Language Partner bit by bug has big swollen hand and wrist
 

My language partner (Chinese PhD student at Brown) got bit by something on Sunday. She got bit on the back of her hand maybe an inch in front of her wrist. Her whole hand puffed way up and it extends about 4 inches above her wrist. Its really swollen like she broke it but its from the big bite. She said it was definitely not a bee (she knows what a bee is) but she didn't know what it was that bit her.

She went to the school infirmary and they gave her steroids , antihistamine and pain meds.

I have never seen anyone have such a big allergic reaction to a big bite here in RI ( or anywhere really).

My youngest got one on his eye over the weekend. Never saw or knew what it was but the kid had a golf ball on his eyelid for 3 days. Looks better today. Benadryl...

Could have been a deerfly.
I had one bite the back of my hand 2 years back and it swelled up.
I took some benydril (antihistamine) and it was fine.
Damn fly is colorful and looks harmless.....until it bites!

OK I read this on line awhile ago ---but---never tried it.
Tape a penny over the bite. It's supposed to cause the swelling to go down.
I know,I know ,It sounds stupid,but what can it hurt

copper has anti bacteria properties

Probably just a bad reaction. If so I'd think it should respond rapidly to treatment...probably in 24 hours.

A few years ago I had a bite on my leg from one of those common translucent house spiders we all have where our walls meet the ceiling...it left a bulls eye and by the time I got to the hospital 5 days later (I had a trip to Canada in between) the skin infection was 9" around and growing really fast.

Freaky stuff.

-spence

I had a spider bite me last season, under my armpit, bite hurt real bad and was small at first then turned into a big golf ball sized bite, took 2 weeks for it to go down.

Hope she heals up well.
Posted from my iPhone/Mobile device

There's a difference between a spider bite and an insect bite.

Insect bites are a method for the insect to obtain a blood meal, so they usually inject an anticoagulate to keep the blood flowing while they feed. This injection almost always causes itching, swelling and sometimes allergic reactions.

Spider bites are their reaction to a threat by a larger foe. Since we are way too big for them to eat, their intension is to drive us away.
Unfortunately their bite injects you with a venom, and sometimes a rather nasty one at that. The general reaction to spider venom is a necratising of the skin surrounding the bite, i.e. the skin begins to die and liquify (hey, that's how they feed). Depending on the species, size and amount of venom injected in the bite, you could hav no reaction or you could end up with an amputation or major reconstructive surgery.

I give each bug bite the proper attention it deserves.
Better safe than sorry.

Let me get this right. You have a female language partner from China? What exactly do you partner on?:buds:

I teach her college level english. She teaches me chinese at the level of a 3 year old. :)

Thats cool. Is Chinese really as difficult as it appears?

No , its way more difficult than it appears! :) In fact because its a tone-al language , its extremely hard for westerners to learn since our languages are not tone-al at all.