurt, and the center was already turning black. I knew exactly what it was... brown recluse bite... I'd seen them before. Sat on a bag of frozen peas [cold slows the venom's action] while I called around to figure out where to go to. No insurance so sat in the waiting room of a "quick care" place for three hours just to pay $100 to get a $60 prescription for Keflex.
Necrosis happens in "only" ~50% of brown recluse cases, and often that stems from the victim not getting antibiotics till days later. No rot for me, but it took a full 3 months for all traces of the bite to fade. I'm a bit arachnophobic now and shake out every piece of clothing before putting it on and the sheets at night. Have NO desire to go thru that again!