Last Sunday while sitting in front of the PC I felt an itch on my inner right forearm. Looking down I noticed a little bump, dang a mosquito got me. Twice, as now the outside of my left ankle is itching. If I can avoid the first scratch I can tolerate the urge pretty well, but if my guard drops the scratching feels so good that it is hard to stop.
Monday morning while mousing at work, because of the location of the one on my arm, I notice that the itch is worse and I have got a little seepage from the bite. I head on over to the nurse’s station and get one of those little dots to cover it up. Monday night at shower time the bite has turned red. So too has the one on my ankle, might not have been a mosquito.
By Tuesday night it is ugly, pencil eraser sized and raised about 1/16 of an inch. My wife tells me that I better go see the nurse again tomorrow.
Wednesday morning our nurse gets our her little scalpel, picks away for awhile and squeezes out a bit of ooze. She then gets out her cauldron and mixes up some hydrocortisone and a little antibiotic cream to apply over the top, then covers my little red mesa with a 2″ x 4″ bandage. She tells me to come back tomorrow and if it is any bigger I will have to go to the doctor.
Thursday I report in for boo-boo inspection. It doesn’t look any worse, but it doesn’t look much better either. Then she tells me why I would have had to go to the doctor if it was bigger, she at first suspected it was a Brown Recluse Spider that bit me. I get another coating of duo-cream (patent pending) Because I whined some when about 50 hairs were yanked out by the roots during bandage removal, now I graduate to a folded 4×4 gauze pad held in place by a 3″ wide magic wrap thing that feels like rubber coated gauze that stretches and adheres to itself by molecular adhesion. She wants to see it again tomorrow.
This morning when the dressing is removed it now looks like a small red mole with a black dot in the middle. Better. More cream and a rewrap. Good thing as I was worried where we were going with the ever escalating bandage size…
I guess I got lucky and it wasn’t a Brown Recluse, maybe just a Tan Hermit Spider or something. If you ever want to get scared about spiders, forget Tarantulas or Black Widows, do a little Googling for Brown Recluse and read some. I’m warning you though, don’t ever click on any of the picture links, because seeing as the Brown Recluse can’t bite through clothing, you will never get naked again.
Miata Top Transitions since 01/01/05: 207
Be careful with those spider bites. Look what happened tp PETER PARKER!!
When I went in to see the nurse on Wednesday I told her I didn’t see the spider that bit me, but I’m sure it wasn’t blue and red, because I haven’t been able to get webs to shoot out of my wrists. She didn’t get the reference.
yeah, I know what ya mean. No one except my husband and kids ever get any of the stuff i’m referring to. They look at me as if I had lobsters coming out of my ears! for the record that’s a quote from “A CHRISTMAS STORY” No one EVER gets that one either!