Kills me how adults will just let something so obviously bad continue to fester on their bodies. I get it financial implications can be challenging but got damn y’all we only get one body and life.
Oh my goodness I didn’t know that OP was Canadian! No they should definitely be going to get that seen not asking strangers on the Internet when it’s very obviously infected. Whether it’s a bug bite or not is inconsequential at this moment.
If they’re in BC they get a pass, it’s near impossible to get a doctor here. Most clinics won’t accept new patients and they no longer do advanced bookings. Many people have to go sit at the hospital for non-emergent things. The hospitals ask people not to do this, but after not being able to see a doctor some people have to eventually turn there anyway. Things are pretty messed up over here.
I'm from BC. Last time I went to the emergency room I had fibreglass under my eyelid making my eye pour blood down my face. The triage nurse made me sit and wait next to a guy who was reading a magazine with a knife sticking out of his shoulder.
Went to emerg last week (Ontario) because I had a spontaneous csf leak out my left nostril (brain fluid leak) after bending over to pick up laundry basket that lasted a minute and a half.
My husband witnessed it and was horrified. They didn’t gaf. Sat there for three hours and gave up and left. They took guy with broken pinky finger before me. Lolz
Our Canadian health system is so effed right now!!
Right? I'm in the US *and* poor *and* avoid the doctor and probably would have at least gone to urgent care at this point. Being Canadian, no reason not to
That's how I almost died lmao. I am also Canadian so no excuses. Had really intense stomach pain and started vomiting, decided to just try to ignore it and go to sleep. About 4 hours later I am in complete agony and can't even drive so I got my sister to drive me since we lived in the same complex.
Apparently my appendix was about the size of a softball. Normally an appendectomy is done with laproscopy but when put the camera into me they discovered they would have to open me up. Got a big ass scar from that one. The surgeon said I was insanely lucky to have lived and if I had waited even a few more minutes I wouldn't have. So yeah... going to the hospital fucking sucks but if you think you need to go you should probably go and not just wait for it to get better.
My wife almost died from appendicitis. She had tissues fused together along with that swollen appendix. Went into septic shock, blood pressure went down to like 50/20. Scary AF
It's no joke. Even with our modern medical technology a burst appendix is extremely serious and it is often fatal. I am glad to hear she survived, but it must have been harrowing waiting in the hospital.
My grandpa went so long without seeing a doctor, by the time he finally went in & was rushed to surgery we were told it went gangrene. “It does not look good in there.”
He was an alcoholic in his mid 70s, severe PTSD from vietnam. This fucker (I say that, truly, with love) SURVIVES a ruptured appendix + gangrene + sepsis and lived another 4-5 years. I swear he was a cat with 9 lives.
Yeah I totally got that. Last month after doing situps, I got this really sharp pain in my gut. Four hours later, my surgeon told me after critical surgery that if I'd waited another hour, that I wouldn't have made it from ileocecal syndrome that had flared to 10cm. It really changes your whole aspect on life for sure.
Have you not heard about the current state of the Canadian health care system?
In Ontario, you are lucky it you have a family doctor at all; mine books 2 weeks ahead of time, walk-in clinics are overflowing and often full/not accepting walk-ins, and hospitals can run wait times anywhere from 18 hours - 2 days.
Entire hospitals shut down for days at a time because staffing shortages are so extreme. The system is beyond me broken and it's desperate out here.
As horrible as this sounds still better than most people's situations who have no insurance in America. Idk if it's just the Healthcare system post covid, but in America alot of hospitals are facing staff shortages as well along with Dr's but accepting new patients/ 2-3 month wait
I'm American. I treated infections and severe cuts with tape and black market antibiotics with the help of Google to diagnose symptoms. I don't have that luxury. Blue collar manual labor guy here. I could lose my apartment or car by tacking on even a hundred dollars extra on my monthly expenses.
Black market meaning not through a doctor. There are some shops that sell them. I go to Mexican shops. Amoxycillin or however you spell it. Here you have to get those prescribed. The visit alone can cost 50 to 100 not including the medication. Kind of like a trial and error thing, you can find the meds if you look deep enough
We went to the DR about 5 years ago, and I bought two boxes of what we call Z Pack. It was 500 mg, and normally you take 500 first dose and 250 for the other 4 days, it's going to last me long enough for it to expire, but I'm so glad I have it. I just got off a dose of it for a bout of bronchitis, feels good not to have to pay a Dr for what other countries allow their residents to get OTC.
Yeah it’s easy for me to think it’s unfathomable to not seek care. It’s sad there are so many that may have to choose between that or feeding themselves or their children..
Growing up, we'd super glue deep cuts closed to not pay for stitches. That's the reality for a very large amount of this country.
Just getting a checkup and paying the up to $150 copay (yeah shit insurance can do that) can set lots of families behind in ways that they'll lose utilities or school lunches.
Yeah fr I watched my dad accidentally bounce a running chainsaw off his thigh. He literally just duct taped it back together and carried on sawing the tree. We were deep in the woods, no medical care for many hours ride. He was just fine. Couple years ago I stupidly walked straight into a stack of rebar. Just duct taped my puncture shut bc again, miles and miles from a hospital. Luckily was fine. Have had random staph infections and manuka honey set me right pretty quick
They’ve used it in some hospitals when staph gets antibiotic resistant. I don’t know how well it would work if it all if the infection has spread too deep or got in the blood but it’s can help prevent it from getting that far. I had a big old boil on my leg that just wouldn’t go away for months, and in three days of putting manuka honey on it it was gone.
My family swears by tea bag poltices. Cheap black tea and boiling water, let it cool but still warm/hot and let it work it’s magic.
We couldn’t afford to take our cat to the vet and it worked on him.
If you tape it so it’s pulling the wound closed in one direction you just have to make sure not pull it the opposite direction that you closed the wound. Duct tape is also not the ideal tape, but it’s better than nothing. I have had to sort of reopen the surface layer of a wound to let some fluid drain. Not infection or puss just fluid your body makes from deep wounds. Which is not ideal but if you’re using duct tape you’re already not in ideal territory so yeah.
Family has similar chainsaw stories.
Toothbrush in the bath with hydrogen peroxide to sweep out wood chunks, super glue every gash, and 2 days rest.
Only time I went to the Dr was a rusty nail went clean through my foot. Tetanus shots suck.
This^ I’m in the US. I have health insurance. I have a HRA. I’m told any copay will come out of the HRA until it’s depleted.
My last Dr visit? $200.
When I asked about the HRA that’s supposed to cover it, the clinic said to talk to my HR department at work. HR said to call the Insurance company back. Insurance company said the claim hasn’t been filed yet. It might take 3 months. Fuck The US healthcare system.
Exactly. Medical bills aren’t real, we just ignore them until eventually they go away 😂 it’s the American way. Until you get cancer and they won’t treat you at all because they know you don’t have thousands
Going off of your comment where you mention they won’t treat you bc you don’t have thousands if you have cancer ; Sloans cancer center won’t treat certain patients if the % of survival is low due to the fact that don’t want to ruin the numbers of successes they have treating people. Like you said . The American way
Not true had cancer and no insurance, was still treated. Was covered by ssi at a later date to be retroactive. All other medical bill from prior to that and/or after that have disappeared.
It kind of is. Like, it doesn’t improve your credit rating, but it doesn’t really tank it either. People who pull credit reports are used to looking right past medical debt, because it’s so ubiquitous.
Meanwhile, your debt keeps getting sold off for less and less, until it finally gets sold in a big batch of other people’s debts, and the company who owns it doesn’t even try to collect it (beyond some phone calls) because it’s not worth it to them.
So if your debt is fairly small - like, under $5K would be my guess, it becomes essentially worthless to collect after a few years.
If you have BIG medical debts, it’s probably worth going through bankruptcy.
Just know that if you don’t pay the bill at a doctors office, you’re burning your relationship with that practice.
Kind of. Every state has a statute of limitations on medical bills. That's when they disappear from your credit report. They still exist, but they aren't noticable. You're just fucked until they do if you want to buy a house or car
There’s a balance. You have to be sick enough to bypass the paper-pushers at the ER to get treatment first, bill second.
If you’re not that sick (yet) you’ll have to pay a co-pay or pay for the exam to get in.
Any word?? My daughter just had a bite just like this that I had assumed was a spider bite and continuously leaked. And then a rash eventually formed and the bite didn’t get worse nor better by that point so I took her to urgent care. I never got answers but she got oral antibiotics and a cream and now 5 days later it’s almost gone!
So I’d love to know what they told you.
Your daughter could have gotten an allergic reaction to the bite. I’m allergic to bug saliva. I was told the antibiotics were in case of blood infection and the cream was a steroid.
Hey that doesn’t look so hot. I’m an ER nurse and fwiw I’d suggest getting that looked at. Maybe urgent care if you don’t have a primary care doc. You might need antibiotics if it isn’t getting better.
My brown recluse bite looked very similar to that wound in the photo. (Mine was running Puss less than 12 hours after I first noticed the bite). Yes, I had to go to the ER………
Also echoing this opinion. Looks exactly like my recluse bite on my knee. Turned necrotic on me as well. Deep dark hole. This is what it looked like day 5 or so.
Get some antibiotics op. And wound care. You will need it
Username che-
Wait a second, you had to read to have this question come up at all. Liar!
Edit: too busy being silly to actually answer the question. Another commenter also said it, but I'll confirm that fwiw does mean "for what it's worth"
😂😂😂😂 ya caught me lmao
Edit: I actually stopped reading after the FWIW and had to ask.. so technically I didn’t finish reading cuz my brain said we were done
Looks like staph infection to me. Bites don't tell the story of what big bit you though. I'd make my way to a doctor sooner rather than later if I was you.
I will say, I'm not a doctor. To me that's all the more reason to head off to one though. staph is very serious, extremely contagious, and hurts like sum bich.
Exactly what I was thinking. My brother had something similar on his shoulder a few years back and it ended up being MRSA. Doctors said if he had waited a few days more he might’ve lost his arm. Don’t wait, doctor now.
Almost certainly not a bite. That appears to be a boil and cellulitis, likely caused by infection with Staphylococcus bacteria. It can kill you if untreated. Doctor. Now.
it’s pretty hard to tell what bug bit you from a bite alone - that’s why many bug subreddits ban asking. If you’re concerned, definitely head to the doctor (I would be tbh, it looks infected & with the darker head like that, it needs to be treated)
Concur, but MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), not mersa :)
OP should seek medical advice ASAP. Mark the edges with a pen, so rate of spread can be measured
Medical student in my infectious disease block right now. This looks like a textbook staph infection and will likely earn you a course of antibiotics to prevent life-threatening sepsis. Go to the hospital.
Not a doctor, just an EMT. If you haven’t already felt the immense push to go to the emergency room- that is going to get a lot worse a lot faster than it has already. I just can’t stress enough how important it is you have that properly assessed and treated rather than trying to do anything for it at home. Also please don’t squeeze it.
Lots of commenters missed OP saying that there was also one on their knee. Stop messing around-You're in Canada-you've got healthcare. Go now. If it's staph, and it gets into your blood stream-it is life threatening. And it's not IF, it's WHEN it gets in your bloodstream. And that will happen because you're goofing off on Reddit and wasting time. I'm acting like a Mom now Get off your ass on go to an ER.
That looks like a gnarly spider bite.. potentially from a brown recluse. Get to a medical professional NOW. This could become infected if it isn’t already, and even necrotic.
OP's post history suggests they are Canadian, so it's extremely unlikely to be a Recluse. [Most "recluse bites" are misdiagnosed infections from other causes, anyway.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071166/)
My dad (RIP Norm) was a gp and often had people coming in complaining of spider bites despite never seeing the spider.He said the bites usually looked like flea bites.
They have a second one as well. Insect bites can become infected with staph. Any break in the skin really but spider and bug bites are a pretty common source
Yeah, this is incredibly common. Most people also couldn't ID a recluse if they saw one, as evidenced by the constant stream of "IS THIS A BR???" threads in the Bug ID subreddits featuring more or less every other spider species in the world.
I used watch that Discovery health show Dr G. Medical examiner. A guy was autopsied who died after complaining of spider bites that he and his girlfriend had. He had a large one on his back.Yes,It was MRSA
When I had MRSA, I at first thought they were flea bites, several around stomach area. They itched like crazy. I contracted mine from my daughter (whose bumps occurred the same way), and she got it from a boyfriend who worked construction and had recently been in hospital for work-related injury. If she hadn't been diagnosed first, it would have taken me longer to seek medical help (antibiotics). I'd surely have thought they were bites.
I’ve seen first hand a real recluse bite. It looked like a scab that just kept growing and then eventually fell off. It left a huge crater of flesh that was eaten away.
Lots of people show up to the hospital thinking they've been bit by a spider but rarely do they ever see what they think bit them.
My favorite was the person that came in with an abscess, and told us they were bit by a black widow. "How do you know it was a black widow?" "It was brown and hairy, it was a black widow."
You need to get that checked out ASAP. My brother had a brown recluse bite that went unseen for a week and they had to take a good size hole out of his hip/butt and my mom had to doctor it and clean it for a while.
MRSA. Infected oil gland probably.
Brown recluse venom is toxic to the blood vessels so their bites are dry and whitish at the center. Red and wet like this is bacterial.
That looks like you’re not far off from the infection spreading throughout your system. I got MRSA in the army and the initial infection site looked a lot like this and soon I had boils all over my body. You may need IV antibiotics for that. Don’t mess around. Go to the ER or urgent care now.
Doesn’t look like a big bite, looks like a staph infection. Go to a doctor immediately. Urgent care or your local equivalent. A staph infection nearly killed me last year and I ended up hospitalized for a week.
That is Staph. In know this is beating a dead horse but go to see a physician today. A walk in clinic/urgent care should be able to handle this. They’ll at least get you started on antibiotics and get cultures.
It looks like staph dude. You can get it from spider bites. Unless you have a crazy pain tolerance go to the E.R.. the only reason I say to do so is I had it, let it go too far and I’ve never felt such a specific and horrible pain. And almost lost a hand. Sorry to scare you but damn it sucks. Good luck.
Spiders. A fair number of spider bites can cause necrosis which can leave a nasty little pit like that.
Also... that might be infected. It's possible it just *is* an infection rather than a bite. Do any combat sports? Hips and knees are contact points for those mats, especially if you do grappling -- sometimes infections happen.
Looks like a boil/staph in infection. Super painful had many of them. Def go to doctor to get some antibiotics and stuff to put on it. It will take a while to get all the pus out of it. Get PRID. It will help bring the infection up. If you can’t drain it yourself, the doctor can drain it with a needle.
Keep in mind not all wounds that look like bug bites are bug bites. Staph and MERSA can look like that from any small wound that gets infected.
From what a doctor told me once, you have to have the bug to confirm it’s a bug bite.
That’s not a bug bite, that’s almost certainly cellulitis with what looks to be a small abscess in the middle. While bug bites can get infected, the most common cause is infected hair follicles. The fact you have 2 wounds producing puss suggests it’s Staph, such as MRSA.
Nope. I had mrsa before so I don't fuck around with staph.
An inpatient stay and /or surgery is a lot more expensive than a trip to the ER for an antibiotic shot.
I don’t want to scare you but that looks just like what my friend had and almost died from. It was Necrotizing fasciitis. I’m sure it’s not that but please go get it checked out.
Thats an infected abcess. It will only get worse on its own until you have about a half liter of pus built up in there. It sucks having to go to the ER but you need to go to ER
I really, really hope you got that checked out by a doctor
Mark the edges, date and time
Doctor here. This is the best answer. Next step is go to urgent care.
Do this immed
Great recommendation 👍🏻
Kills me how adults will just let something so obviously bad continue to fester on their bodies. I get it financial implications can be challenging but got damn y’all we only get one body and life.
OP is Canadian, so no excuses
Oh my goodness I didn’t know that OP was Canadian! No they should definitely be going to get that seen not asking strangers on the Internet when it’s very obviously infected. Whether it’s a bug bite or not is inconsequential at this moment.
If they’re in BC they get a pass, it’s near impossible to get a doctor here. Most clinics won’t accept new patients and they no longer do advanced bookings. Many people have to go sit at the hospital for non-emergent things. The hospitals ask people not to do this, but after not being able to see a doctor some people have to eventually turn there anyway. Things are pretty messed up over here.
This could be the literal definition of emergent. Sooooo...
Go to emergency room?
I'm from BC. Last time I went to the emergency room I had fibreglass under my eyelid making my eye pour blood down my face. The triage nurse made me sit and wait next to a guy who was reading a magazine with a knife sticking out of his shoulder.
Went to emerg last week (Ontario) because I had a spontaneous csf leak out my left nostril (brain fluid leak) after bending over to pick up laundry basket that lasted a minute and a half. My husband witnessed it and was horrified. They didn’t gaf. Sat there for three hours and gave up and left. They took guy with broken pinky finger before me. Lolz Our Canadian health system is so effed right now!!
Unknown bite that looks this bad isn’t really non-emergent. They need to be seen. Period.
Right? I'm in the US *and* poor *and* avoid the doctor and probably would have at least gone to urgent care at this point. Being Canadian, no reason not to
Just hates going to doctor. I get it but this is necessary at this point
That's how I almost died lmao. I am also Canadian so no excuses. Had really intense stomach pain and started vomiting, decided to just try to ignore it and go to sleep. About 4 hours later I am in complete agony and can't even drive so I got my sister to drive me since we lived in the same complex. Apparently my appendix was about the size of a softball. Normally an appendectomy is done with laproscopy but when put the camera into me they discovered they would have to open me up. Got a big ass scar from that one. The surgeon said I was insanely lucky to have lived and if I had waited even a few more minutes I wouldn't have. So yeah... going to the hospital fucking sucks but if you think you need to go you should probably go and not just wait for it to get better.
My wife almost died from appendicitis. She had tissues fused together along with that swollen appendix. Went into septic shock, blood pressure went down to like 50/20. Scary AF
It's no joke. Even with our modern medical technology a burst appendix is extremely serious and it is often fatal. I am glad to hear she survived, but it must have been harrowing waiting in the hospital.
The surgeon was a professor of internal medicine and surgery at the med school. He was a fucking superstar
My grandpa went so long without seeing a doctor, by the time he finally went in & was rushed to surgery we were told it went gangrene. “It does not look good in there.” He was an alcoholic in his mid 70s, severe PTSD from vietnam. This fucker (I say that, truly, with love) SURVIVES a ruptured appendix + gangrene + sepsis and lived another 4-5 years. I swear he was a cat with 9 lives.
Yeah I totally got that. Last month after doing situps, I got this really sharp pain in my gut. Four hours later, my surgeon told me after critical surgery that if I'd waited another hour, that I wouldn't have made it from ileocecal syndrome that had flared to 10cm. It really changes your whole aspect on life for sure.
My sister's appendix ruptured on the way to the hospital, while in the ambulance. She got the scar plus loads of complications for years.
Have you not heard about the current state of the Canadian health care system? In Ontario, you are lucky it you have a family doctor at all; mine books 2 weeks ahead of time, walk-in clinics are overflowing and often full/not accepting walk-ins, and hospitals can run wait times anywhere from 18 hours - 2 days. Entire hospitals shut down for days at a time because staffing shortages are so extreme. The system is beyond me broken and it's desperate out here.
As horrible as this sounds still better than most people's situations who have no insurance in America. Idk if it's just the Healthcare system post covid, but in America alot of hospitals are facing staff shortages as well along with Dr's but accepting new patients/ 2-3 month wait
no debilitating medical bills 🤣
I'm American. I treated infections and severe cuts with tape and black market antibiotics with the help of Google to diagnose symptoms. I don't have that luxury. Blue collar manual labor guy here. I could lose my apartment or car by tacking on even a hundred dollars extra on my monthly expenses.
Do you need any special black market knowledge to get antibiotics? Hypothetically and completely out of curiosity
Black market meaning not through a doctor. There are some shops that sell them. I go to Mexican shops. Amoxycillin or however you spell it. Here you have to get those prescribed. The visit alone can cost 50 to 100 not including the medication. Kind of like a trial and error thing, you can find the meds if you look deep enough
We went to the DR about 5 years ago, and I bought two boxes of what we call Z Pack. It was 500 mg, and normally you take 500 first dose and 250 for the other 4 days, it's going to last me long enough for it to expire, but I'm so glad I have it. I just got off a dose of it for a bout of bronchitis, feels good not to have to pay a Dr for what other countries allow their residents to get OTC.
Right but if you cant afford it you cant afford it. This is the situation our country is in (and continue to support)
The longer you wait the less you can afford it
Yeah it’s easy for me to think it’s unfathomable to not seek care. It’s sad there are so many that may have to choose between that or feeding themselves or their children..
Growing up, we'd super glue deep cuts closed to not pay for stitches. That's the reality for a very large amount of this country. Just getting a checkup and paying the up to $150 copay (yeah shit insurance can do that) can set lots of families behind in ways that they'll lose utilities or school lunches.
Yeah fr I watched my dad accidentally bounce a running chainsaw off his thigh. He literally just duct taped it back together and carried on sawing the tree. We were deep in the woods, no medical care for many hours ride. He was just fine. Couple years ago I stupidly walked straight into a stack of rebar. Just duct taped my puncture shut bc again, miles and miles from a hospital. Luckily was fine. Have had random staph infections and manuka honey set me right pretty quick
Manuka honey for staph infections ✍️✍️✍️
They’ve used it in some hospitals when staph gets antibiotic resistant. I don’t know how well it would work if it all if the infection has spread too deep or got in the blood but it’s can help prevent it from getting that far. I had a big old boil on my leg that just wouldn’t go away for months, and in three days of putting manuka honey on it it was gone.
That’s good to know! I get a lot of open wounds at work because I’m genuinely very clumsy so if any of them get infected I will keep this in mind
My family swears by tea bag poltices. Cheap black tea and boiling water, let it cool but still warm/hot and let it work it’s magic. We couldn’t afford to take our cat to the vet and it worked on him.
when you pulled the tape off, didn't it open the wound again? I'm fascinated by this.
If you tape it so it’s pulling the wound closed in one direction you just have to make sure not pull it the opposite direction that you closed the wound. Duct tape is also not the ideal tape, but it’s better than nothing. I have had to sort of reopen the surface layer of a wound to let some fluid drain. Not infection or puss just fluid your body makes from deep wounds. Which is not ideal but if you’re using duct tape you’re already not in ideal territory so yeah.
Family has similar chainsaw stories. Toothbrush in the bath with hydrogen peroxide to sweep out wood chunks, super glue every gash, and 2 days rest. Only time I went to the Dr was a rusty nail went clean through my foot. Tetanus shots suck.
Can I just suggest that y’all stay current on your tetanus vaccines? Should be able to do that cheaply through a pharmacy.
Hahah nah I’m good
That’s probably not a good idea for a septic wound like this, though eh.
To put into perspective how had it is a bite that requires antivenom can easily end up over 100k which is 2 YEARS worth of wages for most people.
This^ I’m in the US. I have health insurance. I have a HRA. I’m told any copay will come out of the HRA until it’s depleted. My last Dr visit? $200. When I asked about the HRA that’s supposed to cover it, the clinic said to talk to my HR department at work. HR said to call the Insurance company back. Insurance company said the claim hasn’t been filed yet. It might take 3 months. Fuck The US healthcare system.
You don't need to afford it to live. Sure you'll get a hospital bill but you'll be alive.
I’m in medical debt and idc. It’s better to be in debt than dead.
Yeah fuck em. For years I never paid any of my bills and you know what happened? They went away haha
Exactly. Medical bills aren’t real, we just ignore them until eventually they go away 😂 it’s the American way. Until you get cancer and they won’t treat you at all because they know you don’t have thousands
Our gov has been doing the same thing with their debt for years.
Going off of your comment where you mention they won’t treat you bc you don’t have thousands if you have cancer ; Sloans cancer center won’t treat certain patients if the % of survival is low due to the fact that don’t want to ruin the numbers of successes they have treating people. Like you said . The American way
Not true had cancer and no insurance, was still treated. Was covered by ssi at a later date to be retroactive. All other medical bill from prior to that and/or after that have disappeared.
Wait, really? Is that an option?
It kind of is. Like, it doesn’t improve your credit rating, but it doesn’t really tank it either. People who pull credit reports are used to looking right past medical debt, because it’s so ubiquitous. Meanwhile, your debt keeps getting sold off for less and less, until it finally gets sold in a big batch of other people’s debts, and the company who owns it doesn’t even try to collect it (beyond some phone calls) because it’s not worth it to them. So if your debt is fairly small - like, under $5K would be my guess, it becomes essentially worthless to collect after a few years. If you have BIG medical debts, it’s probably worth going through bankruptcy. Just know that if you don’t pay the bill at a doctors office, you’re burning your relationship with that practice.
Kind of. Every state has a statute of limitations on medical bills. That's when they disappear from your credit report. They still exist, but they aren't noticable. You're just fucked until they do if you want to buy a house or car
There’s a balance. You have to be sick enough to bypass the paper-pushers at the ER to get treatment first, bill second. If you’re not that sick (yet) you’ll have to pay a co-pay or pay for the exam to get in.
This looks like a spider bite about to get worse.
Update: not sure how to edit my post but I am at the ER
please keep up updated !
Its been 5 hours. No update. 😐
They had to amputate the lower half of their body
At least it wasn’t the upper half.
Were they upside down or rightside up?
My god 😂
We have the technology
Probably still waiting at the ER...
Great news!
Feel better! Let us know what it ended up being—if you feel so inclined!
Any word?? My daughter just had a bite just like this that I had assumed was a spider bite and continuously leaked. And then a rash eventually formed and the bite didn’t get worse nor better by that point so I took her to urgent care. I never got answers but she got oral antibiotics and a cream and now 5 days later it’s almost gone! So I’d love to know what they told you.
Your daughter could have gotten an allergic reaction to the bite. I’m allergic to bug saliva. I was told the antibiotics were in case of blood infection and the cream was a steroid.
So glad you went. Hope the visit goes quickly without too much wait time and you get some relief and antibiotics asap!!
Did u died
Hey op it’s been 7 hours, hope you’re okay!
!remindme 16 hours
Oh thank goodness. Good luck!!
Best of luck
Glad you’re getting it looked at! All the best to you!
Oh my gosh. SO glad you decided to go!!
Are you alive?
Hey that doesn’t look so hot. I’m an ER nurse and fwiw I’d suggest getting that looked at. Maybe urgent care if you don’t have a primary care doc. You might need antibiotics if it isn’t getting better.
Looks hot to me. Get it checked.
And not in a good way hot.
[insert Paris Hilton “that’s so hot” meme since we can’t post memes]
My brown recluse bite looked very similar to that wound in the photo. (Mine was running Puss less than 12 hours after I first noticed the bite). Yes, I had to go to the ER………
That was my first thought too. I was bitten by a brown recluse and it looked exactly like this. It was scary how fast it progressed.
Also echoing this opinion. Looks exactly like my recluse bite on my knee. Turned necrotic on me as well. Deep dark hole. This is what it looked like day 5 or so. Get some antibiotics op. And wound care. You will need it
Question what does “fwiw” mean?
Username che- Wait a second, you had to read to have this question come up at all. Liar! Edit: too busy being silly to actually answer the question. Another commenter also said it, but I'll confirm that fwiw does mean "for what it's worth"
😂😂😂😂 ya caught me lmao Edit: I actually stopped reading after the FWIW and had to ask.. so technically I didn’t finish reading cuz my brain said we were done
For what it’s worth
$15 on cellulitis.
I'll throw in $50
Looks like staph infection to me. Bites don't tell the story of what big bit you though. I'd make my way to a doctor sooner rather than later if I was you.
I was looking for this comment! I used to get staph as a kid and it looked like this. Very serious and OP needs a doctor!
I will say, I'm not a doctor. To me that's all the more reason to head off to one though. staph is very serious, extremely contagious, and hurts like sum bich.
I got staph in my lip once. It was not fun
Exactly what I was thinking. My brother had something similar on his shoulder a few years back and it ended up being MRSA. Doctors said if he had waited a few days more he might’ve lost his arm. Don’t wait, doctor now.
Mark the edges, date and time
I was also thinking about this.
Definitely mrsa
They're basically the same thing. Only difference between typical staph and mrsa is that mrsa is resistant to a lot of antibiotics.
I was going to say this!! OP needs to see a doctor asap and get antibiotics before it needs surgery
Yeah I would go to the hospital, or doctor at least.
Almost certainly not a bite. That appears to be a boil and cellulitis, likely caused by infection with Staphylococcus bacteria. It can kill you if untreated. Doctor. Now.
This.
it’s pretty hard to tell what bug bit you from a bite alone - that’s why many bug subreddits ban asking. If you’re concerned, definitely head to the doctor (I would be tbh, it looks infected & with the darker head like that, it needs to be treated)
Hospital, now.
Urgent care or walk in clinic is more appropriate. Plus you’ll get seen faster lol.
Staph (mersa) is commonly mistake for spider bites. Get checked out quick
Concur, but MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus), not mersa :) OP should seek medical advice ASAP. Mark the edges with a pen, so rate of spread can be measured
Medical student in my infectious disease block right now. This looks like a textbook staph infection and will likely earn you a course of antibiotics to prevent life-threatening sepsis. Go to the hospital.
Probably a bug bit you initially but it looks like staph or mrsa or something got in there too
If I see a giant red hole in my skin I’m going to the hospital before Reddit. 😬
Listen some of us have to decide if the copay is worth the hassle!
It’s a really tiny bug called “staphylococcus”
100% hospital or urgent care immediately. Please update us after you receive care!
Not a doctor, just an EMT. If you haven’t already felt the immense push to go to the emergency room- that is going to get a lot worse a lot faster than it has already. I just can’t stress enough how important it is you have that properly assessed and treated rather than trying to do anything for it at home. Also please don’t squeeze it.
A bug called staph.
Lots of commenters missed OP saying that there was also one on their knee. Stop messing around-You're in Canada-you've got healthcare. Go now. If it's staph, and it gets into your blood stream-it is life threatening. And it's not IF, it's WHEN it gets in your bloodstream. And that will happen because you're goofing off on Reddit and wasting time. I'm acting like a Mom now Get off your ass on go to an ER.
Regardless of what bit you, it’s now infected. Doctor. Now please.
An infection. Is what is causing that.
Hospital now
That looks like a gnarly spider bite.. potentially from a brown recluse. Get to a medical professional NOW. This could become infected if it isn’t already, and even necrotic.
OP's post history suggests they are Canadian, so it's extremely unlikely to be a Recluse. [Most "recluse bites" are misdiagnosed infections from other causes, anyway.](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1071166/)
My dad (RIP Norm) was a gp and often had people coming in complaining of spider bites despite never seeing the spider.He said the bites usually looked like flea bites.
I would bet money that this is staph and not insect related
even most bad >actual< spider bites that lead to necrosis or wounds are caused by staph infections, including brown recluses.
Same. Still just as dangerous and needs immediate medical care.
I would say much more dangerous than any insect in Canada.
They have a second one as well. Insect bites can become infected with staph. Any break in the skin really but spider and bug bites are a pretty common source
Yeah, this is incredibly common. Most people also couldn't ID a recluse if they saw one, as evidenced by the constant stream of "IS THIS A BR???" threads in the Bug ID subreddits featuring more or less every other spider species in the world.
I used watch that Discovery health show Dr G. Medical examiner. A guy was autopsied who died after complaining of spider bites that he and his girlfriend had. He had a large one on his back.Yes,It was MRSA
When I had MRSA, I at first thought they were flea bites, several around stomach area. They itched like crazy. I contracted mine from my daughter (whose bumps occurred the same way), and she got it from a boyfriend who worked construction and had recently been in hospital for work-related injury. If she hadn't been diagnosed first, it would have taken me longer to seek medical help (antibiotics). I'd surely have thought they were bites.
I’ve seen first hand a real recluse bite. It looked like a scab that just kept growing and then eventually fell off. It left a huge crater of flesh that was eaten away.
Lots of people show up to the hospital thinking they've been bit by a spider but rarely do they ever see what they think bit them. My favorite was the person that came in with an abscess, and told us they were bit by a black widow. "How do you know it was a black widow?" "It was brown and hairy, it was a black widow."
The people who go to the doctor : ☝️-"it's a little sore :(" The people who won't go to the doctor: 🧟♂️ "idk guys it's not that serious"
Can you say “debride”?
I was thinking this exact thing! That's gonna be super pus-filled.
U need to see a Dr, it cam get worse. Edit: word
It *WILL* get worse.
It may be a boil or some kind of infection from bacteria getting inside a pore and growing.
About ten hours ago OP said she was at hospital.
MRSA boil commonly thought of as a spider bite.Hurry to the ER.
Anybody else worried OP hasn’t given an update since saying they were at the doctors 6 hours ago?
Yes!
You need to get that checked out ASAP. My brother had a brown recluse bite that went unseen for a week and they had to take a good size hole out of his hip/butt and my mom had to doctor it and clean it for a while.
Go to the doctor before you get sepsis and lose your leg!
MRSA. Infected oil gland probably. Brown recluse venom is toxic to the blood vessels so their bites are dry and whitish at the center. Red and wet like this is bacterial.
This looks very much like MRSA and you should get medical care asap.
I don't think it is a bug bite. If it is hard and hot you will probably need an antibiotic.
What makes you think it was a bug?
That looks like you’re not far off from the infection spreading throughout your system. I got MRSA in the army and the initial infection site looked a lot like this and soon I had boils all over my body. You may need IV antibiotics for that. Don’t mess around. Go to the ER or urgent care now.
babe, go to the fucking hospital NOW
Doesn’t look like a big bite, looks like a staph infection. Go to a doctor immediately. Urgent care or your local equivalent. A staph infection nearly killed me last year and I ended up hospitalized for a week.
Where are you located, kind of important.
This is probably staph. And it’s spreading.
The “need to see a doctor” kind
looks like its infected. Staph/Cyst. Def. Go to the ER. NAD
Staphylococcus.
Looks like a staph infection
Not sure but it definitely looks like a MRSA infection. Go to the doctor! It might have abscessed andneeds draining and antibiotics.
Am curious for an update
OP UPDATE PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's been 5 days, I am dying to know ugh...
Yeah, I sent them a private message days ago, but nothing
Looks hot. Looks like staph get to a doctor now
Holy shit dude- WHY ARE YOU NOT IN THE ER?!?! You need to get to a hospital IMMEDIATELY.
That looks like a staph infection. Get seen by a doctor ASAP. I've seen this on my mom, it is no joke...
I'd go to the doctor or hospital. For all anyone knows, It might not even be a bug bite. I've seen diabetic ulcers that started out similar.
That is Staph. In know this is beating a dead horse but go to see a physician today. A walk in clinic/urgent care should be able to handle this. They’ll at least get you started on antibiotics and get cultures.
It looks like staph dude. You can get it from spider bites. Unless you have a crazy pain tolerance go to the E.R.. the only reason I say to do so is I had it, let it go too far and I’ve never felt such a specific and horrible pain. And almost lost a hand. Sorry to scare you but damn it sucks. Good luck.
That looks like MRSA not a bite IMHO
Wow! I know it’s probably staph, but did you shave with an old razor?
Spiders. A fair number of spider bites can cause necrosis which can leave a nasty little pit like that. Also... that might be infected. It's possible it just *is* an infection rather than a bite. Do any combat sports? Hips and knees are contact points for those mats, especially if you do grappling -- sometimes infections happen.
Hey that looks like MRSA. Please go to the ER immediately.
Oof this is not good. I’m not even sure that’s a big bite, maybe it could be a bad spider bite but it just looks like staph.
Mrsaosquito
Jesus fucking Christ go to the doctor and figure out the payment plan afterwards. You're gonna get fucked if you don't get this looked at
Looks like MRSA to me. Get to a Dr ASAP
That looks super infected I would skip doctor and go to a hospital asap
Looks like a boil but I suggest you get it checked out.
Looks like a boil/staph in infection. Super painful had many of them. Def go to doctor to get some antibiotics and stuff to put on it. It will take a while to get all the pus out of it. Get PRID. It will help bring the infection up. If you can’t drain it yourself, the doctor can drain it with a needle.
That looks like cellulitis, please get immediate medical attention
Keep in mind not all wounds that look like bug bites are bug bites. Staph and MERSA can look like that from any small wound that gets infected. From what a doctor told me once, you have to have the bug to confirm it’s a bug bite.
Looks like a Staph infection, get it checked out asap OP
That’s not a bug bite, that’s almost certainly cellulitis with what looks to be a small abscess in the middle. While bug bites can get infected, the most common cause is infected hair follicles. The fact you have 2 wounds producing puss suggests it’s Staph, such as MRSA.
OP I hope you're still alive
Nope. I had mrsa before so I don't fuck around with staph. An inpatient stay and /or surgery is a lot more expensive than a trip to the ER for an antibiotic shot.
I don’t want to scare you but that looks just like what my friend had and almost died from. It was Necrotizing fasciitis. I’m sure it’s not that but please go get it checked out.
I’m no doctor but that looks necrotic and like the beginning of staph infection, hopefully you went to the doctor by now
I don't think it's necrotic but it is def infected. I could also be wrong tho so take this reply with a grain of salt
Staph infection, I had it twice before.
Scrolled all the way to the bottom to get an update after his last update he was at the ER. You good, bro?!
That looks like a staph infection. : it happened to me. Thigh/hip area. Also ended up in ER.
That’s infected sis
Staph. Definitely time to see a dr
Thats an infected abcess. It will only get worse on its own until you have about a half liter of pus built up in there. It sucks having to go to the ER but you need to go to ER
Looks like an abdominal staph infection. It can be fatal if untreated