Awake as I think something bit me??

[CocoonofDavid]

Frustratingly now typing this again with very painful wrist/hand/arm.

I’ve woken up in a lot of pain stemming from my wrist.

I was half asleep and thought I must have lain on it funny and cut the blood supply off. But despite moving couldn’t get it to stop hurting.

I’ve got up to look at it.

It’s a bit red in patches, a touch swollen. It looks like there is a white area with a red centre. Possibly a bite mark, but if so what the hell from??

I can’t tell you how painful it is from my hand to mid forearm!!

I’ve got up and had an ibuprofen but it’s awful.

does anyone have any ideas?

It doesn’t look like much but it really really hurts and has literally come from nowhere whilst I was fast asleep

That does look a bit sore. Are you in the UK, or somewhere else that has scary venomous creatures?

Sleepy wasp waking up from central heating?

i live in the UK so hopefully nothing too awful lurking.

It was swelling and redness getting worse so I’ve called 111. Someone will call me back apparently.

Having had a panicky Google I am thinking false widow spider bite…

False widow is the one that came into my mind.

Think so.

My fingers have started to swell up and I can’t make a fist now. I went a bit cold sweaty and woozy feeling but ok again now.

I’ve taken antihistamines, ibuprofen and put an ice pack on it so hopefully it’ll start to improve shortly.

It’s just so painful! It doesn’t look like much but it packs a punch!

Just an update in case anyone searches spider bite in future.

The dr at 111 called me back, by which point my fingers had swollen so much I couldn’t make a fist and were incredibly stiff and painful to move. The redness had tracked to near my elbow and the pain was awful from fingertip to elbow (and by 10 up to my shoulder). I was sobbing.

I was given an appointment at the urgent care centre when it opened.

The doctor said it was obviously a nasty bite but wasn’t sure what from. He said he thought it was already becoming infected as the area near my wrist was very hot to touch. He gave me antihistamines and prescription strength Co-codamol.

Once we got home my husband went to strip the bed to wash the sheets etc, just in case anything was still lurking… and found a very large black spider on my side, with a slightly lighter pattern on its body. It was dead, so I guess I must have rolled onto it and squished it.

My arm/hand/fingers are still very painful but it does seem to be improving, so really hoping it will be significantly better by tomorrow.

I don’t think I was allergic to the bite, as no swelling of lips/face etc, but in any event I seem to have had a very strong reaction to it, as it was and still is, nearly 12 hours later, absolutely nothing like a wasp sting, as suggested by some pages online.

Crikey OP, that sounds scary, but at least you know what it was and that it’s gone! I once got bitten on the ankle when gardening and I never found out what had done it. It started to swell up almost straight away, so I put antihistamine cream on it, but by the next morning my foot had swollen up like a freaky-looking balloon. I had to go to the walk-in centre (or hop-in in my case!) for antibiotics.

I hope you make a full recovery soon

Yikes OP that sounds nasty, hope you are better soon

We got loads of those in the house and I remove them when I see them as of the kids and dogs. Chris packham said they won't bite unless they have to, so take it as you was squashing it, it must have. How is it today?

Hope your hand/arm is feeling much better today. Would be interested to know what type of spider it was!

@inigomontoyahwillcox It sounds like this one and their bite can cause an issue with some people.

So it was a false widow! Ouch. Thanks.

Sorry, just seen these updates. Oddly I didn’t get an email saying the thread had replies.

SO much better now. Arm gets achey when I’ve done too much with it, but fine apart from that. There’s still a bit of residual swelling but nothing to get excited about. It hurts in the night/when I first wake up, oddly. Maybe I think due to lack of movement?

I react quite strongly to horsefly bites (they swell up with a diameter several inches across and last for weeks and weeks, but never painful like this bite, just insanely itchy. I get them fairly regularly as I work with horses, the worst left a hard lump for about 6m), but I don’t react more than normal to wasps/bees. So not sure if it was the spider that had a particularly nasty bite or it was me that was particularly sensitive to it.

I was previously pretty nonchalant about spiders but it’s freaked me out enough that I’m now a bit worried and will be far more vigilant about removing webs etc going forward! I’m now doing a pre-bedtime check to make sure the room is spider free!

Thank you to everyone that responded