Sea spider bite

I ended up getting stung by a stonefish this past Friday... I tried soaking my foot in some hot water, which actually helped dull the pain, but the swelling is just relentless. It’s been three days now and my leg is incredibly swollen—honestly, it looks like elephantiasis at this point. Does anyone know of anything effective to help bring this swelling down?

I don't really have any solid advice to give you... I just remembered my cousin went through the exact same thing after getting stung by a fish. He kept telling me how that little monster left him dealing with nothing but pain and constant aggravation, dragging him to doctors and everything else for a long, long time...

Hello there!
About three weeks ago, my father was bitten by a spider on his
leg, and even after finishing two full rounds of
antibiotics and keeping the wound dressed, his doctor
suggested he see a surgeon. Based on how things went, it
felt like neither of the two doctors he consulted
seemed particularly well-versed in this specific area of medicine,
so I was wondering if anyone might be able to help me out.
If you know of a specialist in San Francisco, I would truly appreciate
your recommendations.

I can't speak for what a doctor would recommend, but if you ever find yourself getting stung in the future and aren't quite sure what to do, I have a bit of advice. Right after it happens, you need to get that sting site as hot as you can possibly stand it. Whether you use a lighter, the exhaust pipe of a car, or whatever else is handy—just heat it up to your absolute limit, because that kind of intense heat is what neutralizes the venom.

My husband had a run-in with a spider once. He didn't apply heat to his arm until ten minutes after the bite, so he ended up dealing with swelling and pain shooting down his entire arm for days. He’s crossed paths with that spider twice more since then, but everything stayed fine because he applied heat immediately to the site this time.
Spider venom is heat-labile, which means you need to warm up the bite area right away to stop the toxin from spreading. It hurts like hell. You usually get some bleeding at the wound, and the site starts off white before turning red and bruising. The swelling moves outward from the bite; if it hits a finger, for instance, the swelling can take over the whole arm and reach all the way to the shoulder.
Sometimes you'll see blisters filled with clear fluid at the site, and on top of the pain, there's often numbness. People bitten on the arm frequently say their arm feels so heavy they can't even move it. The swelling usually lasts a few days, though I've heard of cases dragging on for months. Most symptoms stay local, but sometimes you get systemic stuff like dry mouth, cold sweats, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, or even passing out. The venom composition actually shifts depending on gender and the season—males are more toxic, and the venom gets stronger in the summer or during mating season.
Basically, the best fix is to dunk the area in hot water immediately after the bite (as hot as you can stand without burning yourself) until the skin wrinkles, maybe for about 30 minutes, or press it against a hot exhaust pipe. If the wound is large or torn open, you're looking at surgery.
I don't get why they're just now sending your dad in for surgical treatment after three weeks... anyway, hope everything turns out alright.

I was out on the water in a small inflatable boat, and by the time I finally made my way back to the cove where the main vessel was anchored, quite a bit of time had passed—which was my first mistake. Then, I went and dunked my leg straight into some scalding hot water. Looking back, I really bungled the whole situation, making several errors in judgment, and now it feels like the window for easy fixes has slammed shut. The real issue is that the pain just won't subside; I've already consulted two general practitioners and even a surgeon, but they all admitted—quite candidly, I might add—that they aren't particularly well-versed in managing this specific type of injury. So, I’m reaching out here to see if anyone might have a recommendation or some advice on how to at least take the edge off this discomfort.

So, is he even taking any painkillers?

He’s taking some medication, though I can't quite recall which specific ones, and at this stage, it feels a bit late to be digging through the pill bottles to ask him for names. His surgeon actually suggested he keep some ice packs resting over the bandage, which makes sense, especially since they had to go back in and debride some of the tissue during the procedure. He isn't the type of man to complain just for the sake of it—if he tells you he's in pain, believe him, because he really is suffering

Honestly, reading through all these comments just makes me feel incredibly lucky that the fish that got past my line was only about an inch long and didn't actually bite me 🙏

Jason Sanchez said:Honestly, reading through all these comments just makes me feel incredibly lucky that the fish that got past my line was only about an inch long and didn't actually bite me 🙏

That fish isn't really going to get you unless you're foolish enough to step right on it while it's hunkered down in the sandbars, or if you're just clumsy enough to nick yourself while you're trying to unhook it.

painkiller

Let me refresh this thread for a sec. Last July, I was out fishing off a pier—just some light bait fishing for sea bream, porgy, and whatever small fry was biting. Suddenly, something pretty catches my hook—about 8 inches long, grayish and torpedo-shaped. I grabbed the fish with my left hand—using a solid grip, obviously—to get the hook out. 🙂Man, it felt like the devil himself drove red-hot nails into my hand! It was like touching a live 380V wire or missing a nail with a sledgehammer—absolute agony. Felt like my hand was gonna fall right off! Some tiny little spider bit me right in the webbing between my index and middle finger. It hurt like hell. I dropped my rod, gripped my hand, squeezed the blood out of that tiny puncture, and basically cursed everything under the sun. I couldn't even suck the venom out because I couldn't spread my fingers wide enough. I just sat there on a metal mooring bollard, head spinning from the pain, literally hearing that little demon laughing at me from the bottom while still hooked to the line. I didn't know you were supposed to heat the sting site, and I didn't have anything on me. The worst of the pain subsided after about twenty minutes, but then my hand started seizing up. Everything swelled up like crazy. At the last second, I yanked my ring off. My fingers were so swollen they practically merged together. This was around 6 AM. The local clinic doesn't open until 8, and they rotate between towns, so it’s a whole thing. After two hours, the pain calmed down a bit, but the swelling looked absolutely brutal, so I ended up skipping the doctor entirely. That swelling hung around for two weeks. And that weird sensation in my hand? Still lingering for another 14 days after that. Thank God it passed, but it wasn't a 100% recovery.
Fast forward to this year—about a month ago, I'm back at the same pier telling some local fisherman my story from last year. He just looks at me totally deadpan and says I'm lucky I'm even walking. He tells me if that spider had hit him on the wrist, he'd be paralyzed. Then he shows me his right hand—his ring finger is completely clawed. It's just pressed flat against his palm. Says it's the souvenir he got from a spider bite ten years ago, and he still feels awkward shaking hands with people.
So, it's been a year since that little jerk bit me, and I can still feel this nagging ache in my upper index knuckle. It’s not intense, and it doesn't happen constantly—just when I put weight on it or squeeze something too hard. I can't believe this is still a leftover from that bite, but I haven't had any other accidents with my left hand lately. Nothing else bit me, nothing else bumped me, and it's definitely not arthritis.
Is it actually possible for it to still hurt from a spider bite a year later?

The toxin from those spider crabs is heat-sensitive. Basically, you would’ve had to dunk your hand in boiling water to trigger it. I haven't actually seen any patients deal with long-term issues from that. What the fisherman showed you is most likely just Dupuytren contracture.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/dupuytren-contracture/symptoms-treatment

Back then, I had no clue spider venom was heat-sensitive—I didn't realize I actually needed to warm up the bite site! Plus, I was out there all by myself at 5:30 AM, way out in the sticks about half a mile from the nearest house... no idea how I would've found anything hot fast enough to treat the wound. As for the fisherman, that was his story; I'm not sure what actually caused his finger to cramp up like that, but hey, I don't see any reason not to take his word for it.

Donna Hernandez4 said:Back then, I had no clue spider venom was heat-sensitive—I didn't realize I actually needed to warm up the bite site! Plus, I was out there all by myself at 5:30 AM, way out in the sticks about half a mile from the nearest house... no idea how I would've found anything hot fast enough to treat the wound. As for the fisherman, that was his story; I'm not sure what actually caused his finger to cramp up like that, but hey, I don't see any reason not to take his word for it.

Come on, those are just old fisherman's tales for kids. 😂

Could someone please help me make sense of what happened to me yesterday?
I was out swimming when I suddenly started feeling this stinging sensation all over my leg—in several different spots. I should clarify that my leg was completely submerged in the ocean, so it definitely wasn't mosquitoes. When I finally got out of the water, I noticed these tiny little dots and thought, "Okay, nothing serious." But today, the marks are much more visible, and honestly, I feel a bit lost. 🙂 What kind of sea creature could have bitten me so suddenly? I counted well over 30 stings. What kind of monsters live in the ocean?

And yes—it itches absolutely terribly—though I am doing my best to resist the urge to scratch.

I’m hoping someone can weigh in here, as I’m far too embarrassed to go back to Google and search for terms like "(sea) mosquitoes." 😂
Here are some photos, if you're interested.

View on imgur

Thank you.

P.S. I just realized I posted this under the wrong thread. I know it isn't about anglerfish. I had a few different topics open while searching for the right place to post, and I must have lost track of them—but hopefully, this is the right spot.

P.P.S. I was doing a little digging just now and stumbled upon this:

http://www.seanasmith.com/sea-lice-s...ea-lice-bites/

Is it actually possible that these were jellyfish larvae? Oh goodness, now everything is starting to itch again; I think I'll try to get some sleep so I don't dwell on this...

How long does applying heat to the injection site actually help? I’m guessing once about three hours have passed, it’s probably a bad idea to soak the wound in hot water? Please let me know if anyone has any advice...

I’m not talking about just warming it up, I mean you gotta sear it until it hurts—honestly, I might just use my lighter as a blowtorch for that effect. Pretty sure three hours have already slipped by.

I remember some old fisherman telling me once that if you get stung by that beast out in the middle of nowhere, your best bet for first aid—mostly when you're all alone on the open coast—is to just pee on the wound to take the edge off... apparently, it's got something to do with how the spider venom reacts to temperature...

Has anyone else dealt with a spider bite? I accidentally stepped on one about 12 days ago, and my leg still feels completely numb and pretty painful. I started a course of Medrol and some painkillers immediately, plus took Nixar for five days, but the pain hasn't really budged since day two. Any advice on what I should do next?

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