Do you want to see something *disgusting* on my leg?

[GeniuneWorkOfFart]

Here you go....

Presenting Exhibit A: my impressive reaction to a horsefly bite 😱

Please note I am not worried about it, I don't need medical advice/attention and I know what to look out for and when to get it looked at. I live on a farm so it's not uncommon for me to get bitten and react like this!

That said, I think this is the biggest blister I've had from one - it bit me twice before I got the fucker away and the two bites were originally separate blisters until I woke up this morning.

They are complete and utter bastards. They actually hunt you down, once they've set their sights on you the only way to prevent a bite is to kill them.

He doesn't know, so I've been sharing the thread with him.
He goes on long walks and comes back bitten to buggery recently. Blaming it on climate change being favourable for the bitey bastards of all kinds.
I agree yours is bigger! 😂

I'll never look at a Werthers in same way now! x

Wow! I'm flabbergasted that hasn't got accidentally burst. Was glad to see the multiple plasters swaddling it; that looks somewhat protective.

But the way it's not just a hemisphere, it's like the sides are bulging outwards from where they join the body (more obvious on heldinadream's husbands foot ) - that looks crazy. The skin must be so stretched.

When I've had horsefly bites they're surprisingly painful at the time and then become little itchy red lumps, but thankfully I've never had blisters.

Yes - as soon as you know you’ve been bitten do the hot spoon thing.

I managed to avoid the giant blister / 2 week long itch / big red scar thing by doing this.

That's interesting. I've always gone straight for the ice when I've been bitten.

I would pop it, I cant believe you havent. Load up on painkillers and alcohol perhaps

Straight in with a hot needle.

Go on. You know you want to

I would seek medical advice and maybe see if they can pop it for you. They might have local anesthetic cream to make it less painful. Just think it might pop if it gets hit by a rock or something, and get infected

Theory is the heat breaks down the proteins that cause the reaction.

I am a horsefly and mosquito magnet. Fexofenadine (Allevia or the generics that you can get now) help a lot.

My auntie taught me to put itchy mozzie bites under hot water, as hot as you can bear. Stops itching much better than cold water.

I hope this has improved by now.

Last one I had was on my calf, blister lasted 8 days then burst overnight; by the middle of the morning it was infected (despite being covered with a sterile dressing) and took over 4 months to heal - it got to the point where the tissue viability team were talking about skin grafts because it wasn’t healing despite all their efforts and a variety of different dressings.

More than 25 years later I still have the scar on my leg and am determined not to be bitten again!!

We need more pictures please! Where are you up to OP?

I ended up in the minor injuries unit the day after posting - first time for everything! I wasn't happy with the blister and surrounding area, it felt very hot and angry and swollen. They drained it, decided it wasn't infected, and dressed it with some sort of gel dressing?

Here it is today - still got a slightly swollen leg as you can see from the marks where my socks don't usually cut into me! The red dot in the middle must be where the little fucker actually bit me, and up until yesterday it kept trying to form a new fluid filled blister 🤯

@LovedFedAndNoonesDead you poor thing!! I've always had what most people consider extreme reactions and this was the worst yet, I'm glad on reading your story that I went and got it drained when I did.

@GeniuneWorkOfFart that looks so much better. I’m so glad you went and got it dealt with and that it appears now to be healing very well.

This is the remnants of my horsefly bite from circa 1997/98. Thankfully now just a feint scar on the inside aspect of my calf but it doesn’t tan the same way the rest of my skin does (not that I tan well having quite ‘Irish’ colouring of fair skin, dark hair and brown eyes) so, I’d I do pick up the sun it becomes more obvious - and, being a scar, I always use a factor 50 sun protection cream if I’m likely to get much in the way of exposure!

Oh wow, that’s so much better! So glad it’s all sorted. 🫶🏼

Ah you've had a vasectomy op!!

I couldn’t have that on my body and not pop it!!!

I think that’s a Blandford Fly bite OP!!

Definitely a horsefly, I caught the little fucker in the act!

Looks what my DH got - this and last year his horsefly bites got infected. He always bitten - I do not, phew

I’m glad you got it checked and drained, OP. If you regularly react like that I’d seriously consider taking a daily prophylactic antihistamine during the height of horse fly season.

DH had 3 blisters like that (even bigger ones) from bites that got infected. His ankle was so swollen and sore.

It was one of the happiest days of my life when he finally let me pop the last blister (after the other 2 had unceremoniously been popped by then toddler DD knocking them)

Wish I still had the pictures sighs

DH still had the pictures on his phone 🤤 such good memories (not for him, obviously)

Nice. Lovely pen markings too.

My ex husband got bitten while fishing, he woke up the next morning with his face looking like a very fat Chinese person with slits for eyes & virtually all his features hidden by swelling. He had a fortnight on steroids, antibiotics, antihistamines & painkillers. Our caravan site had swarms of horseflies around the fishing lakes, we ended up moving pitch to further away from the lake.