Friday, October 2, 2009

Recovering from the Spider

I'm feeling a little better, but I've still got a way to go. My arm was hurting badly last night, but the pain in my torso was less. I'd rather be sailing. I actually still have the spider in a bag. I can't see the red hourglass, but we did yesterday before we smashed it.

Thursday, October 1, 2009

Bitten by a Black Widow

This morning I was just sitting at Johnnys on Main St. in Carrboro, talking with Pete and Carter, when I noticed something in the sleeve of my sweatshirt. As I poked at the lump in the cloth I was bitten. I immediately pulled out a shiny black spider : a black widow! Carter jumped up from the table, then looked behind the apple where it hid and smashed it with a paper. It had a big red hourglass shape on it. Definitely a female black widow! And I was definitely bitten.
Carter took me over to her nearby house so we could read up quickly on the matter, Pete helped too. An emergency room visit might be warranted depending on the symptoms, we read. I called my doctor and they asked me about it. I didn't think it was quite as bad as a yellow jacket sting. The nurse reported that if I felt nausea I should go to the emergency room. Otherwise, just take a couple benedryl and keep the affected extremity (my left forearm) down, to restrict circulation. This I did for a while at Johnnys. Pretty quickly, pain began in my arm. Paul came by and sat with me a while, and Thomas gave me a ride home, so that I could rest on the couch at home.
I surfed the internet for two hours, and eventually got hungry. The pain wasn't too bad, so I ate some crackers, an apple with peanut butter, and some leftover salad. Mark gave me a call, and I invited him over to sit with me. We talked, and I started groaning and feeling worse. I called the doctor again to review the symptoms, and they invited me to come on over to visit them. After talking, she decided to prescribe some pain meds. I have never really felt sicker than this before, but the meds are kicking in now. Jennifer is coming home to take care of me now.