Spider Bite Examination Report

As some of you may have noted from my "blasts" on my Yahoo 360 page I apparently got bitten by a spider on the right little finger yesterday afternoon. By the time I went to bed it looked like a nickel-sized bruise. Today it's been about the same, but with a little swelling and a bit lighter color in the middle section.

Based on information & advise from various sources, I called in for an appointment with the doctor and got one late this afternoon. She looked at it and pronounced it not so bad, saying that if it had been a black widow or brown recluse it would have been crusty by now. She told me to take an antihistamine for the swelling & inflammation, and watch it for changes outside the normal course of a bruise.

So that's where things stand now. I have a standing prescription for 12-hour Allegra so I'll be taking at least a dose of that. I had been off it for a while due to the cold I've been fighting the last week and a half. Allegra dries up the sinuses, which is not what you want when there's something nasty living in there you need to get flushed out. I *seem* to be on the tail end of that, and a 12-hour mucinex along with it should counter the drying enough. Meanwhile, I wait & watch. So far other than the inflammation it seems to be going the bruise route. If it diverts from that path I'm to call for another appointment. Presumably they would start me on antibiotics then.

The picture was very hard to pose. The bite is on the side of the finger towards the next finger. (Proximal side?) Also the camera refused to focus except on the black printed line. The lighting was bad as well, so I had to adjust the color and contrast a bit. I think I got it fairly close.