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  • #1

    Well, that's new.

    So 2016 has been a crap year for me. Just a quick recap of all the crap I've dealt with...

    * Lost my home to a fire in my apartment building.
    * Thankfully my stuff wasn't burned, but due to bronchitis I got from inhalation it took time to get back to get my smoke damaged things so I was robbed and vandalized.
    * Got bronchitis twice, very very severely, due to inhalation damage.
    * Lost my job due to my performance tanking after all the above.
    * One of my grandmothers passed away.

    Those are the big things. Thankfully I'm in a better, much less stress job now and renting a room from friends which helps me save money and helps them since they can use the extra money. Things have been looking a little better.

    Then I go to visit family for Thanksgiving. I'd had a bad sore that was being slow to heal on my shin. It started as a blister, then was an open weepy wound, then it finally seemed to be doing better. I go on my trip and it immediately breaks out with red bumps around it, then the whole area around it goes flaming red and swollen, then the skin around it gets very tender and easily sloughs away at a touch and develops more sores.

    Finally the Saturday after, while visiting another side of my family for a late Thanksgiving dinner, it started burning and hurting. My stepsister suggested I get it checked as it might be staph, and some google gave me a good scare that it could be. Rather than put it off, I went to the ER. After some tests, some questioning about the house I live in and the previous conditions of the wound I'm told it's likely...

    a brown recluse bite.

    I've never seen one before, but I live in an older house and with the fact that the wound was acting a bit necrotic and the skin was melting away... well, it's highly likely. Apparently most people don't have reactions to their bites, some people have the super extreme reactions we see all the time online, and some people have bad reactions but very slowly. That's what I had and it was infected to boot.

    Not only that, but tonight I looked over and on the wall beside my desk I saw one wander past! Well, now that theory is confirmed. Brown recluse? Check. First time I've ever seen one in my life.

    I'll just have to add that to the 2016 list of crazy shit I've been through. Is it 2017 yet?
    "Oh, the strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!"
    Tags: None
  • #2
    It happens a lot with brown recluses that you don't see them too often. They're called recluses for a reason, and are generally known to be pretty calm. There was a family with a few thousand of them in the house and they had no idea!

    You're unlikely to be bitten again but given that you did get a bite, no one would blame you for squishing every one you see from now on.
    My Guide to Oblivion

    "I resent the implication that I've gone mad, Sprocket."

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    • #3
      We think I may have actually been bitten twice. I had a similar sore on my other leg that, thankfully, healed up after a few weeks but it started the same way as a blister and then became an open sore. Go figure!

      But yes, if I see them near my things in a bite risk place... all the smoosh. That one was hovering over my pillow, near my blankets. If it had gotten into them, that's very much a bite risk.
      "Oh, the strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!"

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      • #4
        put double stick tape around the legs of your bed, you could also put some on the wall(stuck to painter's tape to prevent wall damage) to prevent them climbing up.
        Honestly.... the image of that in my head made me go "AWESOME!"..... and then I remembered I am terribly strange.-Red dazes

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        • #5
          Quoth BlaqueKatt View Post
          put double stick tape around the legs of your bed, you could also put some on the wall(stuck to painter's tape to prevent wall damage) to prevent them climbing up.
          A couple summers ago, when it was very warm and dry, my cat kept getting fleas. I did the flea treatment, but was having a hard time keeping them away. I read that if you put duct tape sticky side up on the floor, and a light in the middle, that fleas would be attracted to the warmth and jump on the tape. I have no idea if this works or not, but I tried it, right in the middle of the living room.

          The next morning, black house spiders! Like three big ones, and again the next night! *shudder* Spiders don't normally bother me, but the idea of them just scurrying around in the dark... (Finally switched flea treatment to a different brand, and got rid of them)

          Also, a guy in a previous class I took once got a brown recluse bite. His job took him in crawl spaces and attics. He had a bite on his belly, but the didn't think much of it. It got worse, and he went to the doctor. Doc said to watch it, and if it got worse over the weekend, go to the ER. It got worse, and his wife made him go in. They ended up taking an ice cream sized scoop of his stomach, because it was essentially eaten away. He said it was the first time he was happy he had a beer belly.
          Replace anger management with stupidity management.

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          • #6
            Quoth BlaqueKatt View Post
            put double stick tape around the legs of your bed, you could also put some on the wall(stuck to painter's tape to prevent wall damage) to prevent them climbing up.
            ...also works with putting double stick tape around your own legs.... :P
            The Copyright Monster has made me tell you that my avatar is courtesy of the wonderful Alice XZ.And you don't want to annoy the Copyright Monster.

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            • #7
              Quoth Kit-Ginevra View Post
              ...also works with putting double stick tape around your own legs.... :P
              That has the additional advantage of saving you the cost of shaving cream (if you use it) and razors ... or depilatory creams ...


              My nine-year-old nephew is very big on saving spiders because "spiders are our friends!" I try, but ... if they're in the house, and if they're a decent-sized spider, they are usually DEAD. Very definitely so. I do have some tiny little ones hanging around at present (including one right by the shower) and we observe a mutual avoidance policy.

              And I live in southern Ontario, and I'm pretty sure we don't have anything even remotely like the brown recluse (in terms of the effects of a bite) around here. Glad to hear you're recovering ... and I'm sorry for your crappy year. Here's hoping 2017 is better.
              Last edited by Pixelated; 12-02-2016, 12:45 AM.
              Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
              ~ Mr Hero

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              • #8
                Quoth Pixelated View Post
                And I live in southern Ontario, and I'm pretty sure we don't have anything even remotely like the brown recluse (in terms of the effects of a bite) around here.
                except for the Lesser Spotted Trudeau...
                The Copyright Monster has made me tell you that my avatar is courtesy of the wonderful Alice XZ.And you don't want to annoy the Copyright Monster.

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                • #9


                  True, but if he gets within reach, I can always swat him with a broom.
                  Customer service: More efficient than a Dementor's kiss
                  ~ Mr Hero

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                  • #10
                    I'll wrap the cat in double sticky tape and scare her under the bed at night to see what she can sweep out! Just kidding, of course!
                    "Oh, the strawberries don't taste as they used to and the thighs of women have lost their clutch!"

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