Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Bug Bite In March?

Kind of.

I was bitten by something in July of last year.  I think it was one of those little tiny black ants, but it could have been a spider, I guess.  I didn't see it happen, I just felt it later.

The bite was on my left big toe, near the moon of my toenail.  It itched and swelled, blistered and progressed from red to purple to bluish-green to greenish-yellow before "going away".  Only, it hasn't really gone away.  Every few weeks, the blisters come back and it itches a little.  Each time this happens the blisters migrate a little so that this time I have blisters on the bottom of my toe and they hurt when I walk.  I decided it was finally time to go to the doctor.

Of course, I couldn't get into my doctor.  Nope, nothing open for something this minor until April.  So I went to urgent care.  The doctor there doesn't think it's fungal (and neither do I since it doesn't spread). She thinks it's a bacterial infection, or maybe even a viral infection.  Because the clinic isn't equipped to do a viral culture, she did just the bacterial culture and I should know the results in a couple of days.

Silly doc tried to pop the little blisters by putting pressure on them.  All she accomplished was making my eyes water.  Finally, she asked if I minded if she opened them with a small needle.  By all means, go ahead...that's what I would have done to begin with.

Now my toe really hurts and I still don't know anything more than I did to begin with.  She gave me a prescription for an antibiotic, but I think I'll wait until I find out the test results before I start taking them.

Anyone out there know of any bites like this that keep coming back?  Maybe I should try putting tea bag on it...LOL

7 comments:

Frances said...

I never heard of such a thing. I sure hope your dr figures out what it is soon!

Annie Jones said...

I did a lot of searching on the Internet and only came up with a couple of reports of blisters coming back where a bug or spider had bitten, but no one seemed to know why.

I wasn't too worried about it...and I'm still not exactly worried, but I'd just as soon figure out how to stop it since this time it hurts to walk on it.

Tug said...

Weird. I've never heard of anything like it either, but I have heard of spider bites that get real nasty - usually not months later though. Much luck, and I hope Shane heals up & feel better soon!

Unknown said...

weird.. I hope your toe starts feeling better :)

Annie Jones said...

Tug: If there's something weird that can happen, it happens to us. ;)

Brandi: Thanks for dropping in! I subscribed to your blog and will be back to look around soon. :)

Sheila said...

Strange... Hope it gets better soon. I would wait on the antibiotics too.

Annie Jones said...

Sheila: I did get the Rx filled, mostly because it was a $2 Rx that netted me a $20 gift card to the grocery store where I filled it. :)

But I will wait until I get my test results. It's a bad idea to take antibiotics if they aren't needed, but also, this is a tricky one that needs to be timed around other meds and calcium, so I'd rather not bother with it until/unless I must.