black widow bite survivors?

Hello out there.

i was bitten by a black widow about 2.5 weeks ago. i was wondering if anyone here has been bitten. and if they could share their stories of recovery?

there is not much accurate info online, and very little stories of the long-term effects. any thoughts from survivors would be appreciated.

be well,
sage

(typing one handed while nursing. )

wow, I dont know anyone who has been bitten, but I have always been very curoius about the effects of black widow bites myself.
would you care to describe more about your bite and symptoms? What have you learned about the toxins effects on the body?

I wish you well in your recovery, speedy healing.

My experience has included:

First, I want to note that I caught and identified the spider, AND had an obvious bite site reaction that i will add a picture of.

> Extreme fever within the first 12 hours... lasting for 4 days. (got to 104.2 and DR recommended acetaminophen to bring it down to prevent brain damage)
{I don't usually use any kind of pharmaceutical}
> Muscle aches all over my body from my toes cramping to the top of my head throbbing with pain at every movement.
> "Tetanus-Like symptoms" 48 hours after the bite. (This included my spine stiffening/arching, jaw clenching, and foaming at the mouth)
> The fever was done on day 4 and left behind severe migraines. Electric shock was attempted on day 5, and *did* stop the migraine. http://venomshock.wikidot.com/
> Circle-shaped rash-like patches all over my body, ranging in size from "apple" to "basketball"
> Swollen eyelids from day 6-present (day 18 at this posting)
> Nerve pain that began to be noticed on day 4 when i stopped taking the pills to reduce the fever. The pain is intense, systemic, increases in intensity with movement/activity, seems to be centered in the same areas as the red circles, and responds well to anti-inflammatory meds.

Part of my reason for starting this thread, and for posting my symptoms here is to see if others have different information that I have been given. The information I have ranges from "the venom is out of your system in 3 days" to "it could take weeks to recover" to "it could take 18 months" ... and I want to know what other people have experienced.
Most research I have done says that most adults don't respond at all to the venom, save for the uncomfortable bite location and possible fever for a day or so. Since, for me, these are all new symptoms and it came right after I was bitten, I assume those two things are related. no one (medical professional or otherwise) is really giving me good information, and i just wanted to hear from someone else what it was like for them.

Sage Boyd, whatever happened with your bite? I have the same problem. Got bit, got treated with steroids and antibiotics, seemed to go away, and now a month later--it looks just like yours and it hurts again! I don't even know where to go to find help??? Thank you!

I don't have any experience with black widow bites, but when I had a brown recluse bite the necrosis stopped spreading immediately when I took a oral dose of Echinacea. Poking around online I see it also recommended for snake and hobo spider bites.

Does anyone here know of any reason it might hurt to try here?

I've not been bitten but my mom used to keep a tube of Ichthammol Ointment for everything from splinters to spider bites. It's very disgusting and smells awful! Every time a bug got us, out came the disgusting black salve. You can get it at most pharmacies via special order but our CVS carried it.

I was told that this is a black widow spider web.   They apparently create their webs about 2' from the ground.

I have seen them on my front porch and had them a few times inside my home.   Not recently though.   Outside I view them as bug control, inside I view them as unwelcome visitors worth of instant death by foot mashing.

Most of the black widows I've come across were in dark crevices and quite well hidden. I've never seen one in a web out in the open like that (not doubting it can happen though). My beehives seem to be black widow magnets. We had huge losses of hives last year and while going through the yard to clean up empty boxes, we must have killed 30 of them. They like the cracks in between the frames and underneath the pallets the hives were sitting on. We also had some hives on cinderblocks and a couple had black widows living in the holes. I had even carried a few of those cinderblocks, with my hands in the holes and no gloves, before realizing who was inhabiting them! Luckily I haven't been bit yet and I wear gloves anytime I'm messing with the bee equipment now.

I have read recently that activated charcoal is a great way to stop the poison from spreading, for any kind of spider/bug bite. Sounded like it should be used fairly quickly after the bite though. I did read this on a site that was selling the stuff so take that as you will. I tested it with some yellow fly bites my boyfriend got and he claims it works well. He usually get really bad reactions from them so that is promising...

I should have mentioned it was not out in the open until I moved the garbage can you see at the bottom left.   I rotate my poop cans in March, and that spot had a garbage can in front it that sat for 3 years undisturbed.   And there is a crevice behind it that could easily hide spiders.  

I lived amongst a tremendous population of black widows for a few years.  First, the web is characterized by a "chaotic" pattern, odd zigs and zags that look disorganized.  I have never seen one similar to the picture posted above.  Often you don't see much of a web because it is tucked away into a crevace.  I have seen them mostly up high or in dark corners, under box flaps that haven't been moved in a long time, and twice on gate/ door latches (that oddly were very often used and yet the spider didn't seem to mind).  Most black widows will not bite, in my experience, though obviously they can and they do much damage.  One gate latch experience involved a garden gate accessed multiple times a day.  (These stories make us seem like weirdos for living so closely with the spiders, but this was a very buggy place and spiders are good bug control!) My daughter had tied a piece of cloth on the gate that had to be pushed out of the way to unlatch the gate.  We had noticed a spider but didn't pay it much attention because it ran into a crevace when we moved the cloth.  We eventually realized it was a black widow and killed it.  Another similar story was a storm door.  That spider definitely touched my hand more than once when I would forget about it.  Again, eventually realized what it was and killed it.  Another time, we were moving heavy boxes and when my husband set his down, he realized he had carried this box with his hand a couple inches from the black widow.  We literally saw hundreds of black widows, a couple dozen living on our seldom used front porch, and never were bitten.  This is not at all to diminish the experience of the posters who were bitten!  I would love to hear an update on that, as well as details on how they were bitten!  But my point is that they aren't generally terrifying creatures.  Wear gloves when handling areas that aren't accessed often (garages, attics) and don't be a moron like we were and let spiders live in places you do touch often.  If you live in a place prone to them, I wouldn't have pillows on your porch furniture. Knock out your shoes before you put them on.  They aren't likely to seek you out.  

That looks like a typical wolf spider web.  Well we called them wolf spider when we were kids.  That is not a black widow web. The web layed in almost a matt formation with a tunnel in the back is
hunting spider type web.  Pretty harmless.  I have lived in Ohio and in Arkansas. I don't see black widows so much in Ohio, but I did see them a lot in Arkansas. Also had a lot of brown recluse in
Arkansas along with tarantulas and scorpions.  

My ex's brother was bitten a few years ago. He had the tetanus-like symptoms almost immediately, from what I understand. Most of what he remembers about the experience was laying in the ER with everything locking up, having extremely painful muscle cramps and seeing all these different people enter his room while he was waiting to receive the anti-venom. He realized later that it was all the residents/interns being trotted through to see what a black widow patient looked like! As far as I know, he hasn't had any lingering after-effects from the whole experience (and I've been told he can be a whiner so if there was anything bothering him months down the road, we'd all hear about it...)

My nephew got bitten by one (however he didn't see it at the bite time, but saw them around), and he had fever for a few days with diarrhea. He didn't go to the doctor. Then he came over and the bite spot was pretty deep,  like a small hole. It was on his leg and he had trouble walking. I had DMSO on hand, so I put some oregano oil on it with DMSO on top (DMSO is healing on its own, but it also helps to carry deep into the tissues whatever happens to be there.) Then I gave him some immune herbs (Echinacea, usnea and possibly others) and told him to take lots of vitamin c. Not sure how much he continued with, but a week later I asked him about it, and he said everything was good. The hole would indicate recluse spider, but we do not have them in California.
 I would say one has to take strong immune system herbs in large amounts every few minutes at first, then every half an hour, then an hour, etc. Charcoal too immediately, that's why it is good to have activated charcoal powder on hand.

Dr. Patrick Jones is awesome! He gave an unbelievable presentation that I attended recently. In it he spoke about spider bites. He is getting over an illness himself currently, but maybe you can look him up and shoot him an email. His website is HomeGrownHerbalist.net you can copy and paste that or just CLICK HERE to be redirected to his contact page. I sure do wish you good luck!

Sorry to chime in late. I've been wrassling a ruptured appendix...I won.  

Black widow bites have a very different toxin than brown recluse or hobo spiders. However, the formula in the slide above is still very beneficial topically as a poultice and internally. The herbs are mixed in equal parts. I have adults take 2 teaspoons of the combination 3 times daily for about a week or so. Mixing the herbs with some water and slapping them on a a poultice is good too. I change the poultice 2 or 3 times a day and do it until it has looked good for a couple of days (black widows don't generally cause any tissue loss like the recluse and hobos can).

Patrick

I took a nasty spider bite a few years back in Brazil, the flesh around the area literally rotted away and a bit like the picture, I was basically raw down to the bone. Immensely painful.

Enrico Caballero wrote:I took a nasty spider bite a few years back in Brazil, the flesh around the area literally rotted away and a bit like the picture, I was basically raw down to the bone. Immensely painful.

Hey Enrico,
What ever happened? I mean like how did it heal? What treatments did they put you through? How does it look now? Did you know as soon as it happened? I'm curious! (...if you don't mind of course.)

An "internet friend" of mine died from complications from a brown recluse bite a few years ago.  If you have ever watched "Over The Top" with Sly Stallone, it was the big Samoan guy in the movie.

I think I was bit by a black widow. We have tons of them in the yard and have had for years. Generally, they’re not a problem.

I was cutting saplings that had sprouted from one of our trees.  They were tall and entangled with some of the tree’s branches. The spider must have fallen into my shirt.

A few hours later, I felt back pain. I thought maybe I twisted my back while working. My back and hip muscles felt stiff. I took Advil and went to bed.

The next day, the pain was worse. Again, I thought I twisted my back, but I noticed numbness.  It was slight, but it radiated from my lower back, across my abdomen toward my belly button, and also down into my hip and even a bit down my leg.

By that night (more than 24 hours later), I noticed there was a rash. When I climbed up on my bathroom counter, it looked like 4 distinct spider bites and a bit of surrounding redness. They seemed to be around where the waistband of my shorts had been.

We’ve had smoke warnings due to wild fires. I’d had trouble breathing. My stomach felt queasy, but U’d been in pain.

I started adding it all up and suspecting a black widow bite.

I’m about 10 days out now. The muscle paralysis is gone. The numbness is mostly gone. The tight chest and queasy feeling gone. At the one week mark, the pain receded to just the bite marks, but intensified. The rash isn’t spreading. It seems slightly better.

Yesterday, the pain felt less deep, but the pain is still intense and nervy. The think I can best liken it to is a bad burn.

Today, the pain still seems less deep, still intense. It comes in waves, sometimes causes a slight muscle spasm. It’s worse at night, super itchy (but painful to scratch).  The only thing that seems to give me relief is Advil.

I’ve been looking online to see if I can find others with similar experiences to get a sense of how long I can expect this to last.

For me-
1)  Immediate pain at site of bite preventing sleep and increasing.
2)  About 12 hrs. later chills and pain in all joints.  By 15 hrs. post-bite, burning at bite site and joint pain was so severe, I went to ER.  Treated with Toredol IV to relieve pain. Some improvement from pain of 9.5 out of 10 to 7.  Note:  comparable to when I had burst appendix.  Worse than childbirth. After treatment they planned to release me.  Doc said anti-venin had dangerous side effects and did not prescribe.  I said pain was still too intense to possibly sleep and was given a Norco pill.  Pain persisted.
3)  Managed to fall asleep but woke approx.  hourly having to pee and lacking bladder control.  This iccurred 5-6 times.
4) Day 2 -  Joint pain and burning decreased.  Then started intense itching from head (as if I had fleas or lice) to bottoms of feet to nipples to stomach and other random sites.  Chills continued.  Kept taking max recommended doses of Tylenol alternating with ibuprofen for some relief.  
5) Day 3 -  Itching reduced, and pain only sporadic at bite site.  But now starts constant cold sweating of legs which causes more chills.
6) Day 4 - Mild itching, but near constant sweating continues limited to both legs from knee down.  ( I was bit on right foot.)  Have fever of 100 deg. F and chills at 9:30 p.m. and have to take more Tylenol.  But overall better day.  Was out of bed for about 3 hrs.
7)  Tomorrow- day 5.  Who knows?  Don't let anyone tell you black widow bites are no big deal.  Spider was in my boot and very threatened and likely bit multiple times and/or injected a lot of venom.  Venom is nasty.

I get bitten by black widow spiders two or three times a year.  They live in my woodpile and basement.  

There are many different types of spiders under that category.  The local ones cause muscle cramping.  Mostly stomach cramps, akin to eating bad prawns.  It also happens like a charlie horse or leg cramps.  It goes away after a few days.

If a person is frail, it can cramp worse areas like lungs and heart muscles.  This is where it gets deadly.  

Like I said, there are many varieties of Black Widow.  Different locations, time of year, weather patterns, age and size of spider (hint, smaller the spider, the worse the symptoms), not to mention the condition of the human, all effect how the bite will act.  In some varieties, the males have no poison, but the bite is more prone to infection.  

Personally, I find the hobo and wolf spider bites to be worse as they go necrotic in the middle (the skin and flesh die off) before healing over.  It leaves a permanent spot, about 1mm, where I don't have good nerve sensation.   These two spiders are much more common in the normal house in this part of the world.  

If you live somewhere where the poison in spiders is strong, the hospital will have antivenom for that spider type.  

It sounds almost like you had a secondary infection.  Pretty serious symptoms.  Did you go to the hospital?  

I was bit on the back of the leg. I thought it was a thron or sticker that stabbed me at first. I was doing yoga on my floor. I just shook it off. About an hour later I started to feel bad so I laid down. In the early morning hours I woke up with excruciating all over pain. I was doubled up in the fetal position  when I had to have a family member take me to the emergency room. My fever had spiked, the muscle pain was like nothing I'd ever felt, my stomach was in knots, I was in tears. We didn't know what was going on at the time. My blood pressure was up, my heart rate was high and then I started vomiting. Like, projectile "I'm pretty sure I'm dying" vomiting. I was screaming for the doctor to help me. Then, (this part is embarrassing) it started coming out of both ends right there in front of everyone. There was absolutely zero control. After hours of this and many tests run the doctor said it looked like I'd been bit by a black widow. He gave me meds (it's kind of blur after the pain meds) then kept me for a few days. Once I was released from the hospital, I made it back home all gingerly. Low and behold, there it was, the black widow spider right there in my dinning room where I had been doing yoga. I had to stay on pain meds for a couple of weeks due to the massive muscle pain. It's been 11 years now, since I was bit. Once I finally recovered, I've felt no other effects.

This makes me extra glad we found and killed the one black widow we found inside. Over the years we've continued to use echinacea root on additional recluse bites.I don't know how that could work if you were also vomiting.   Maybe in a less severe reaction.   I wonder if there's some kind of topical application for echinacea?  Outside of the recluse bites I've never found the bite until after I had stopped reacting so I have never tested echinacea on any other species.   Only muscle aches and nausea that doesn't result in vomiting from the other bites so I doubt it was anything very venomous.   One time I did find a common house spider in my bed.  It's one of the rare times I killed the spider.