I've got it, too! (Patch on arm)

tallpines · #1 09/02/06, 08:07 PM

Started out as a bee sting --- 7 days ago -- last Saturday.
It was a little itchy and sore for a couple of days---normal bee sting.

Then the spot got harder and more itchy.

Yesterday it started to get lots more puffy (edema) and "hot" and today the "patch" has grown to about 4 X 5 inches.

I've drawn a circle around the perimeter so I can tell how much it changes over night.

Never had anything like it before.

Obviously I've "caught it" from "quntmphscs".

.

Salmonberry · #2 09/02/06, 08:41 PM

Are you sure its not a spider bite? Or could be a secondary infection. How are you treating it?

Salmonberry

Cyngbaeld · #3 09/02/06, 08:42 PM

Best haul of to the doc's office in the am! Or slap a ton of pine salve on it to draw the poison. Sounds like cellulitis.

Sparticle · #4 09/02/06, 08:53 PM

OH NOOOOOOO!!!!!!! I think this is the first reported case of being cyber infectious. You are now officially warned not to spend too much time on my posts. I'm so sorry. I totally commiserate with you.

Did you have to get out in the heat any today? That was probably the biggest stumbling block for me today. I had pretty good weather, still on the warm side though. I had a nice patina on my arm of steroid goo, dirt, leaf flecks and spider webs going there for a while till I took my now ritual fully clothed shower in the driveway every 'work outside' day. I have a very unique farmer's tan going too. After my first driveway shower, I decided to cover this thing up a little bit so it wouldn't get burned or scratched. So when I pulled it all off my arm for the official shower I noticed a lovely white rectangle arm tan - in addition to the stereotypical red-neck tan that I already have.

What have you done to doctor it up? I wonder if some tobacoo would help? Maybe it's too late for that though. Don't know, not a Dr.

tallpines · #5 09/02/06, 08:57 PM

I fairly certain it was a bee------there were lots of them circling around at the auction I was at last week.

I called the nurse HotLine today for advice-----all she suggested was a hot compress and Neosporin.

I don't have Pine Salve. Will have to check the cabinet for other possibilities.

Will stop by Urgent Care in the morning if there is no improvement. The itching and burning seems to be getting more intense.

suburbanite · #6 09/02/06, 10:47 PM

Tallpines, is the 'hard' part kinda brownish and woody-feeling to the touch, and numb to light touch in the middle? Any resemblance to beef jerky?

ick alert!

http://tonyrogers.com/humor/necrotizing.htm

These are pics of necrotizing fasciitis--'flesh eating bacteria'. It is caused by a mix of bacteria that generate a toxin or toxins that cause blood vessels to clot in an expanding area around the wound. Blood can't get in to kill the bacteria, or to nourish cells, so the tissue dies. It requires surgical excision with a margin as if it were a cancer.

tallpines · #7 09/02/06, 11:49 PM

I had a friend die from that 18 months ago.
Three days is all it took to kill her.

No---mine is not near that extreme---------I outlined the perimeter a couple of hours ago and it seems to not have "grown" very much since then.

Hospital Urgent Care is 7 miles away. If its any worse in the morning, I will be stopping there on my way to Church.

suburbanite · #8 09/03/06, 01:11 AM

I'm not surprised, it is a very hard infection to treat--without blood flow you can't even get antibiotics into the area. It's a rare thing, fortunately. People can lose limbs from it too.

In the pre-antibiotic days it was not uncommon for people to die in 3 days from an ordinary wound infection, so even if its not a modern 'superbug', no infection of any size should be taken lightly. There are even cases in the medical literature where someone winds up with a fatal brain infection after squeezing a zit.

With all the wierd microbes out there, sometimes its a wonder multicellular life survives at all.

I'm glad to hear your red area isn't growing. That's a good sign.

Nancy in Maine · #9 09/03/06, 06:27 AM

Can't say for sure that this is what you've got, but it reminds me of the times in the past that I've been bit early in the season by black flies. For some reason those early bites sometimes get really itchy. Of course I absent mindedly scratch...next thing you know I've got a big hard red blotch that really really itches bad. All I have to do is gently smooth some Cortison 10 creme on it and wait a few days. It will gradually fade away and not itch so badly as it does. But as soon as I scratch--that blotch will flare up again and--man, talk about itchy!

I don't know what to call this except a reaction to the bite. Maybe it's a type of allergic reaction? Maybe benedryll would help if that's the case? Maybe that's why I haven't gotten them in a few years, since I've been taking claritin for a newly developed case of seasonal allergies? Hmmm............

kesoaps · #10 09/03/06, 08:17 AM

Well, how is it today?

tallpines · #11 09/03/06, 10:53 AM

Well---its still there but somewhat improved....

It isn't as puffy and the perimeter is now almost 1/2 inch inside of my outlined area from yesterday.

So since it seems to be progressing in the right direction, I will continue the occasional hot packs and just keep an eye on it for now.

I'm beginning to wonder if I maybe got a second, more recent bite in the same area----which contributed to the inflamation.

Trying hard to not inadvertantly scratch it....so it continues to "settle down".

suburbanite · #12 09/03/06, 01:02 PM

Yeah! You're getting better on your own. So long as you don't get some other bug coming along to get a secondary infection it'll probably keep going down now.

I don't have data to back the claim, just personal experience, but I have found that when I take Claritin, I don't get welts after mosquito bites. From a mechanism perspective, this makes sense--mosquito bite welts are a histaminic reaction to elements in the mosquito saliva that keep the bite from clotting off before the bug can feed. Claritin is a histamine blocker, so even if the histamine is released, the cells can't 'see' it and so they don't act on it. This wouldn't stop cells that had already 'seen' and reacted to the histamine, but it might help keep additional cells from responding.

So I kinda think that people who take claritin for allergies and know they have no problems with the drug might consider taking it when they get a bug bite, to attenuate the response. One of those things in the 'probably won't hurt, might or might not help' category.

rkintn · #13 09/03/06, 01:10 PM

Bendadryl cream or hydrocortisone cream may help with the swelling and such if you think it is an allergic reaction to the bee sting.

Sparticle · #14 09/09/06, 10:31 AM

So, how's your arm doing? Mine looks way better and the heat doesn't bother it anymore. Now it just looks like I was burned in that area, but it's healing very well.

tallpines · #15 09/09/06, 02:55 PM

My arm is much better, too.
Still feels warm to the touch in the larger affected area and appears to be a darker tan in that area as well. And just a bit tender.
Only red spot remaining is where the initial bee sting took place---2 weeks ago today!

caroline00 · #16 09/09/06, 04:13 PM

well, our 13 year old had a wasp sting abscess. It was a long time and real sore before we noticed a pinpoint pimple like spot of puss... underneath it was much bigger. The doc lanced it.