nasty bug bite

tink23

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Jul 15, 2008
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Hi there,

I'm living in Puerto Plata and 2 nights ago I noticed I had this bug bite on my leg. It looked like a little ant bite which I had had before so I just popped the tiny little puss bubble (gross, i know... sorry) like I had before, expecting it to just go away but now it has grown into this big ball on the side of my calf that is hard and red and very tender. I look at it now and it looks like there are 2 little holes, so maybe it was a spider bite, but I never felt or saw anything... So I was told by some people that I just have to wait it out. That in a couple days it should get softer and then I should be able to squeeze whatever is in there, out... I would like to avoid going to the doctor or pharmacy here if it won't be dangerous, because I am going home to visit in Canada in 6 days and so I can get it looked at there for free...

I'm sure a lot of you have experience with this, and so I was wondering if it's alright to just wait it out and let the bite run it's course, or if I should go and see a doctor... It's red, hard, and about the width of a tennis ball, but the height of it is only a cm or 2....

Thanks for your help.
 

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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Hi there,

I'm living in Puerto Plata and 2 nights ago I noticed I had this bug bite on my leg. It looked like a little ant bite which I had had before so I just popped the tiny little puss bubble (gross, i know... sorry) like I had before, expecting it to just go away but now it has grown into this big ball on the side of my calf that is hard and red and very tender. I look at it now and it looks like there are 2 little holes, so maybe it was a spider bite, but I never felt or saw anything... So I was told by some people that I just have to wait it out. That in a couple days it should get softer and then I should be able to squeeze whatever is in there, out... I would like to avoid going to the doctor or pharmacy here if it won't be dangerous, because I am going home to visit in Canada in 6 days and so I can get it looked at there for free...

I'm sure a lot of you have experience with this, and so I was wondering if it's alright to just wait it out and let the bite run it's course, or if I should go and see a doctor... It's red, hard, and about the width of a tennis ball, but the height of it is only a cm or 2....

Thanks for your help.

We can all speculate for you..... but the answer is that... YES.. it could be dangerous.. it could be a brown recluse bite It could be Lymes

There is an American expression which I am sure that you probably use in Canada as well since it is British..

Do NOT BE "penny wise and pound foolish"

Go to the doctor here and now.. because the doctors here are familiar with ALL the bugs and all the bites and all the best remedies...

We would hate for you to get home and be paralysed or have to have your leg amputated or whatever.

That sort of thing is just TERRIBLE for our tourism business.....

?PLEASE TAKE the bitten leg down to the best clinic tomorrow and pay the few hundred pesos that it is going to cost you for the medicine.

It will probably be cheaper than eating lunch out.
 
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Aug 21, 2007
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Good advice from Mountainannie. I had something a couple of years ago that I would describe exactly as you did. The big bump became an open wound. It grew larger and larger. When I finally went to the doctor, I was told I had cellulitis. The open wound took 2 months to heal, cost much in shots and antibiotics, and precluded my taking a planned trip to west Africa. So- my advice is to take care of business, Tink23. You will be glad you did.

Lindsey
 
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mike l

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I have had this and it was a spider bite that lingered until I found out about Dermobiotic which can be purchased over the counter here in the dr...it took 30 days of daily applications
 

dv8

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go to any clinic in POP (brugal, bournigal, hernandez), the visit should be about 500 pesos or so. when doctor prescribes you anything ask in the farmacia if they have a generic version of a drug - will be way cheaper.
 

mike l

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Sep 4, 2007
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The one I had was the size of ( inbetween a quarter and a half dollar) not a tennis ball

Always see a doctor though if you have other syptoms like fever etc.

I was just in the hospital for some kind of leg infection and even though i have not had to take any medication for 10 days my leg swells 40% during the day and goes back to normal in the morning.

I was told to expect this for 3 weeks however the swelling is down significantly after 1 week

I also experienced side effects from the medicine

This place is definately different as I have spent the last 27 years living in sub-tropical
climate
 

jrhartley

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..........to the centipede suggestion.........I think the person would know if they were bitten by a centipede

even moquito bites grow three times the size if you touch them- best not to pop or squeeze anything
 
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Santiagoguy

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I had the eact same thiong happn in February...EXACTLY the same s u decribe it.. it lasted3 days an was looking real bad until my gf rubbed some MENTOL on it tweice one day and it went away
 

Fiesta Mama

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Jan 28, 2004
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That sort of thing is just TERRIBLE for our tourism business.....

?PLEASE TAKE the bitten leg down to the best clinic tomorrow and pay the few hundred pesos that it is going to cost you for the medicine.

All good advice from mountainannie except for worrying about the fallout on the tourism industry! Although it may be true, I really don't think the OP should be worried about what the press will do with such a situation.

Anyway, definitely get treatment. I burned my leg there once on the muffler of a pasola and my husband's grandmother treated it with tomato paste! I'm sure it works sometimes but I ended up getting an infection and it took two months of meds and cream for me to get over it as opposed to probably a week or so if I had treated it properly from the beginning.

Another point that others have made is that the doctors there will likely know what it is. There is a good chance that doctors in Canada will not be familiar with whatever it is and it could take even longer to treat by trial and error if they are not sure!
 

Hillbilly

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Get some antibiotic creme at a Farmacia...apply it.
Apply hot compresses. Keep it clean.

This can be serious sh!t...no kidding...

If it becomes MRSA you are in for a serious bout of curing.

Becareful and do not brush it off like a big macho....Cobraboy is a big macho and he got really wolloped by this sort of thing.

HB--did I mention "DOCTOR"????
 

jd426

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If it is MRSA (which I have had) it is extremely dangerous and requires special antibiotics ASAP. You need to have a cuture done to determine this Do not assume its only a bug bite & do not play games with this(from the sound of its size) , cause it can kill you. Anyone who works in a hospital will tell you. Its been a huge problem in the last couple years, easily spread by not only body contact but even touching an infected object and then rubbing / scratching on an open wound area on your body, thats how it gets inside. You may have had a bugbite and then infected it with MRSA which you contracted somewhere else.
Do some re search online.
 

tink23

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Jul 15, 2008
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Hi again everyone.

I'm happy to report that the bite has gone way way down in size and is looking much much better. I have some crema tropic and some amoxocilan (spelling.... just generic anti-biotics) and the redness has shrunk to just the area of the puncture wound. 10 times better than yesterday. It is also not nearly as tender as it was last night. I will keep up with what I have been doing and hopefully in a few days it will be completely healed. Thank you for your advice.

I was a little worried about celulitis because once last when I returned home from the island I had a couple bad mosquito bites on my hips, which became infected because my pants were constantly rubbing on them and I was showing the beginning signs of celulitis... When that was the case the doctor prescribed the same things I'm using now, so hopefully all is good.

thanks again for your advice. I appreciate it.
 

mountainannie

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Dec 11, 2003
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Yes, well you are welcome!

Hi again everyone.

I'm happy to report that the bite has gone way way down in size and is looking much much better. I have some crema tropic and some amoxocilan (spelling.... just generic anti-biotics) and the redness has shrunk to just the area of the puncture wound. 10 times better than yesterday. It is also not nearly as tender as it was last night. I will keep up with what I have been doing and hopefully in a few days it will be completely healed. Thank you for your advice.

I was a little worried about celulitis because once last when I returned home from the island I had a couple bad mosquito bites on my hips, which became infected because my pants were constantly rubbing on them and I was showing the beginning signs of celulitis... When that was the case the doctor prescribed the same things I'm using now, so hopefully all is good.

thanks again for your advice. I appreciate it.


I can only wonder HOW much you appreciated it since almost every single one of us said "GET TO A DOCTOR!"

and now you are saying.. well, no, it is really just so very much better with the cream that your doctor prescribed for SOMETHING last time?

ok.. guess there was no point in our posting.

we are hoping that you are right.. and that it is not just something that is burrowing into your bloodstream
 

La Mariposa

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Jun 4, 2004
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Get some antibiotic creme at a Farmacia...apply it.
Apply hot compresses. Keep it clean.

This can be serious sh!t...no kidding...

If it becomes MRSA you are in for a serious bout of curing.

Becareful and do not brush it off like a big macho....Cobraboy is a big macho and he got really wolloped by this sort of thing.

HB--did I mention "DOCTOR"????
What's MRSA ??
 

belgiank

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Jun 13, 2009
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not a joke, although it may seem that way... the most famous hairdresser in Belgium (did all the celebrities) died of this bacteria after months of pain and coma...
 
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