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Spider bite
Jul. 29th, 2005 05:41 pmA friend of mine showed up to work yesterday with a rather large insect bite on the knuckle of her right thumb. It looked like an oversized, slightly reddish mosquito bite. It turned out she was bitten by something in her sleep. She asked rather worriedly whether we thought it might be a brown recluse spider. Knowing her to be a bit of a hypochondriac, I promptly looked up the symptoms of a brown recluse spider bite on the Internet and informed her that it hadn't happened to her. With brazen cheer, I said it would probably be better in no time, but of course to see a doctor if it wasn't.
As of today, the doctors are fairly certain she was bitten by a brown recluse. The bite is now dark reddish-purple with a white crust on the top. Because it's on top of her thumb knuckle (which is arthritic and enlarged to start with), surgery is not an option.
She assured me that she would have gone when it started seriously hurting no matter what I said (which is exactly what she did -- she waited and ignored it until it started hurting a LOT, and then she went to the doctor.) This is a great comfort to me.
Moral of the story: unless you make the big bucks, leave medicine to those who do.
As of today, the doctors are fairly certain she was bitten by a brown recluse. The bite is now dark reddish-purple with a white crust on the top. Because it's on top of her thumb knuckle (which is arthritic and enlarged to start with), surgery is not an option.
She assured me that she would have gone when it started seriously hurting no matter what I said (which is exactly what she did -- she waited and ignored it until it started hurting a LOT, and then she went to the doctor.) This is a great comfort to me.
Moral of the story: unless you make the big bucks, leave medicine to those who do.
