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mem
Citizen
Username: Mem
Post Number: 5701
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 11:12 am: | 
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This Saturday my neck and chest got really red and the skin was sore, by Monday it was on fire, and the skin on my neck looked like red leather. I went to the Dr and he said it was a bug bite or scratch that got infected. I am on meds and antibiotic skin cream and it seems better (five days later), but I never had anything like this happen before. Anyone else have this? |
mamaatlast
Citizen
Username: Mamaatlast
Post Number: 3
Registered: 4-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 11:33 am: |
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Yes...well, not me but a relative. Last summer he had a terrible reaction to a spider bite. No exaggeration, this little spider from New Jersey caused him two surgeries, weeks in the hosptial on an IV drip and the amputation of a testicle. Same as you describe - red, hot burning sensation and an infection.
When I mentioned it to a co-worker, he told me they had a friend have a similar reaction a month or so earlier. Ended that elderly women in the hospital for a long spell.
Sounds so extreme, but apparently common spiders can cause real damage. |
CLK
Supporter
Username: Clkelley
Post Number: 1852
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 11:36 am: |
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Happened to my mom. Apparently, the infection was so bad that there was some risk that she might lose her leg - but the antibiotics worked, and she got better. It was very, very serious though.
don't panic
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summerbabe
Citizen
Username: Summerbabe
Post Number: 47
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 11:42 am: |
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My mother's friend actually had a similiar thing happen. She had a habit of leaving her gardening clogs outside her back door. One day she slipped her stockinged feet into them and within minutes her foot was so swollen she didn't know what happened. She never felt like she had been bitten by anything. It became incredibly painful so she went to the hospital. It was a good thing she did because she was bitten by a brown recluse spider, which is apparently one of the most dangerous ones in the world. She was also in the hospital for two weeks on an IV drip. The doctors told her she was very lucky she didn't wait any longer to go to the hospital because she easily could have died. Pretty scary stuff. |
mem
Citizen
Username: Mem
Post Number: 5702
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 11:59 am: |
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Wow, thanks mamaatlast, summer, CLK - I guess I caught this on time... the swelling and pain are improving and I may make it to work tomorrow (unfortunately). My Dr said some people can have a much more severe reaction than I did... |
Smarty Jones
Citizen
Username: Birdstone
Post Number: 295
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 12:10 pm: |
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What spiders in NJ do that type of damage???? EWwwwww. |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 1986
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 2:05 pm: |
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Greeneyes
Citizen
Username: Greeneyes
Post Number: 725
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 3:50 pm: |
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It happened to my daughter last summer. Shortly after going to bed,she came to me and said that she was bitten by something. She said she thought it was a spider because she saw a spider in her room. We could see the puncture mark, it was just slightly red, she said the bite was a little itchy. I put some cortisone cream on it. She went to work the next day and called me to say she thought she needed to see a doctor because her leg had a huge red bullseye on it and it was growing. I took her to the ER where she was fast tracked, and given some stong antibiotics. St. Bs wanted to keep her for observation, but I told them I could monitor the site carefully. They asked me if I could do hourly monitoring. I told them I could, so we went home. The ER doc drew a circle around the bite with a felt pen. He said if the redness moves toward the line come back to the hospital immediately. Luckily my daughter responded to the antibiotics well. The redness didn't spread and in three days it was gone completely. |
Smarty Jones
Citizen
Username: Birdstone
Post Number: 301
Registered: 10-2005
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 3:54 pm: |
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That's fascinating/frightening....why would an anti-biotic work on a Spider Venom? I wasn't aware that Spider bites were bacterial infections? Just curious. |
Greeneyes
Citizen
Username: Greeneyes
Post Number: 726
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 3:59 pm: |
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In my daughter's case, she was diagnosed with cellulitis. Cellulitis is a skin infection caused by bacteria entering the body through injury or insect bites. I had never heard of cellulitis being caused by insect bites before it happened to my daughter. |
greenetree
Supporter
Username: Greenetree
Post Number: 6696
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 4:48 pm: |
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I guess that I'll stop picking up spiders and putting them outside when I find them in the house. |
las
Citizen
Username: Las
Post Number: 879
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 4:53 pm: |
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There is a species of spider where the mom can't feed here growing litter fast enough so they start eating her. Yes: they EAT the mother!
Gosh, mem, we are all quite lucky he only took a nibble out of you.
Lynn 
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taam
Citizen
Username: Taam
Post Number: 53
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 4:57 pm: |
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summerbabe, are brown recluses found in nj? i'm totally freaked out by the tiniest of spiders that are not dangerous at all, let alone some that can actually do some damage! |
Joan
Supporter
Username: Joancrystal
Post Number: 6969
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 4:58 pm: |
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I was once diagnosed with cellulitis from an insect bite. The symptoms were very similar to what Mem describes as was the treatment. |
taam
Citizen
Username: Taam
Post Number: 54
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 4:59 pm: |
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monster, is that pic posted of a dangerous type of spider - b/c i see those quite a bit in the summertime around my house. |
mem
Citizen
Username: Mem
Post Number: 5707
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 5:00 pm: |
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Joan and Greeneyes - That's what the doctor called it: cellulitis dermititis from the little bug teeth punctures - did your skin start to peel as it healed as well? |
Greeneyes
Citizen
Username: Greeneyes
Post Number: 728
Registered: 8-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 5:05 pm: |
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My daughter did have peeling skin around the site and her skin was darker in the area of the bite and redness. My daughter used some topical fade cream for the discoloration and her skin did return to normal in about two weeks. |
doulamomma
Citizen
Username: Doulamomma
Post Number: 912
Registered: 3-2002
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 5:16 pm: |
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eeeww ...it says here: http://www.uky.edu/Ag/Entomology/entfacts/struct/ef631.htm
The brown recluse spider...is found throughout the south central and midwestern United States. Recluse spiders are rare outside their native range and are widely over-reported. Occasionally, one or a few spiders may be transported to a non-native area in boxes or furnishings, but infestations seldom become established.
Though variable in size, adult brown recluse spiders with legs extended are about the size of a U.S. quarter. Coloration ranges from tan to dark brown, and the abdomen and legs are uniformly colored with no stripes, bands or mottling. The legs are long and thin and lack conspicuous spines...most distinguishing feature of a brown recluse is a dark violin-shaped mark on its back, with the neck of the violin pointing toward the rear (abdomen) of the spider.
"Out beyond ideas of wrongdoing and rightdoing, there is a field. I'll meet you there." - Rumi
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Lydia
Supporter
Username: Lydial
Post Number: 1636
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, February 1, 2006 - 6:58 pm: |
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Summerbabe -
Brown recluse spiders are my #1 fear going back 30 years - Ugh, your poor mother.
All spiders have some venom - I come from a family that is completely terrified of spiders, yet we're compelled to read up on every scary spider fact we can find.
I have a vacuum in the basement (in it's own cordoned-off section of course) that is my spider vacuum. Changing the bag is always a hoot.
Mem, hope you're on the mend my dear, I had a bad bite a few summers ago and my ankle turned all purpley and had a bull's eye and the skin dramatically peeled for a few weeks.
Completely dashed my dreams of ever becoming an ankle model. |
monster
Supporter
Username: Monster
Post Number: 2002
Registered: 7-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 12:07 am: |
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taam, I don't have a clue, but as far as I'm concerned, yes.
Hope you feelin' better mem.
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las
Citizen
Username: Las
Post Number: 881
Registered: 10-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 9:38 am: |
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Arachnophilia - Baby Australian Spiders Eat Their Mother
After a mother spider lays a clutch or 40 eggs, she cannot reproduce again. The mother spider fattens herself up, storing nutrients in unfertilized eggs in her ovaries. When the weather cools and insects become more scarce, nutrients from the eggs seep into the mother's bloodstream. As the spiderlings get hungrier, they raid the fridge--sucking nutrient-rich blood from their unresisting mother's leg joints. The babies literally suck their mothers dry. After several weeks the mother becomes so weak she can hardly move. At this point the spiderlings attack their mother just as they would prey, injecting her with venom and digestive juices and consuming her entirely.
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1511/is_n11_v16/ai_17643223
Good thing you live in Maplewood, not Australia, Mem.
Lynn
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Meandtheboys
Citizen
Username: Meandtheboys
Post Number: 2867
Registered: 12-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 10:24 am: |
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Eeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww! I cope very well with all manner of creepy, crawly, furry, scaley critters--but I don't do so well with spiders. That being said, I think bites are rare enough not to get ourselves too worked up.
I was bit by a spider as a kid. Was shopping for school clothes and it must have been in a pair of pants I tried on. Started out as a small red itchy bite, then came to a head, was quite painful all up and down my leg, and caused a fever. Eventually had to have it lanced, and still have a tiny little scar. |
summerbabe
Citizen
Username: Summerbabe
Post Number: 48
Registered: 7-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 11:24 am: |
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Taam -- It happened in Central Pennsylvania, so somehow the little bugger must have found its way out of its normal habitat.
Lydia -- It wasn't my mom, thank God. It was a friend of hers from her gourmet club who lives near a heavily wooded area.
Brown recluses are a big fear of mine, too. I've always heard that their bodies are slightly violin-shaped so you can distinguish them from a regular house spider, which helps. But still...it's kind of gross. Also, wasn't there a speech given by the Sean Young character in Blade Runner about the spiders eating their mother right after birth? |
JonSel
Citizen
Username: Jonsel
Post Number: 52
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 2:55 pm: |
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I'm so not going to sleep tonight. |
taam
Citizen
Username: Taam
Post Number: 55
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 5:01 pm: |
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Have any of you ever seen Arachnophobia? - If spiders freak you out, I suggest you don't see it! I saw it, kind of to "face my fear" & get over it...totally backfired! - Awful idea & just stupid. |
tjohn
Supporter
Username: Tjohn
Post Number: 4015
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 5:25 pm: |
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Smarty,
I don't think that spider venom is calls for anti-biotics. However, with any animal bite, there is the chance of nasty bacteria being introduced along with the venom. |
Lydia
Supporter
Username: Lydial
Post Number: 1640
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 5:56 pm: |
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In Mexico a huge spider (size of my palm) dropped on my head from a thatched roof - I freaked out until my friend pointed out it wasn't technically a spider - it was just the shedded skin.
All I could think about was that there was a BIGGER spider still lurking above my bed.
There was a movie I saw maybe 20 years ago with (I think) Martin Sheen about Santeria.
Anyhow, a spider crawls over this woman's cheek, and a pimple develops and becomes redder and more pusy-looking everyday.
The woman pops the "pimple" and hundreds of baby spiders come crawling out.
One of my fave gross-out scenes ever - still gives me the heebie-jeebies.
I actually enjoy my spider fearing ways, it's like a hobby.
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CLK
Supporter
Username: Clkelley
Post Number: 1856
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 6:38 pm: |
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Ahem.
If you "enjoy" spider-fearing, you are not a true arachnophobe.
Signed,
True Arachnophobic - And I mean Really
(I even once asked a MOL poster to change her avatar, which was a spider ... I coudln't read MOL any more ... so now you guys all now how to get rid of me, once and for all ... Monster nearly killed me off with that pic up above) |
Lydia
Supporter
Username: Lydial
Post Number: 1644
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 7:51 pm: |
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CLK,
I'm a true arachnophobe, I think.
I shake out bananas every time because of a story I heard about a dead tarantula in a bunch 37 years ago.
My Dad does too - we get together and compare random spider encounters.
There was one episode of "Survivor" where they had to eat a spider, it was so horrifying, I know that's where I would just give up.
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CLK
Supporter
Username: Clkelley
Post Number: 1858
Registered: 6-2002
| | Posted on Thursday, February 2, 2006 - 7:56 pm: |
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Maybe we should form a support group ... ?
(PS mem I hope you're feeling better) |
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