Medications: Antibiotics, Darvocet, Tetanus shot
Neosporin, Demoral, Outpatient Surgery
EMail:
journal entry 2/1/05 5:25am Thursday afternoon I was working outside when I was bitten on the wrist by a brown recluse spider. The only reason I know for sure is because I saw the spider right after the bite. The bite didn't sting any more than an antbite or maybe a bad mosquito bite. But ehn OH HELL! Just look for yourself what happened over the last 5 days trying to treat it myself! I'm going to the hospital in a couple hours ; I give up treating it myself, now I got fever, necrosis at the bite location, sloughing of the skin, and major ademic swelling of the hand and wrist immobillizing my wrist and fingers!
journal entry 2/1/05 11:32pm Hey thanx Every1 for the support I just got home from the hospital today, they gave me demoral IV first, then lidocaine at the bite, and even with all that, the pain was so bad I was yelling and cringing throughout the damn thng. They lanced the wound in several areas and irrigated it. Then they packet it full of gauze. Cool thing though was my girlfriend shot video of alot of it while we were there. Will post some of it soon, right now, I'm going to bed.
journal 2/2/05 11:43pm Someone asked me why didn't I seek professional help any sooner than I did because they knew I had probably seen what these bites can do to a person before at this site. Well, My answer is a little crazy but I did it because 1. stupid curiousity, I wanted to see the progression of it myself, and I knew I was still pretty much ok until I got fever along with it.
2. I wanted to be able to document it for myself 3. I'm a stubborn asshole and I HATE HOSPITALS!!!!!
Total cost for the hospital visit so far? $1700
journal entry 2/6/05 3:55pm Well, now it's sloughed off almost all the dead tissue, the infection is gone, and it doesnt hurt much anymore, it's getting well, rather boring now! I need to find another nasty injury to keep myself occupied I think.................. Oh yeah, by the way, I noticed when cleaning the wound and bending my thumb at the same time something that scared me a bit, I could plainly see the flexor tendon of the thumb, almost completely exposed.
I think if I had waited a day or 2 longer to go to the hospital, I probably would have lost the use of my thumb. I'm not sure if the poison eats mainly soft tissue or if it would have consumed the tendon but either way, if I had lost it, being a right handed tattooist, I'd probably would have blown my brains out.
journal entry 2/7/05 7:48 am Well, at first I thought about what it possible might be chemically that was in the bite, and I knew it wasn't a nuerotoxin or tetradotoxin like in most invenomations which would attack my nervous system or respiratory systems but it acts alot like a bite from a Water Moccasin or cottonmouth snake's bite. Its a necrotoxin, or destructive bacteria which destroys and consumes tissue causing a chain reaction with tissues areound it. Or even like a Komodo Dragon's bite in that the symptoms are almost exactly like a staph infection. Most people who survive a Komodo Dragons bite will usually die from the infection they get from the staph bacteria in the siliva. I knew It was localized I only really needed to get it out from the wound site.
Well, the shit's really stubborn to say the least! I tried at first simply pinching the bite when it was new, all that did was spread the infection to the surrounding tissue faster. Seems the tissues affected under the skin are softened to the point that a pinch wont break the surface, but just spread it further into the muscle instead.
I tried Ichthammol, a drawing salve used to suck out foreign matter from the skin and epidermis such as oils, blackheads, and even chemicals like heroin from users who miss, and splinters of wood. That failed miserably, because the outer skin seemed to harden to a point that almost nothing would soak into it.
I was going to try to lance it myself, but the pain was so incredibly intense even for such a small wound it was unbelievable. I have Lidocaine injection but that would be a great mistake because without antibiotic treatment, analgesics make infected areas swell tremendously! If I had tried it, I would have to follow through no matter what or else I'd make the wound double it's size in a few hours!
Finally, i knew I was gonna have to go to the hospital on Sunday night. But I knew the way they work on Sundays, skeleton crews, lousy treatment, so I thought I' d go in the morning. Morning came and it had started weeping and pressure was alittle reduced. Stupid me I thought that meant that it was getting better because it was starting to find it's way out or something so I said Fuck the hospital! MISTAKE! A few hours later I started getting fever, even more pain than before , stomach cramps and tremors. I lost most all feeling in my fingers and mobility in the hand alltogether. So, as soon as I had someone who could drive me, I ended up in the ER.
So basically, I fucked up, almost really bad, you cant treat them yourself so don't even try it. You get bit by one? RUN TO THE ER! lol
