Once again, I don’t have much to contribute but this: I can personally attest that a quick spritz of carburetor cleaner will kill a black widow spider dead so fast you’d think it was the hammer of Thor. Which was fine by me.
Once again, I don’t have much to contribute but this: I can personally attest that a quick spritz of carburetor cleaner will kill a black widow spider dead so fast you’d think it was the hammer of Thor. Which was fine by me.
”But in the end all of these ideas just manufacture new criminals when the problem isn't a lack of criminals.” -JRB
Whew. Keep us updated.Originally Posted by Jared
#RESIST
Excellent advise and I want to add the "convenient care" or Urgent care type places have some of the worst docs on the planet IMO. Show your photos to a real pediatrician in the area or a dermatologist. It could be just local irritation from a bug bite (very unlikely a spider). Both those docs are rash experts.
Edited to add: There are two reasons for antibiotics:
1. for a local infection due to bacteria capitalizing on the bite and getting into the tissue. Apparently this is not needed in your case.
2. to prevent spirochete disease (Lyme Disease) from a potential tick bite. If Lyme is prevalent in your area, then it is super reasonable to treat this before symptoms appear. We don't have Lyme in Arizona for the most part so I would probably blow it off. If you are in CT though...different story.
A lot of Canadians like to gush about our "free" medical treatment but these are the posts that make me envious.
To see a pediatrician or dermatologist here I would need a referral.
The referral process could take six weeks for a common specialty. A friend who had almost certainly inherited a progressive, fatal neurological disease (it killed his mother) wanted to see a neurologist after finding his coordination starting to degrade at work. The referral took three years. He was wheeled in to get the by-then-meaningless diagnosis, and doesn't have much time left now.
Anyway, I'm really happy to hear your kid is getting treated and it doesn't seem like a big problem. Kid-focused medical stuff just redlines my heart these days.
This is a thread where I built a boat I designed and which I very occasionally update with accounts of using it, which is really fun as long as I'm not driving over logs and blowing up the outboard.
https://pistol-forum.com/showthread....ilding-a-skiff
Day 3 update:
The spot is almost impossible to see now and she is not showing any symptoms.
I’ll add for the other poster that Lyme is not terribly prevalent in my area. I’ve only known one person that contracted it, though I have heard of a few others. Not a lot, maybe 5 over the last 20 years.
Also, if she does get antibiotics, my reading indicates she is too young for doxycycline, so it seems amoxicillin is the best option for her.
Again though, the cortisone cream basically knocked the mark on her arm out. It was already beginning to look better when she got out of bed yesterday morning before the trip to see the doc. By the time I got home from work, after the first application of the cream, it looked dramatically better. Today there is hardly any perceptible redness left.
Knowing that Lyme can progress, we will save the photos and at the first sign of any other symptoms she will be at her pediatricians office, but for now I believe she is ok. Whether it was a spider bite or a tick bite or something else, I just cannot say for sure. Just happy that she seems ok.
Jared: Thanks for the update. Vey glad to hear your daughter is, as most kids seem to be, pretty resilient. Best wishes to her and your family, and thanks for updating us.
Not a doc, but my wife practiced medicine for over a decade. For the most part, she and I would agree with your statement.
My experience with them has been pretty bad and I would now only go if I had no other choice. Obviously there are good docs in the listed roles, but I have only met one.
It's a shame, because it is an important and needed service.
Two contrasting stitches visits: an ER in rural Texas. I split my left little finger open longitudinally between a downed sapling and another tree as I pulled the sapling loose. I sat in the waiting room for about three hours. The ER doc said, “There’s no point in stitching that up,” slapped a butterfly on it and sent me on my way. It “healed” as the ugliest, most puckered, messed up scar I have on my body. It crosses a joint, and limited my ability to span and fret notes on guitar for about three years until I worked it enough to stretch the scar tissue out. 5at stretching process helped it to shrink in size as well, thankfully.
Knife cut on a finger on a holiday weekend. Went to the local urgent care. I was in and out in about 35 minutes, with one of the tidiest sets of stitches I ever recal receiving.
I’m not doubting there are poor providers at some urgent cares, but I hesitate to judge a place or a doctor based on what type of facility it is. After all, I hear a lot of negative crap about the high school where I work, yet we have some of the most dedicated educators I’ve ever worked with. I assume the same is probably true of most hospitals and urgent cares: nobody is there to neglect or harm the patients, but they could still suck at their job.
double post
I agree. Just my personal experience with multiple visits. The ER has been a little more hit or miss.
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