When I got home from working outside (environmental biologist) on Tuesday I found a bite on my hip that was really itchy and thought it was a fire ant bite. I woke up yesterday and had this weird quarter-sized bruise around the bite and showed it to my co-worker and he said that it might be a brown recluse bite. I woke up today and the bruising now covers an area about 3” x 2” and still itches like crazy. I attached a picture of what it looks like now. I’ve been reading up on recluse bites all morning and there’s not really anything doctors can do if I go have it looked at, but judging from pictures online it's a real possibility that it is indeed a recluse bite. I’m not experiencing any other symptoms (nausea, vomiting, muscle cramps, fever) and the only treatment right now is to keep the area clean and keep an ice pack on it, which I’ve been doing. Fortunately, the giant necrotic lesions that people associate with brown recluse bites are actually pretty rare.

Thanks for the input.

7/3/2008 11:54:21 AM

7/3/2008 11:55:01 AM

I think you have AIDs

7/3/2008 12:23:46 PM

I'd still have it looked at, esp. if you can get in today rather than have to do an urgent care over the long weekend. It might be a brown recluse bite but it could be a lot of other things. Odds are the doctor will tell you to do what you're already doing but there's the chance it might be something that requires attention by a doc.

7/3/2008 12:28:25 PM

looks more to me like the bullseye bruise associated with a tick bite from a tick carrying lyme disease.

7/3/2008 12:32:37 PM

lasersoup makes a good point

7/3/2008 1:11:48 PM

I've gotten a lot of tick bites lately although to my knowledge I did not have one where the bruising is. However, that other bite that's more on my ass, that one is from a tick.

7/3/2008 1:19:57 PM

Are those stretch marks or veins that have popped out because of the bite?

7/3/2008 1:21:50 PM

stretch marks

7/3/2008 1:23:47 PM

Quote :

"looks more to me like the bullseye bruise associated with a tick bite from a tick carrying lyme disease."

srsly

7/3/2008 1:54:09 PM

IIRC, a recluse bite has a tell-tale "cone" that keeps reemerging from the bite area, like a scab

7/3/2008 1:56:01 PM

yeah. like they've been sayin.. tick bite f0 shizzle

7/3/2008 2:12:05 PM

im gonna 2nd, th!rd, and fourth the e-diagnosis of it quite possibly being a tick bite

7/3/2008 2:53:25 PM

I have to agree...either way you need to see someone soon for sure.

7/3/2008 2:55:07 PM

How sure are you this is insect related and not a staph infection?

[Edited on July 3, 2008 at 3:15 PM. Reason : Go to the doc]

7/3/2008 3:15:16 PM

I'm thinking tick bite.

7/3/2008 3:35:56 PM

after zooming, i do see the bullseye now.


still, go to the doc

7/3/2008 3:39:11 PM

tick bite, and you now have lyme disease

7/4/2008 12:23:56 AM

i got bit about a month ago

here is a pic of the bite about a week old

its mostly gone but there is still a little bit of skin discoloration

7/4/2008 1:43:20 AM

they just finished a report on good morning america about lyme disease and how you can have painful chronic symptoms if it's not treated early (w/ antibiotics).

that definitely looks like the typical bull's eye rash from a tick w/ lyme disease. go to the doctor, even if you're not convinced. the last thing you'd want is arthritis type symptoms for the rest of your life.

7/4/2008 7:51:13 AM

it looks like your stomach is swelling a bit. You should look into that before it gets too bad. I had the same problem a couple years ago and didn't take care of it then. Now it's much harder to treat.

7/4/2008 8:51:41 AM

I got a rash almost that bad from a horsefly bite and it went away pretty fast

it didn't have that bullseye thing going on though but if it were lyme disease wouldn't there be evidence of a tick?

[Edited on July 4, 2008 at 3:14 PM. Reason : k]

7/4/2008 3:13:12 PM

damn ncsuwolfy...damn...

7/4/2008 3:20:47 PM

Quote :

"it didn't have that bullseye thing going on though but if it were lyme disease wouldn't there be evidence of a tick?"

not really. he could've had one on him and just not noticed and it fell off. I'd definitely get it checked. Better safe than sorry.

7/4/2008 7:26:29 PM

NCSUWolfy has gotta be one of the hottest girls on this site

i mean..even with a nasty looking tick bite or whatever that is

7/4/2008 9:28:33 PM

As much as I'm against creepy internet shit, I have to agree

7/5/2008 12:36:06 AM

as much as i hate creepy internet shit, i have to disagree adamently.

7/5/2008 6:59:35 PM

as much as i love creepy internet shit, shes def top 10 or 15

[Edited on July 5, 2008 at 7:28 PM. Reason : which is pretty good imo]

7/5/2008 7:18:23 PM

You people are easily the saddest group of horn-dogs ever.

7/5/2008 7:28:27 PM

i see what you did there

7/5/2008 9:06:39 PM

i like that shes not skinny and shes not fat

7/5/2008 9:14:25 PM

Unless the wound is oozing/oozed I'm just gonna go with a histamine reaction to a bite.

7/5/2008 10:49:19 PM

omg you mean i'm normal? haha hey i could be a lot skinner but i loves to eat

take that hater who sent me a pm calling me fat

try picking on someone without self confidence

7/5/2008 11:43:46 PM

lol you're phat

7/5/2008 11:55:07 PM

^

7/6/2008 2:09:28 AM

doctors here don't believe we have lyme's disease in NC. There is one in Charlotte that does and a NC Lyme's disease group that does (not doctors but people that tested positive for it). I tested positive for RMSF last year but I had all of the symptoms of lyme's (minus the tick bite, b/c we never could find one, but it could have been on my head under my hair). I went to an Infectious Disease specialist and he said that there is no lyme's disease here. So after 5 weeks of antibiotics, I finally started feeling better but I still have some problems from whatever the hell it was.

I think you should go to the doctor. Regardless, of what bit you. the bite looks nasty and if it gets infected, that is bad!

7/6/2008 7:47:57 AM

Quote :

"doctors here don't believe we have lyme's disease in NC"

uh, no. maybe the doc you saw didn't think it was, but everyone here in NC knows the big three are Lyme, RMSF and erlichia.

7/6/2008 8:52:47 AM

i got bit in the woods of texas while camping

7/6/2008 9:44:37 AM

agentlion wins

7/6/2008 9:57:26 AM

except not really

7/6/2008 10:00:20 AM

yeah he does. it was gonna be my reply, but he beat me to it and a few of you were too busy trying to run egame to notice.

7/6/2008 10:15:39 AM

Quote :

"maybe the doc you saw didn't think it was, but everyone here in NC knows the big three are Lyme, RMSF and erlichia."

I've definitely heard ID attendings say Lyme doesn't exist in NC. That's probably too strong of a stance--I'd go more with "it's possible, but it's not common in NC."

On the other hand, there were several times when we had patients transferred in from community hospitals who had been treated for Lyme or RMSF with absolutely no basis for the diagnosis--just because they couldn't figure out what was wrong, it must be Lyme.

7/6/2008 11:17:52 AM

^ I'll ask Peacock tomorrow. Whatever he says = GOLD STANDARD

from the CDC:



[Edited on July 6, 2008 at 11:30 AM. Reason : ]

7/6/2008 11:19:16 AM

^^^lol

7/6/2008 11:20:24 AM

http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/07/06/lymedisease.treatment/index.html

Quote :

"NEW YORK -- For more than 10 years, Mandy Hughes drifted in an out of what she calls the horrible, debilitating pain of Lyme disease. Mandy Hughes says the pain she suffered for more than 10 years was due to Lyme disease "It literally feels like you got into a severe accident, like you were hit by a Mack truck and you were allowed no medical attention," she says. After being bitten by a tick at 19, Hughes broke out in hives and suffered fever and chills so severe that she had to be hospitalized. She was diagnosed with Lyme disease and was sent home with two weeks' worth of the antibiotic tetracycline. She seemed to be cured. But over the years, the Lyme symptoms flared back -- crippling joint pain, muscle spasms, headaches and facial paralysis. She visited 15 doctors, yet they were unable to arrive at a diagnosis. Several thought she had multiple sclerosis. Others knew she was sick but didn't know why. Lyme had been ruled out. "Maybe it's psychological -- we don't really have an explanation," they told Hughes. "Your tests are coming back fine, Mandy." The memory of one doctor's visit stays with her to this day. She went to see him with joint pain so severe, she said, her hands were curled into a palsy-like position. Yet the doctor seemed impatient with her. "You're obviously an attractive woman, and you're just trying to get attention," she recalls him saying. In 2005, Hughes went to see what some patients refer to as a "Lyme-literate" doctor -- one willing to diagnose chronic Lyme disease and prescribe a long-term regimen of intravenous as well as oral antibiotics. Within three months, she began to feel better. After 15 months, she was back on her feet, but had to abruptly halt treatment when her doctor was sued by an insurance company and stopped seeing patients. Hughes' story is featured in a new documentary called "Under Our Skin," which takes a look at the leaders of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, a national medical group that represents health care professionals who specialize in infectious diseases. The society's purpose, according to its Web site, is to improve health care in areas related to such diseases. In particular, the documentary takes aim at the 14-member panel that wrote the 2006 Lyme disease treatment guidelines. The guidelines question the existence of chronic Lyme disease and claim the post-treatment symptoms of some patients appear to be "more related to the aches and pains of daily living rather than to either Lyme disease or a tickborne coinfection." The guidelines list specific criteria for diagnosing Lyme -- such as an obvious tick bite, a characteristic bull's-eye rash at the site of the bite, facial paralysis and a positive blood test. Yet some Lyme specialists say many patients experiencing symptoms do not see or remember a tick bite. Only 70 to 80 percent get the rash at all, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The longer the disease goes undiagnosed, the harder it is to treat, some doctors say. "The disability associated with Lyme disease is worse than the disability that you might see with someone after a heart attack," said Brian Fallon, director of the Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center in New York. Patient advocates criticize the IDSA for recommending no more than a month's worth of antibiotics to treat Lyme. They say insurance companies use the guidelines to deny payment for long-term antibiotic therapy. But the IDSA says there are inherent risks from such treatment, including localized infection from the IV line and the creation of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. One IDSA critic, Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal, conducted an antitrust investigation of the guideline process, saying the panel ignored or minimized other medical opinions regarding chronic Lyme disease. Blumenthal said the process was tainted by conflict of interest because members of the panel consulted for insurance companies and at least one had a patent for a Lyme disease treatment. Gary Wormser, chief of infectious diseases at New York Medical College and one of the guidelines' authors, denies those allegations, calling them "preposterous." "What we did recommend was not treating with unsafe or prolonged courses of antibiotic therapy," Wormser said. In a settlement with Blumenthal, the IDSA agreed to reassess its 2006 guidelines with the assistance of an outside arbiter. The heart of the debate is whether patients actually have Lyme disease, or simply symptoms that are mistaken for Lyme disease. "The problem is that the majority of patients that carry the diagnosis of chronic Lyme disease actually have the same kinds of symptoms: fatigue, musculoskeletal pain, sometimes brain fog. ... The majority of such patients actually don't have any evidence of ever having had Lyme disease." Wormser said. There's a lot at stake. The CDC reports approximately 20,000 new cases of Lyme disease a year, with the number doubling from 1991 to 2005. Factoring in underreported cases, the CDC says the actual number could be three to 10 times higher. "We have an epidemic of Lyme disease," said Daniel Cameron, president of the International Lyme and Associated Diseases Society, which rejects the IDSA guidelines and says the chronic form of the disease may be prevalent in up to 62 percent of the population in areas where Lyme disease is endemic. Fallon says standard blood tests fail to detect the Lyme infection in 20 to 30 percent of patients. "Most reasonable academic physicians throughout the United States would acknowledge that there's a large number of patients out there who do have chronic, persistent symptoms. The question is, why do they have those symptoms?" he says. "

7/6/2008 10:45:46 PM

dat 190% Lyme disease

7/7/2008 12:45:46 AM

^^^^ wow, those are really sharply divided lines

Quote :

"everyone here in NC knows the big three are Lyme, RMSF and erlichia. "

I caught RMSF one time...of course, I caught it in NoVA, so that has little or nothing to do with tick diseases in NC...which in turn have little or nothing to do with brown recluse bites...

7/7/2008 2:01:27 AM

Brown recluse bites are dramatically over-diagnosed, especially in this state. The spiders are almost nonexistent here. The overwhelming majority of diagnosed bites are simply staph infections. I've had a yellow jacket sting and 2 spider bites develop infections. The sting happened at a football game and was several hours before I could properly clean it. The spider bites started with histamine reactions and developed infections slowly, probably from me scratching early on.

7/7/2008 3:11:32 AM

i have a nice dent in my thigh from a bite 15 years ago.


it turned into a puss volcano for a week or two.

now its a crater and the skin in the middle is scar tissue.



HAPPY SQUEEZING!

7/7/2008 7:54:20 AM

Quote :

"NCSUWolfy has gotta be one of the hottest girls on this site"

7/7/2008 10:03:26 AM