One evening, I went to my wood shed for some wood for our fire pit. The next day, I noticed a slight swelling on the back of my hand. By nighttime, my hand was swollen to almost twice its normal size and my heart rate was racing. My temperature was 103.1º so my wife took me to the emergency room.

The doctor put me on antibiotics and diagnosed the bite as either a black widow or a brown dwarf. The swelling and other symptoms diminished over the next 12 hours and the course of antibiotics lasted 10 days.

I don't want that to happen again! I always wear gloves now when I get the firewood.

Those kids were lucky.

a spider bite, should you have such misfortune again, all you need is baking soda and some water, make a paste and put it on the bite area. I use a mixture of clay and soda, the clay helps draw out the poison and keeps the soda on your skin longer. The poison in the bite is acid based, soda helps neutralize it while also drawing it out. I learned this long after suffering four hobo spider bites on my face in one night, happened while I was asleep. It was painful and my face was a mess for several months, I couldn't go out in public as I looked like I had large 3rd degree burns on my face, it was horrible. The whole mess flares up now when I am stressed or if I get bitten by a spider anywhere on my body and mosquitoes anywhere on my upper body. I still have nerve damage after all these years, thankfully the remaining markings only look like a little sunburn and my eyes are light sensitive, I have to wear hats now, never did before.

Good thing it was only your hand, but keep an eye on changing health issues since your body has now absorbed a good dose of the poison, I don't know if antibodies are created, never looked that up.

What I didn't explain is that I didn't know I had been bitten by a spider until the doctor diagnosed it. I never felt a thing. My swollen hand was an obvious indication that something had happened but because it took almost 24 hours for the symptoms to develop, I didn't know what was going on.

Interesting pont about antibodies. I'll have to look that up.

what happened for at least 36 hours, no presentation of anything until then. It wasn't until my face started changing that a companion figured out that it was spider bites. I was quickly given anti-venom series, twice but it did nothing. My mentor uses a slice of garlic clove but I have found the soda to work best, and quickly.

The antibody question pooped into my head while I was writing my comment, let's compare notes when we find something.

In fiction of the 30's, 40's and 50's, radioactivity was often used as a substitute for magic.

n/t