h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Yep, I really have a sausage for a hand.

I was bitten by an insect yesterday sometime, and in the following 24 hours my hand started swelling and I think (but am not sure) has finally stopped. It started just left of the base of my left thumb, and slowly I had a small patch of swelling, by about 5, which is when I noticed it. By the morning, half the back of my hand was swelling, and over the day, one by one, the knuckles at the bottom of my fingers have slowly disappeared. I had to remove my watch by about half past two, as my wrist bones slowly disappeared.

Since I last had a proper look at my hand (around 6pm) the swelling has crept up towards the second knuckles on my first two fingers. If it stops there, that's not too bad (I can still type, after all), but if not, then I expect by morning I shall look like this http://www.sumo.org.uk/pics_files/bigjackie.jpg

My hand is painful, red, hot and infected, and scary, because I'd actually thought it had stopped swelling hours ago, and seeing that it was still going when I checked halfway through this journal was a bit worrying. Obviously I either have an allergy to whatever insect that was (because I had a similar incident with my leg a couple of months ago), or they're sucking on nuclear reactors before settling on me, or I shouldn't have put my hands in the River Cherwell to wash them after having to wash something nasty off Fred, or maybe it was something in the water that bit me?

All I know is that I'm scared of my own hand.

Oh, and it alternatively itches, goes numb, and goes pins and needles. I have taken an anti-histamine, also tried germoline, anthisan, witch hazel and arnica.

Hi, Mina, you are in a bad way aren't you? If you have done all those things I would keep a close eye on the swelling and get to A & E if it gets worse.

There have been reports of more mosquito bites than ever this year, as the floods and standing water are a great breeding ground for them. You might well have got bitten in or by the water.

I am covered in bites. The get me every time I go out to feed the birds, and I have blackberries I want to pick, but I just know they will eat me alive if I do, as they do every year.

Mine only itch and go red and usually an anti-histamine is sufficient to stop anything progressing but it really is miserable, and as some of them show, it looks unslightly.

As for the ones that don't show the least said the better

Do take care, and get yourself to the doc if it doesn't ease off.

Websailor

I saw a pharmacist who told me to get to the emergency doctor and not wait for Monday morning - unfortunately my emergency doctor is now effectively an appointments system for the whole of Essex for out of hours. They don't do home visits (despite me not being able to drive), and the wait for an appointment time meant I couldn't go out. I had one person available to help me - I could either be driven to the doctor, or have a babysitter, and one without the other wasn't helpful. And in the end, there aren't any chemists open in my town on a Sunday evening anyway!

A&E is out of the question for the same reason, and the option 'you could get a taxi' is also out of the question seeing as how and I fell out rather a lot when I stopped working.

I'm sure I've been bitten before, so even if there are more around I'm not sure why this year I've reacted so badly. The annoying thing is that I've got insect repellant, I just keep forgetting to use it!

Thanks for your sympathy though - you have mine as well if you're suffering more than one bite at a time!

I'd strongly recommend going to casualty Mina, especially if it's still getting worse. Your body's telling you something's wrong, and these things sometimes don't get better on their own.

And sometimes they do.

When it happened to my leg it stopped getting bad after three or four days, then took three weeks to go away. It's odd, but the swelling has not gone round the palm side of my hand, it looks perfectly normal from there.

Unfortunately I'm still in the position of not having a babysitter *and* a driver. I will be on the phone to my normal first thing in the morning. If my parents can't get J to school, he'll just have to stay home for the day.

I took some photos to upload, but it looks worse than I thought it did through the camera, and I'm sure no-one wants to see it anyway! Actually my non-swollen hand look so bony and wrinkly it could belong to a 60 year old.

i am no doctor.

but i do know, from experience, that when you have histamines (your body's way of combating irritations) in your system it can affect you in many ways... one being it can affect your judgement... i was bitten by a black widow on my head... i stopped thinking rationally and was embarrassed to go to a doctor about the symptoms i was experiencing... (flat on back with histamines raging thru system, i was drawing welt pictures on my arm to wile away the days, and painful heartbeat)

since then i have always told folks to never listen to a friend who has histamine reactions, but to insist they go to a doctor... as i am telling you now.

it sounds not as bad as what happened to me and i survived but first thing tomorrow, alla youse pile in a car and get you to medical help

rest easy you are okay

>>"i am no doctor."
And probably not a single parent either or you would understand what's being said. It's a choice between a babysitter *OR* a lift to the hospital.

So I hope everything is OK until the morning. Take care!

It's definitely not that bad! I'm used to histamines though, I've had a runny nose since 1988. I'm going to take a paracetamol and go to bed shortly. J knows how to call an ambulance, just in case, and I expect my parents will ring in the morning to see how I am.

This is a really startling reaction, but I don't think it's dangerous to my health as a whole - no swelling anywhere other than the point of nasty insect munching on my immune system, and no red streaks.

I just feel sorry for myself.

Thanks coely!

That does sound very nasty, Mina.
I started reacting to wasps pretty much the same way you did now. I've never been to see a doctor, just waited for it to subside. The itching is like hell, though.

I didn't go last time, but on the hand it's really inconvenient, although no more itchy and painful than the leg was (bloody itchy and annoyingly painful). I'm not safe to drive though, and although I could manage without driving for a couple of weeks, I can't hold the dogs' leads, and I can't manage without our regular walks! It's all that hold me together while I can't work.

That sounds really nasty, Mina. I'll never complain about ticks again...

Yes, I know what you're talking about - very itchy and very painful if you dare to touch it. I was 'lucky', had my foot swollen (wasp bit me betwen my toes, swollen up to the ankle) - couldn't even wear Birkenstocks.

me: "i am no doctor."
coelacanth: "And probably not a single parent either or you would understand what's being said. It's a choice between a babysitter *OR* a lift to the hospital."

hi... sorry... i am a single parent of three children... and at the time i got this black widow bite i didn't drive either and, also, was financially challenged...

which is why i suggested that 'first thing tomorrow, alla youse" ALL OF YOU "pile in a car and get you to medical help'

i don't understand this.. i was just trying to help.
this is the kind of thing that makes me just want to go away and not come back here.

nevertheless, i still am concerned and hope everything is okay, Choleric Sanguine

I think that was a general remark to everyone, rather than one aimed at you only.

When I woke up this morning the swelling had gone down - I can get my watch on, and could see two knuckles! It didn't feel so hot, or so sore, and I could make a loose fist rather than a claw, so I drove J to school. I was going to get the bus to the but my dad phoned just at the right minute and offered me a lift. Doctor has prescribed me antibiotics, but said I didn't really need to take them as long as it continued to improve over the next 24 hours. It's only because I've also got a problem with my ears that she said take them straight away.

In future I have to take an antihistamine as soon as I've been bitten (although I didn't notice this bite happening!), hold whatever was bitten in the air, cover it in ice and if it's on a movable bit, keep moving it.

I might just start taking the antihistamines whenever I walk near water, or when I'm out in the motorhome, just to be sure, and the insect repellant will be removed from the bottom of my rucksack and be sat next to the sun screen!

Thanks for all your concern, I was rather worried last night.

No wonder you were worried, it's not something that should happen. I sometimes wonder if it's all the insecticides that make wasps and mosci´toes so poisonous nowadays that we react that badly to a bite.
Glad to know you're on the mend.

I only just read your posting no.1 Mina.glad to see things are much better
I would have been worried too,but it's good that you know what to do if it happens again!!!Let's hope it doesnt though!!!

I'm just glad it stopped swelling. I was really worried that my skin would split open! Although both my parents told me not to be ridiculous, that's why the swelling was spreading down my arm and up my fingers - because the skin was too tough to split!

What exactly is the swelling though, anyone know? It is skin, blood, fat, water etc?

I think it's fluid that causes the swelling,because there's some infection there.Of course i could be wrong...i invariably am
I have been given antibiotics ,and they're horrible.. i can't swallow them they're so big!!!