Ever been Bit by a Black Widow ? Got bit 5 days ago ...

[St. Phatty]

Wednesday morning, which I wrote a little about in the thread about Miracle Soil in 'Grow Questions', something bit me on the neck, while I was gardening.

I think it happened when I picked up the shovel or something else I put near my neck.

Day 1 - forgot to eat dinner. Slept all afternoon. painful bump/ swelling was on my neck.

Day 2 - Seemed like it was getting better. Managed to get more gardening done. Kept it simple and just focused on watering and other simple tasks, e.g., I called my mom, something I normally never get around to.

Day 3 (Friday) - Seemed like it was getting better. Again, just kept focussing on simple tasks. Got plants to water

Day 4 - the swelling regrouped on the left side of my face. visibly, about 2 inches diameter, sticking out about 3/8 of an inch. it feels a strange combination of numb and soreness.

Thought to myself, if it keeps moving the direction it's going, it will be on my forehead by Sunday.

Day 5 (today Sunday) - Swelling on left forehead, around left eye, and on left cheek.

It looks a LOT like i was having make-up done to make me look like a Vulcan and they only did the left-hand side.


Notice I didn't say anything about a "doctor". The medical care where I live is the worst I've ever witnessed.

Anyway, so far, I'm going the frontier medicine approach to the spider bite. AKA "Suffering".

So far (knock on wood) it's not REALLY suffering. Just a bunch of swelling, soreness, and a temperature.

Oh, and I forgot to change my shirt - for 5 days. I think I could hang it on the chicken coop to scare away the fox (that lives 100 yards Southeast) !


I talked to one woman at the bank, a teller with a bunch of tattoos. Turns out she was bit as a child, that left her with a bad scar, and took 6 months to recover.

She said she's been bit twice since, and those times were more like bee stings. She really did develop an immunity.


The other stories I've heard are more scary - a friend who got big near Yuba City CA. Said he lost a chunk of flesh about 1 cubic inch in size.

Since the bite was on my neck, I am feeling very lucky (knock on wood). It was within a half inch of my jugular. Can't afford to lose a cubic inch of your body there.


Anyway, I'd love to hear your Black Widow/ Brown Recluse bite stories.

 

[Green Squall]

Are you at least taking nsaid's? They will help with the swelling. No black widows around here thankfully, unless you count the one's found in a bag of grapes occasionally. You hear that on the news occasionally.

 

[DarthFader1]

Don't they give you something to neutralize the spider poison when you go to the doctor??

I mean its your neck mate and i read the bit about medical care by you being terrible, but mate go to the doctor this shouldn't even be up for debate

Hope your feeling better, scary story

darth

 

[stoned-trout]

I have been around lots of em never been bit... I just removed a huge momma with a body the size of a marble...I killed her eggsack and sent her on her way...yeehaw..they don't bite me and I don't squish them..

 

[Lester Beans]

Yes got bit last year. Bad to. Nothing Dr can do. The anti toxin is more painful ordeal and they won't give it to you unless you are real young, old, or weak.

Your description gives me the creeps, I went through it all. Except I tripped a little for the second day, off the venom. It was a horrible experience I do not care to relive. Still have a bump to this day in the spot I got nailed.

Hang in there, it will pass, eventually.

 

[Useful Idiot]

Maybe you will end up with Spiderman sense. JK....I got bitten once by a spider and now have a hole in my leg as a result. It was nasty...I hope ya get to feelin better.

 

[Donn]

The symptoms have their own special clinical name, Latrodectism. The linked wikipedia article contains this sweet note:

Early medical reports of latrodectism were described in men using an outhouse. The genitals were often the site of the bite. No direct injury to site is reported.

I'm never using an outhouse again.

The symptoms mentioned in the wikipedia article are more about things like sweating, headache, nausea, than swelling. It might be a good idea to keep a look out for other types of spiders, you might have something else there that isn't as recognizable.

 

[redlaser]

Havent had a widow bite but have had a recluse bite. Yort got bit a while back and started a thread and there are stories over there in his thread.
I got bit while sleeping in my regular bed, about 2 a.m., woke up feeling like I had to vomit, went and vomited. The bite site looked like two small bruises next to each other. Eventually turned into 1.5 inch wide wound/scab. Now it's the same width and maybe 1/8 inch deep.
Mentally it was like the last half of an acid trip, the part where it's less interesting and you want it to be over.
It didn't hurt at all. Went to the doctor and they prescribed antibiotics and Valium for my semi-agitated state of mind for four days.
I'd look into getting an antibiotic for sure. Just getting over a tick bite that wasn't Lyme disease, and it was much worse, camped out on the toilet for a week and taking two antibiotics at twice there reccomended dosages for up to three months total. Missed a damn deer tick on my knee that was very small.

 

[HempKat]

I've not heard much about black widow bites but the Brown Recluse bite can cause some seriously bad wounds to develop if not treated quickly. Below is a link to a bunch of Google images of brown recluse bites and what they turn into.

https://www.google.com/search?q=bro...NicxwIVBtgeCh3FEgMm&biw=2021&bih=976&dpr=0.95

 

[MicroRoy]

Brown Recluse.
I had a friend that waited to get treated.

The doc had to cut a hole in his leg an inch across and three deep. Then I got to pull the packing out every day. Put some crap n the new packing and poke it in the hole every day with a long wooden qtip for a couple of weeks.

Yes qtips were wodden in the olden days.

 

[St. Phatty]

Havent had a widow bite but have had a recluse bite. Yort got bit a while back and started a thread and there are stories over there in his thread.

I got bit while sleeping in my regular bed, about 2 a.m., woke up feeling like I had to vomit, went and vomited. The bite site looked like two small bruises next to each other. Eventually turned into 1.5 inch wide wound/scab. Now it's the same width and maybe 1/8 inch deep.
Mentally it was like the last half of an acid trip, the part where it's less interesting and you want it to be over.

I have antibiotics, but i would only use them if i had an infection.

The WAR (allergic reaction, war between Allergen & my body's immune system) that's going on on my face and forehead already makes me feel like the last time i was REAL sick (had a lung infection similar to pneumonia for 10 days ... then i took antibiotics).

I'm already weakened. I think taking something that makes me weaker is a bad idea. (That's the reaction I have to serious antibiotics, they lay me out flat.)

Since I got up, the edge of the allergic reaction zone moved to the right across my forehead, about 2 inches.

I spent about 2 hours working this morning, made 4 shade-cloth thingies covering an area about 36 x 72, using mosquito netting. I wired the mosquito netting to the aviary wire.

I was very surprised by my ability to do that task. Every piece of netting took about 20 small wires to hold it to the wire mesh. It makes very partial sun-block, maybe only 20%.

But good for hiding plants

That exertion sent my temperature soaring (you feel like you're laying in the sun - but you're in the shade.) Had to lay down for about 2 hours before eating lunch.

I also find it's a little like a drug trip. I was kidding with a neighbor, we can package this and sell it to young people on Haight Street. Though I don't think Haight Street is quite the drug marketplace it used to be.


My mind is less able to deal with complicated situtions.

To be honest, hearing from you guys will help me survive this thing (frontier medicine style) ... Knock on Wood.

I'm saying "knock on wood" a lot because I don't want my Guardian Angel or Angels to think I'm taking them for granted.

It appears that I was bit near an artery ... the allergic reaction zone is moving away from my heart.

Given the swelling ... you sure wouldn't want that swelling in your heart or lungs.

I appreciate what you're saying about seeing a doctor. But I don't have access to the kind you're thinking about. Just surprisingly arrogant, amazingly greedy faux doctors.


I got a concussion skiing about 2 years ago. I asked to be allowed to recover in the back of my truck. They insisted on loading me into an ambulance.

The bill for those 3 hours of baby-sitting ... $1980. $660 an hour. I declined all tests.

I could also take anti-histamine to reduce the swelling. However, it's only unsightly, and a little scary. Anti-histamines wipe me out (make me very tired).

If I went to a medical office, I would just end up probably having an argument with the doctor about anti-histamines, or something. And that would be very stressful.

 

[stoned-trout]

I did get stuck by scorpion once in florida..hand swelled up huge and I got a buzz like drinking too much of that Cuban coffee...took a while for swelling to go down....yeehaw..me and scorpions don't have any deal..

 

[redlaser]

Hear you about going to the doctor, but all you need them to do is prescribe an antibiotic. I'd hit an urgent care type place, when they open or sometimes they make apts.
It does sound like you wouldn't take the antibiotics anyway though, have you looked at the link HempKat put in his post? Lots of gruesome pics. Even with antibiotics on the third day mine ended up looking in the middle range for damage. Antibiotics are the only thing that's going to help in the beginning and the symptoms you describe sound similar to infection to me.

 

[redlaser]

I did get stuck by scorpion once in florida..hand swelled up huge and I got a buzz like drinking too much of that Cuban coffee...took a while for swelling to go down....yeehaw..me and scorpions don't have any deal..

Haven't had a scorpion bite yet but they seem to be under a lot of things lately that I'm moving like containers, wood etc. took one out of an interior light globe fixture that was walking around while the light was on so he was easy to spot. Got into the attic and the fixture somehow. Probably gonna have them falling on me in my sleep or some shit.

 

[minds_I]

Hello all,

Got as a boy..hand swelled like a balloon was feverish but after a few days I was better...never went to DR.


minds_I

 

[MicroRoy]

I got stung ony pecker by a scorpion.

My wife called the doc.

He said keep it elevated until the swelling goes down.

She said no.

 

[gekolite]

have been bitten a couple of times by the brown widow , a southern cousin of the black widow ,the venom is supposed to be more powerful than the black , but they do not use as much , very painful for a few days with a bump , and small blood blister , bump or bite site lasted about 2 weeks ,after pain subsides it itches for awhile

 

[Guest]

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[Sisu]

Good luck with your recovery, sorry you were bitten.

I was tagged by a brown recluse about 15 years ago. As it healed it left a divot in my ankle about the size of a half dollar coin, about .25 inches deep. It's filled in now but still looks like someone extinguished a fat cigar on my ankle. That was in the deep South. Lived for years farther north, in a house absolutely filled with them, and was never bitten.

I didn't see a doctor either, just rode it out.

 

[Stoner4Life]

thankfully no practical experience here, best of luck with that spider bite Phatty. There must be some sort of cannabis based oil or salve recipe, call a few mmj dispensaries and ask them; and/or just smoke more.......