silverjackal77
Newcomer
3 messages
joined Dec 2017
I want to share my experience to hopefully save some other poor souls from making the same mistake. I was out fishing in the dark and accidentally hooked a spider—and because I was only using a headlamp, I couldn't tell exactly what it was when I went to unhook it. Even though I handled it with a cloth (like you would any fish, just to keep things from getting slippery and avoid those nasty fin punctures), this little monster thrashed around so much that it bit me right on the thumb joint, just below the nail. The second it happened, I knew I was in trouble. We packed up our gear, sprinted to the car, and within 20 minutes, I had my hand submerged in about 140-degree water at a local urgent care clinic. They gave me some ibuprofen, a small dose of Benadryl, and a literal bucket to use for transport. I spent the entire drive home with my hand shoved in that bucket 😁. In total, my hand was in that water for about two hours, with only tiny breaks—we had to top it off a few times, so at one point I’m pretty sure the temperature hit closer to 160 degrees, maybe even higher. After about an hour and a half, the pain subsided, but I kept it in there for another thirty minutes just to be safe. My hand looked completely shriveled and bright red, but honestly, who cares at this point...
Regarding the bite itself: it bled (not a ton), and the pain radiated from my finger to my hand within five minutes, then spread to my entire arm within ten or fifteen. After twenty minutes, the ache reached my armpit and even felt like it was hitting near my heart (since it was my left hand). My whole hand swelled up, though fortunately, the swelling didn't travel up the rest of my arm.
Today, three days later, the swelling in my hand has gone down, but that finger is still twice its normal size. It hurts to touch my hand, and moving my thumb is a real struggle.
I'm bracing myself for a recovery that'll take weeks.
A quick thought: I honestly don't know what we would have done if we were stranded out in the middle of nowhere without civilization nearby... If we hadn't made it to that urgent care, I probably would have knocked on the first door I saw and begged a local for hot water!! Luckily, we had our own bucket, which acted as my "medicine" during the drive back—the clinic was about 30 minutes away from home, and we were a total of 45 minutes away from the fishing spot...
Bottom line: peeing on the wound isn't going to do squat. You're only peeing for 20 seconds, and you need to neutralize that venom continuously for at least 90 minutes. MAYBE—and this is just a thought—if you immediately cauterize the sting site with a lighter and hold it there for a few minutes, you might destroy the venom before it spreads. I don't know. Just be careful not to cause burns (from lighters, hot engines, etc.) because you don't want to end up with skin damage or God forbid an infection on top of the initial injury!!!
Lesson learned: leave the hooked spider to die on the hook, then pull the damn thing out once you're cleaning the fish. It tasted great in the chowder, along with the snapper and the sea bass.
Warning: that little bastard was still alive an hour after being pulled from the ocean!!! Leave it off to the side and forget about it; once you're certain it's dead, carefully remove those three venomous stingers before you go back to cleaning the fish normally...
