Originally posted by Krusher
We have both in Texas (brown recluse and black widow). The Black widow is not as big as the ones they like to put in movies, but I was amazed at how far one can jump when its pissed off !
I had no idea what bit me at first, I thought it was just a big spider. I was sun tanning and it had been raining the night before so I didn't use the chair and put a towel on the cement walkway out to the shed. I sat up to take a swig of my beer, I layed back down and I got stung in the middle of the back, felt like a bad bee sting. I didn't see anything on the towel, shrugged it off and layed back down. It must have been on my back cause when I layed down it got me again on my leftside upper back near my shoulder. This time it got kinda crushed, it's legs were all balled up to it's body. It's body was the size of a good size bumble bee, biggest spider I ever saw. I got a broom and swept it off into the bushes and went back to drinking and tanning.
But the pain was getting bad and it was running down my arm now. I took a cold shower and hoped the pain would be gone when I got done, but it was getting worse. My girlfriend calls me and she notices my gasps of pain, I told her I got bit by a spider and I was in agony. She says "was it black?", then says "it was a black widow!", I'm like, waaaa? I had heard of black widows, but I thought they were some spider that was found in Africa or some other part of the world.
When I get to the hospital they put me in ICU and start shooting me up with calcium, valium and I think demerol(spell?) They wanted to give me morphine but I wouldn't let them, I know, my friends were baffled too, but I thought the morphine would keep me there longer than I wanted to be. I flat lined twice, the last thing I remember is fading out to black and hearing the machine flatline, then I would come back, all they did was shake me to get the heart going again. I think it was all the drugs that did it more than the spider toxin.
I finally got out of there at about two in the morning, I lied to them and told them the pain wasn't bad and I was feeling ok, I didn't want to stay there. And as much as they wanted me to stay, they couldn't make me stay. They wrote me a prescription for valium and sent me on my way. My friend Dave told me(he and some other friends had been out in the waiting room) they told him to contact my family in case something happened, so the first thing I did was call my mom.
They told me I would lose some layers of skin off my back, the toxin would kill alot of skin, and they weren't kidding, it peeled for days.
About a month later I'm helping my boss put a fence up in his backyard, and out of the wood pile comes a black spider. He says "that could be a black widow", I says "no, the one that got me was bigger than that", he says "flip it over with the shovel". I flip it over and there it is, a blood red hour glass shape, it's a black widow alright. He says "well....kill it!" I mashed it with the shovel and I am thinking, geez, this is crazy, rattlesnakes, black widows, giant roaches, scorpions(small), screw this, i'm going home(north) where it's safe.
So, if you reside where these spiders live, don't take them lightly, I hate to think what would happen to a child from a bite. I think cause the spider that bit me was rather large and got me twice is the reason I had such a hard time.
So yeah, when I see a spider, it dies!
Off topic, but another thing they told me down there, if you are being chased by a gator, zig-zag, cause although they can run up to 35mph, they can only go in a stright line. Dunno if it's true, but that's what they told me!
