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Click through to my new web site Probaway – Helps for my update of this year-old post.
Spider bite. It’s the first photo of my lower leg about four days after the bite. 8/20/2010
GO TO A SEQUENCE OF UPDATED PHOTOS OF THIS BITE
16 Tuesday Aug 2011
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Click through to my new web site Probaway – Helps for my update of this year-old post.
Spider bite. It’s the first photo of my lower leg about four days after the bite. 8/20/2010
GO TO A SEQUENCE OF UPDATED PHOTOS OF THIS BITE
18 Monday Oct 2010
Click here at <a title="This web site is being moved to a self hosted account." href="Probaway – Helps“>Probaway – Helps for an update photo taken a year later .
A two month sequence of photos of a recluse type spider bite from August 16, 2010. Fortunately for me it wasn’t the very dangerous Brown Recluse, found in the lower Mississippi river valley, or the photographs below would look even worse.
Wikipedia has a good article on Spider Bites.
Although this bite looked bad, it appears that the best treatment was to clean the wound as early as possible with soap and water, which I did and then an application of iodine or some similar disinfectant, which I didn’t and then as the ugliness develops just keep it as clean as possible which I did and then to avoid spiders in the future which I will most certainly do.
The bite never hurt or itched which was why I didn’t notice it for a day or two. The first symptoms was the spot, which later had the ulcer, developed a liquid filled blister over a scarlet area. The first photograph in this series was taken soon after the blister burst. It looked ugly and I saw a doctor immediately but since there wasn’t any infection he suggested that I just keep it very clean – which I did.
There is still an obvious discoloration around the ulcerated spot and that ulcer still has a slight indentation and feels spongy to the touch. The progress on healing is so slow now that it will only be necessary to photograph it occasionally, such as on the monthly anniversary of the bite.
Watch for an update of this bite on the yearly anniversary August 16, 2011.
Click here at <a title="This web site is being moved to a self hosted account." href="Probaway – Helps“>Probaway – Helps for an update photo taken a year later .
05 Sunday Sep 2010
I caught a spider in my bathroom and it looks like a recluse type. However, the internet spider authorities claim there are no Brown Recluse spiders in the San Francisco Bay Area. Those are the truly dangerous spiders and they are mostly within a couple hundred miles of the lower Mississippi River. Even there they are uncommon. There are other types of recluse spiders however and they may have a similar type of venom just not so much of it or at least not quite so nasty.
The Brown Recluse Spider has a violin shape on its back between the shoulders which my spider apparently does not.
However, to be sure I took another photo and did a PhotoShop enhancement of the whole picture to make the color and contrast more vivid. That makes the spiders thorax more visible. For more comparisons look at the online photos linked to below but proceed with caution because there are some are really ugly ones, much worse than mine which is bad enough – really ugly spider bite photos –
This photo was taken about four days after the what my dermatologist thought was a spider bite. I didn’t get an appointment see her for another week after this picture was taken. However, at the time I did see her I didn’t have the spider only the somewhat improving wound. It was a bit better than the photo above but not much. This morning I caught the spider seen in the photo at the top in my bathroom and managed to get it a new home in a small clear plastic box. It may not be the right spider but I haven’t seen a spider in my house for over a year so it’s likely to be the right one.
[My present camera is a year old 15 megapixel Samsung TL34Hd. It doesn’t take pictures closer than about 16 inches which means I had to crop down quite a bit to the relevant part of the image. I have an older camera, a Casio Exilim EX-Z1000. It’s a 10 megapixel one which has been on the shelf for two years but which I think will take a much closer picture so there should be a better picture soon. But first the batteries have to be recharged. [My second photo above was taken the next day with the Casio.]] See also:
Spider bites can be fun to watch.
[Update 2010-09-13] This spider has been professionally identified as Steatoda grossa which has a medically significant spider bite. If this spider caused the nasty wound seen above it becomes imparitive to really avoid the really nasty ones.
25 Wednesday Aug 2010
Go to a follow-on UPDATE – ONE YEAR LATER of this post.
Five days ago a rash on my right leg became interesting enough to take a photo of it. Too bad there wasn’t an earlier picture so there would be a better progression of this series. I called my dermatologist but that appointment isn’t for another six days so I went into the VA drop-in clinic yesterday and saw a GP. I should have spent some more time searching this on the web because it would have been helpful for for a non-specialist doctor to have some informed suggestions. Being a young doctor he may never have seen a spider bite before. I found this one after looking for quite a while.
He didn’t think I had an infection and since it didn’t itch there was little likelihood it was poison oak. It did look like poison oak at first because there had been a little blistering when I first noticed it but there was more of a mild burning sensation and only a little itching. So, I ignored it with the expectation that it would go away in a couple of days. No such luck, it just got worse and I was still in the stage of denial that anything was wrong. Finally I took this picture.
When I first noticed this it looked very similar to poison oak so in an attempt to rinse away the poison I daubed my finger tip in some Tide detergent and gently rubbed on for about ten seconds and then thoroughly rinsed if off. I did that two times a day for two days but stopped when it didn’t appear to be helping. I suspect the detergent is what caused the skin to peel, although since it did peel around the red areas, it was having some specific effect.
As ugly as this looks it didn’t itch, like Poison Oak and it didn’t hurt like an open wound and although it was red it didn’t feel warm to the touch like it was fevered with an infection. There was a mild burning sensation better described as warmth which was easily ignored.
After searching the web for skin rashes and finding the photo at the top it became apparent that this was a spider bite. After a google search of spider bite treatment I found Spider & Bug Bites Treatment Self Help Guide. This site and others like are what make the web wonderful. It gives visual images of various insect bites followed by the typical symptoms with a seven question diagnosis chart followed with short descriptions which help to determine the source of the bite and then a clear and simple procedure for coping with the problem. Now with a clear diagnosis of the problem it becomes easier to find real experience on the web and develop a reasonable coping strategy.
Wikipedia has a good article on Spider Bites.
Although this bite looks bad, it appears that the best treatment is to clean the wound as early as possible with soap and water, which I did and then an application of iodine or some similar disinfectant, which I didn’t and then as the ugliness develops just keep it as clean as possible which I have done and then to avoid spiders in the future which I will most certainly do.
It was while picking wild blackberries that I probably encountered my little friend and if I could avoid threatening him by squeezing him against my leg with my pants, where he was just visiting, he probably wouldn’t bother me either.
Saying nice things about Mother Nature isn’t as effective as playing by her rules.
Go to the follow-on UPDATE – ONE YEAR LATER of this post.