bite on my leg

[surfivor]

 I have a bug bite from last weekend. I don't think it was a tick bite. It now looks like this, just noticed it in the shower. I am in Vegas on a business trip until Friday. Be home late Friday night. I definitely need to keep an eye on it. My insurance is BCBS and says 80% covered after deductible for ER visit

[AvenueQ]

Is it hard in the middle? Is it hot? Is it getting larger? Do you have a fever? All are signs you might want to have it looked at. Had a girl in my handbell group get bitten by a spider (we think) while on tour and she had a giant welt on her leg for a couple days. I mean easily silver dollar-sized, a combo of benadryl and hydrocortisone finally got it under control.

[surfivor]

I am going to have it looked at within the next 12 hours. I have to call insurance and find were I can go

[surfivor]

I am also going to get some colloidal silver and take that

[Carl]

  Bugs bite me all of the time and often they itch.You have not indicated why a bite concerns you as to size,color,etc. Could it be a VEGAS TICK that causes all loss of memory? This alien bug has a bite that causes loss of all local memory and control of many bodily functions.I think one is what got ELVIS

[surfivor]

This is the link to a picture of my leg which don't know if it worked embedded on the forum here when I tried it before. This picture was taken last night. It  may be slightly worse today and is more swollen.

 I walked to a clinic last night around 1:00 AM. They gave me a shot of antibiotics and a prescription for 7 days of antibiotics. I just walked a few miles to CVS and got the prescription this morning. They told me at the pharmacy to stay out of the sun and drink water. I feel a little weak, not sure if I could have a fever or not. I feel a slight chill right now and the leg is kind of painful, and a bit so when I walk or go from sitting to standing etc.

I saw that colloidal silver with some antibiotics in combination may not be a good idea so I am not doing that. I fly back to Boston mid morning on Friday and get in around 6:00.

 I have a company meeting and dinner tonight. I think I will just rest in my hotel the rest of the day

https://cdn-06.anonfile.com/s2i5I1feb5/dea4a2fb-1533782648/IMG_0949.jpg

 I did see someone dressed up as Elvis

 I think I am going to avoid operating a hedge trimmer to clear brush in the summer as I may have stirred up some bugs when I was doing that. I have a lot of overgrown wild bushes, sumac, some kind of invasive rose etc all around the edges of my yard etc and last weekend I was trying to clear some of it. I think that may have been when I was bitten. I bought a stihl hedge trimmer attachment recently

[David in MN]

Yuck Surf. No idea the cause either? I had one of those at a pool party this summer and my hand blew up.

You might want to use a sharpie and trace the rings. If nothing else you can show an ER doctor that it is demonstrably getting worse or (as usually happens when I react) after a couple days it is obviously getting better. Either way you'll know which direction you're heading which can help make better decisions by both you and medical staff.

[surfivor]

Yuck Surf. No idea the cause either? I had one of those at a pool party this summer and my hand blew up.

You might want to use a sharpie and trace the rings. If nothing else you can show an ER doctor that it is demonstrably getting worse or (as usually happens when I react) after a couple days it is obviously getting better. Either way you'll know which direction you're heading which can help make better decisions by both you and medical staff.

I don’t know

Right now I am staying at Mandalay Bay. A place that has a familiar ring of course. That was the hotel that our company selected for us to stay at. It’s also where the hacker convention is

 I walked 3 miles down the strip yesterday morning around 4:30 am to get some exercise and fresh air.. I then walked 3 miles back. I saw two women being arrested. One was saying “I didn’t stab nobody” while she was being handcuffed. A third woman was being questioned

It’s cooler at night to walk around. I would’ve gone out exploring last night but I had to walk to the medical center instead

I am not into gambling and have not put even a dime in a slot machine and I haven’t had a drink of alcohol  either so far

[surfivor]

I tried to go to the hacker convention yesterday but I don’t have a badge to get in and it cost $750. I am more on the web development side of the company so I don’t get passes to that stuff so easily. I did talk to a couple of vendors even though I wasn’t supposed to and I got a print out of all the talks and cyber security topics. We may get videos  of all the briefings.

One of the interesting sounding things was titled “Has the mob taken over cyber crime ?”. It is based on a study that someone from Harvard  did. Another was about hacking smart cities or smart grids

The pharmacist said stay out of the sun so I’m not going down to the pool

[Carl]

Looks like a spider bite and the antibiotics are a good idea. I suggest pre treating outdoor use clothing with PERMETHRIN ,a SAWYER product as a good deterrent against bugs.

https://www.amazon.com/Sawyer-Products-SP649-Permethrin-Repellent/dp/B001ANQVZE/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1533841031&sr=8-1&keywords=pyrethrin+spray+for+clothing

[AvenueQ]

Uhhhh, are you sure it wasn't a tick? Because that looks like the classic bull's-eye rash that is an early indicator for Lyme disease caused by deer ticks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease#Signs_and_symptoms

[surfivor]

Uhhhh, are you sure it wasn't a tick? Because that looks like the classic bull's-eye rash that is an early indicator for Lyme disease caused by deer ticks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyme_disease#Signs_and_symptoms

The woman I work with who was an EMT says no because it came on too fast and didn’t look like it to her

I don’t think it was a tick either, it was more like a welt from a fly initially. In fact it was nothing really significant for 2 or 3 days

[Carl]

  I forgot the location...scorpion!

[surfivor]

I heard also before that ticks need to be attached for quite awhile to transfer Lyme

Whatever bit me, didn’t bite hard enough to really notice it much unless I thought it was a blackberry briar when it happened . I kind of remember it was like that. The weed wacker and hedge trimmer throw stuff around that hits you

[surfivor]

 I have been on antibiotics for a few days and the stuff makes me feel weak or lousy at times. The wound may be less sore but still is ugly and discolored.

I just found some natural treatments for spider type bites. On my list I have these. I am on my way over to whole foods to see what I can find:

calendula
shea butter
lavender oil
witch hazel
bennonite clay
baking soda
potato poltice
aloe vera
lemon oil
echniacia
plantain
topical colodial silver

I also have tons of comfrey out in my yard, should I try that ? I had the impression it could heal up a wound but possibly it will heal stuff so it gets incased in the skin


I have just google searched a ton about spider bites. Many web sites indicate the risk may be overblown and that many of the fatalities are from infections and not spider venom

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/07/28/brown-recluse-spider-bites/13267065/



=================

this web site surprised me a little in how casual people take it:

https://www.mothering.com/forum/47-vaccinations/1230910-tetanus-spider-bite.html


"I live in the woods. we get spider bites alot. They get red, they swell. This is a normal reaction. It will most likely go away on it's own. People react differently to spider bites. I swell up, it lasts a while up to a week. They itch and hurt. My DH barely notices them and DS is somewhere in the middle."

..

" I would skip the doc and give apis mellifica. my ds is highly allergic to fire ant venom and we live in FL so he gets bitten ALOT. i have a theory that the lubricating fluid produced by his eyes smells and tastes yummy to them, bc he always seems to get bitten near the eyes. and on more than one occasion when we bedshared, he would get bitten and i wouldnt.

anyway, i have so many pics of him with an eye swollen shut and an ear that looked like a pork chop i could fill a whole scrapbook. i just give apis mellifica and let him hold an ice pack to the area and he's fine in a few days."

..

"The same thing happened to my dd a few years ago. It's nothing to go to the Dr over, IMO. I'm sure he will be fine"

..

[Redman]

Read, note weed wacker, hedge trimmer.

Quote: "Whatever bit me, didn’t bite hard enough to really notice it much unless I thought it was a blackberry briar...."

I know it's too late but preventative precautions. Long pants, blue jeans. You won't feel the blackberry, dewberry stickers and other things through them most likely.

Tea tree oil. Anti-viral, anti-fungal. You never know and it can't hurt.

[LvsChant]

I just am wondering why the antibiotics are making you feel "weak or lousy at times. "

You weren't subscribed Cipro or the like, were you? If so, you should look up the side effects and see if you are having a reaction, I'd say...

[surfivor]

I just am wondering why the antibiotics are making you feel "weak or lousy at times. "

You weren't subscribed Cipro or the like, were you? If so, you should look up the side effects and see if you are having a reaction, I'd say...

 I did look up the side effects. I have not been as bad for the last couple of days and am on my last day of the pills

[Carl]

  I hope you survive!

[LvsChant]

I did look up the side effects. I have not been as bad for the last couple of days and am on my last day of the pills

Hope you are well soon!

[surfivor]

Hope you are well soon!

 Thanks,

 It's just a little cut now with very slight indication of infection. I am keeping an eye on it. Every little cut I get my mother thinks I should rush to the doctor.

[FreeThinker]

Glad to hear it's healing nicely.

If you don't mind sharing surfivor, which antibiotic were you prescribed and are you allergic to any particular antibiotic(s)?  Knowing that would give an indication of what type of bacteria they thought it was, and along with the picture, might be a good learning opportunity.

[surfivor]

I think it was called sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim

[FreeThinker]

I think it was called sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim

Bactrim (TMP-SMX).  Staph A. infection suspected maybe, Bactrim covers that including MRSA.  A number of search hits saying staph A. infections often start out looking like insect bites, and the leg is a common place for them to occur.  Bactrim can cause photosensitivity which is probably why the pharmacist suggested saying out of the sun, but then that's always good advice when you're in the desert regardless    It also has coverage for Strep, and my (2013) Sanford guide says "Spontaneous erysipelas of leg in non-diabetic is usually due to strep, Gps A,B,C or G.", so two birds with one stone with the Bactrim I guess.

Always find it informative to try to figure out why Drs do what they do, might be helpful if you can't get to one.  But then it's probably a lot easier to figure out the 'why' in hindsight then to make that good decision from the start.   The shot was antibiotics for certain, or maybe a tetanus booster if you haven't had one in the past few years?