I was bit by something the other night (whilst sleeping, I think), my right foot is swollen and it hasn't gone down. What to do?

Asprin and a benydrl should help. The Asprin for the pain and the benedryl for the allergic reaction. If this doesn’t help in an hours time than go see a doctor. For all you know you got bit by a black widow spider or a recluse spider. Although a horse fly can do the same damage. But best to be safe than sorry.

Pictures of Brown recluse bites, pictures are gross. So if you can’t stomach gross, than don’t open the link. I figure it may help you to see if it may be something that needs immediate attention. link

Uh, yeah, it looks nothing like that. Thank, Jeebus.

Good, glad to here. I usually rub alchohol on it for the itching. I find it stings at first but helps remove the itchiness right away. It may itch again and then I put some more rubbing alcohol on it. I don’t know why it works with bites but it works better for me than most any other anti itch cream or lotion. For bites anyway.
Try to find out what it might be. My brother in law almost didn’t find out he was allergic to ant bites till it was too late. He was out camping and got bit a few times by some ants. No big deal he thought till his throat started to close up. He had to be medivaced out to a near by hospital and almost didn’t make it.

It could be a centipede bite. To make sure try rubbing the wound with alcohol..it may sting like hell but that could kill any germs that would infect the wound. Seek medical advice from a doctor to make sure.

@cornbird House centipede, maybe?

I’m scared to death of those things.

Oh yes. Sometimes they get into your house in search of prey and they tend to like cold dank areas…but they can sometimes find their way into your bed. In the country that I am from, we have very large ones. I once was sleeping in my bed while my mom was getting ready for work and she saw one and woke me up. It was a huge red and black one and it was in the doorway of my bedroom on the carpet. It most likely wanted to get under my bed in into a shoe!! It didnt make the journey though after some rapid high heel shoes from my mom, but its a fairly common thing for them to sometimes find their way into your bed. They produce the same effect from their bites like you describe and if it was a centipede that bit you it looks like it was a small one. A big one like what I have described would call for immediate medical treatment.

GO TO THE DOCTOR. Anytime you are bitten by something and a part of your body swells, GO TO THE DOCTOR.

Not trying to gross anyone out, but here is a picture of my bite. I scratched the shit out of it, as you can see. Not sure if you can tell by the photo, but, the right foot is swollen.

From the looks of it, it could be a spider or centipede. Those look like fang bites.

Side view of my right foot. As you can see, it’s quite swollen. I normally have small, dainty feet.

Took someone to the doctor a few days ago that had been bit/stung by a yellow fly. They tried everything at home, OTC allergy medicine, alcohol, epsom salt, other remedies, to no avail.

The ‘bite-ee’s’ hand was swollen twice the size of their other hand…the fingers were unbelievable with red folds…horrible.

The doctor prescribed high dosage allergy pills, a shot of god knows what, antibiotics and cortizone.

It took four days to have any effect. Oh, and another thing…they slept 20 out of 24 hours for days.

Yikes! With that swelling, I’d definitely go to the doctor. I think an urgent care clinic would be great for this if you live in a city where there are such places.

When your flip-flops are too tight,it’s time for a doctor visit!I hope it gets better soon:)

That could be an infection, not just an allergic reaction. Either way, you need to go to a doctor as soon as possible.

I wish to God I hadn’t opened this thread. House centipedes are my arch nemesis… I have nightmares after I see one.

@jimah: Do yourself a favor, at least for me… and change/shake out your sheets lol

Good god Olive Oil! That’s a lunker foot alright! If it’s already been 24 hours, you probably should go in and get seen. You may end up needing some steroids to reduce that swelling. Keep us posted, ok?

@poofandmook I washed them before I left for work this morning.

@Trillian I’ll see how it is at the end of the work day. If it hasn’t gone down, I’ll head up to the walk-in clinic.

@jjmah Ok, but by then you may need a limp-in clinic. ;-)

Infections will usually feel warm or hot and be red(er) than the rest of the skin. To me that does look more like an allergic reaction to either a bite or a contact with something. Ice it and take the benedryl and watch for red rings around the swelling area or again distinct hotness of the swollen area. If either and or sever pain show up get to the clinic pronto.

Did it intitially have a white pussy area? If it did, it may be an ant bite. A large fire ant can cause you to swell like that.Doesn’t look too bad. However, Cruiser bought up a good point. It could also be infected. If it doesn’t get better soon go see a doctor. My husband ignored a swelling he had for a few weeks. It finally went down but the sore would go and come back. It turned out it became sepsis and had to go through a few rounds of antibiotics. We still aren’t sure it is completely gone because every once in a while he gets a rash on the same spot.
If you are on any kind of steroids than be sure to check it out. We didn’t realize the steroids (doc perscribed) he was on would weaken his immune response and make it easy for him to turn a bite into and infection. Something doctors don’t tend to automatically let you know.

One thing you might want to do. Take a sharpie and mark where the swelling ends with a line and the time and date. It will help the Dr determine what treatment you need. If the swelling increases it will call for more agressive treatment, if it reduces or stays the same, you may just need to continue what you are doing.

There is this infection called cellulitis and if you get it you will see your skin start to bruise and turn black. Definitely get to a dr then, because you’ll need antibiotics. It will eat your skin away. I’m not trying to scare you, but I was spider bit twice in two weeks and one of them went that way. I still have a small hole in my leg.

Have you tried soaking your foot in Epsom salts? (What good do Epsom salts do, anyway? I better check!) But soak your foot in warm to hot water….)
The spider bite thing, especially from the brown recluse, is WAY over hyped

Take your dainty foot and your swollen foot to the physician ASAP!

Report on doctor visit, please. <worried>

WHAT?! House centipedes bite?! I have never heard of such a thing! They only eat bugs right?! Dear lord, I’m hyperventilating now. We kill one at least once a night. Ahhh.

I hope your foot is better. Loved to hear what the doctor says!

@casheroo house scorpions too!! WAAAA!!

Yes, please let us know. I just hate it when people have a problem….and we never know what the solution was!!

I didn’t end up going to the clinic. The swelling went down quite a bit. :)

I did wash all of my sheets and blankets, though. Last night, I walked out the front door and ran right into a spiderweb (I didn’t see it), and then screamed like a little girl. I ran back into the house and started messing with my hair (hands) and checking my shoulders and back for critters. Paranoid much?

@jjmah remind me to tell you my Guam spider story some day! Actually, I have one from VA Beach too!
Just thinking about spiders makes me close to having a sympathy urination.

@jjmah: If that was me I probably would’ve taken an acid bath right after shaving off all my hair and burning the clothes I was wearing. So, I think you handled it rather well ;)

@Trillian… It’s some day! Tell us now!!
@jjmah I’m glad the swelling went down. It seems like if we can pass that moment of “panic” in a physical illness situation, when it seems really bad, if we can just get through that moment on hour or day, it seems to start getting better after that. I bet a lot of doctors wish their patients were more like you, and willing to stick it out a little longer before coming to see them.

Glad your foot is better.

@Pandora Thanks.

@Val123 Pulling up in front of my house on base, out of nowhere was a HUGE spider on my windshield looking in at me. It must have been a tarantula, but they are not indigenous to Guam, so where the hell did it come from? Maybe a boat, I don’t know. It had to have dropped out of the palm tree. It was as big as my hand. I could see individual hairs on the legs and bid black mandibles clicking open and closed.
My son was about three, sitting in his car seat in the back. I froze for a few seconds, then rolled up my window really quick before it could skitter sideways into the car. My horn didn’t work and security was coming up the street so I started flailing my arms and hollering through the closed window. He stopped opposite me and looked at me like I was crazy, then he saw it. His entire demeanor changed and you could see the adrenaline kicking in as he got out of his car. He was already drawing his stick. He hit at it and it zoomed along the side around to the back and I started freaking out thinking it could somehow get into the trunk then into my car. In the rearview mirror I could see him bent forward and his arm going up and down, up and down, up and down….he must have pounded it like fifty times with his stick. Then he came and knocked on my window and very calmly said “You can get out now ma’am” I asked him what kind of spider it had been and he shakily laughed and said that he didn’t know. I told him; “some of the preventive med techs at the hospital will be able to ID it, that’s what they do” He laughed and shook his head and said “There’s nothing left for them to ID ma’am” And there wasn’t. Just a smear on the road. I got my son, who didn’t have a clue what had just happened, and carried my wobbly ass into the house and had the screaming meemies.
I sent him a note and one to his skipper thanking him.

@Trillian: Assuming I hadn’t died of shock right there in the car, I wouldn’t have been trusted at home alone with the knives. Hari kari would have been the only answer for me at that point.

@Trillian AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

When we first moved to Kansas from Florida when I was about 7, my younger sisters and I were playing around in the basement when we saw a GIANT spider. We went pounding up the stairs screaming for Dad. He said, “Aw, it can’t be that big!”....a second later. “Maybe it can.” He got an 8 ft 2 X 4!! It was a tropical tarantula who had moved from Florida to Kansas with us.
Remember the Brady bunch when they went to Hawaii? :)