Bit by a Black Widow?

[ate'em]

Yesterday I finally got mine.

It was in my wetsuit bootie. I put it on, crushed the spider inside, and it bit me. I didn't even notice. Paddled out, surfed for an hour, and then started noticing something in my foot. I thought it was a cactus spine, no worries.

Went home, went to school to teach an hour long class, my foot felt sore and my balls hurt but I still didn't think it was anything.

Fast forward a couple hours and wow. Different feeling all together. Massive muscle spasms where my large muscle groups (gluts, lats, etc) would seize up for hours at a time, seriously painful. My balls were aching like a fourteen year old after an unfulfilled date. The bite site still wasn't even sore. Did a little internet research and yep, sure enough, classic black widow symptoms.

Zero sleep last night, one of the roughest of my life. Constant pain, breathing a little impacted, heart rate down in the 40s. Painkillers made it bearable but nowhere near comfortable.
It was almost psychedelic at times, when I could see past the discomfort.

The peak passed around sunrise, nearly 24 hours after the bite. I feel like an old man. My knees ache. If I pickup anything my arms ache for an hour. Walking to the car leaves my muscles feeling like I just finished a 20 mile trail day.

The mental space is pretty interesting. No nausea, no headache. Definitely feel a little possessed by the black widow venom. Given the way the bite occurred, I'm thinking I got a pretty good dose.

From the research I've done, and my gf is a doc, it looks like I just get to ride this poison out. The antivenom isn't commonly used in the US and has potential complications. There isn't anything deadly about the venom (zero deaths in 10 years in the US from Black Widow bites). But if I do anything at all, I feel it circulate, and concentrate in the muscles being used. No sex for awhile.

Anybody been bit? How long's the suffering? I'm on day 2 thinking its gonna be a couple weeks??

My GF says I have the look of a black widow in my eyes. Charming.

[yeahman]

Damn dude. That sucks. Pretty interesting story though. Hope you heal up okay.

[JimmyCarter]

my balls hurt but I still didn't think it was anything.

.

Well there's your problem.

[iceman]

Crazy story. I've had a couple spider bites with strong results, one was very psychedelic, the other unbelievably painful, but no idea what type of spider either was. feel better mang!

[Kenny Satch]

Holy Peter Parker

Any chance you can now climb walls and swing on a thread ?

[east or bust]

last spider bite I had was on the back of my right shoulder. it swelled up about 3 times its normal size with a huge welt at the bite location. other than very limited RoM and feeling like I had a tetanus shot for 5 days there were no other side effects


vibes

[ate'em]

Remarkable thing is that the bite itself is barely noticeable, when I first got it and still now. Both of my feet are swollen to a nearly identical degree.

It's been an interesting experience. Not one I'd want to repeat, but I managed to scratch a certain curiousity I've always had.

[Cruiser]

Crazy coincidence! Rontele was just telling me the other day about some research he was doing into the effects of spider bites on humans for a paper he was writing. You ought to send him a pm cuz he's definitely got some good current info on the subject.

[~mikey b]

He was just messaging me about that the other day. Super weird.

[highangle]

Remarkable thing is that the bite itself is barely noticeable, when I first got it and still now. Both of my feet are swollen to a nearly identical degree.

It's been an interesting experience. Not one I'd want to repeat, but I managed to scratch a certain curiousity I've always had.

I got tagged above the elbow by a fkn meanassed redlegged subequatorial centipede. Two fang marks just like a little snakebite... About 15 minutes later, it would have hurt less if he had just ripped my arm off. About two hours later, after I had cut off a shirt sleeve and boiled it for a hot compress, the pain started to subside. Then it swelled and itched like a massive mosquito bite, except there was a bruise in the center. I carried a can of cold spray during that phase, which lasted 3 or 4 days.
No long term effects, but I do get a little tennis elbow...

[zartagen]

^Holy fucking shit, that is nightmarish. I'm usually pretty chill with spiders and they don't bother me, but fuck that foot long centipede. I can't imagine feeling that thing crawl on me and then sink its fangs into my skin....

[hutash]

I dont have much to add, except...


You gonna die!

[mud]

Crazy coincidence! Rontele was just telling me the other day about some research he was doing into the effects of spider bites on humans for a paper he was writing. You ought to send him a pm cuz he's definitely got some good current info on the subject.

Big if true.

[highangle]

^Holy fucking shit, that is nightmarish. I'm usually pretty chill with spiders and they don't bother me, but fuck that foot long centipede. I can't imagine feeling that thing crawl on me and then sink its fangs into my skin....

That little fucker's personality is what makes him so delightful. They take exactly zero shit from anyone.
The one in the clip didn't flee, he just went to circle around...

[neufox47]

That sounds brutal. Ever since I killed my first black widow after moving to this house, I’ve been checking my shoes for them.

[KQ]

I think one of my cats might have been bit by a black widow a couple weeks ago.

She's my old cat that lives in the shop. I went to let her out (lock her in at night so she can sleep undisturbed by other animals) and she came staggering out. She was moving in slow motion stretching out each leg and carefully placing it but she was also very wobbly, staggering almost falling over. I thought for sure she was dying. She could barely move but managed to stagger off and curl up under her favorite shrub. By evening she was 60% better and at the end of the next day (48hrs later) she was normal.

[liv2ski]

Odd, as I thought I read where the spider bit you left a definitely obvious mark, if not dead flesh about the radius of a penny. I hope you feel better and ya, I will check my booties before using this winter.

[SumJongGuy]

Odd, as I thought I read where the spider bit you left a definitely obvious mark, if not dead flesh about the radius of a penny. I hope you feel better and ya, I will check my booties before using this winter.

That's the case for a brown recluse aka fiddleback spider. Without a blood test and official diagnosis could have been a lot of different things causing those symptoms. Not a doctor and didn't stay at Holiday Inn. Scorpions also like to hide in boots and shoes.. Evidence of anything in the boot is no doubt history after walking on it and surfing, water, etc. It's possible that salt water counteracted the skin cell destruction that occurs with insect venom. Who knows.

[GeezerSteve]

Holy shit, that sounds nasty.

In 1980 I got bit by an arachnid on my chest while sleeping under the stars on a bicycle trip. I was sick for a day, then a bullseye lesion formed, eventually turning into a silver dollar-size circle of dead flesh. I went to an ER, which contacted public health officials (Nebraska). They said it was an arachnid bite, but could not be certain what kind of arachnid. The dead flesh circle took weeks to gradually go away.

Good luck to ya.

And yeah, you're gonna die. We're all gonna die.

[Djongo Unchained]

I checked my workboots yesterday thoroughly. For the first time in years.

I work on a lot of old construction. Spiders don't bother me, try not to kill 'em.

I am OTOH, pain averse.

[The Tortoise]

[whipski]

my buddy was languishing in the waiting room of an ER in agony pain ,nausea vomiting. As we were paramedics and critical care RN's he went back to triage and explained he was now having chest pain. They whisked him right in and when he filled in the ER doc he was completely understanding.

[SumJongGuy]

[LightRanger]

Took this one last night.

There was one in the same spot a while back. Around the side of the house below the main breaker panel (but not in a spot where the web is near enough that you'd touch it while hitting the breakers). I killed the prior occupant of the spot. Then I noticed a while later that another had come and taken her place. Only there at night. Not during the day. So I just ignore it now. Except to show my 4YO son last night where one would be. He found one under the mailbox about six weeks ago and knows not to mess with them. I *think* he's pretty close to reliably recognizing poison oak too.

Killed another in the semi-ramshackle shed we inherited with the new house in May. Haven't had any more in there since I began keeping the doors shut. Prior owners had let it go. So far haven't noticed anything in the garage or crawl space/basement except daddy longlegs.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

[ate'em]

72 hours, feeling past the peak. thankfully so!

Biggest symptom over the past day has been sweating constantly from the waist down. Upper body totally comfortable and dry. Not hot or feverish, just steamy. Atlanta downstairs and Arizona up top.

Pain getting better, ice water foot baths have been really helpful. The soles of my feet ache like I just ran a marathon barefoot. Knees aren't as creaky and achey as they were, but still sore. It's felt like the venom gave me a glimpse of having a 100 year old body.

Got my first real sleep last night, that felt amazing. Was able to eat pretty normal too.

Thank god for good partners, I am so grateful to my GF who's been nursing me back to health. The venom has be pretty out of it, in many ways.