Because bugs aren't just for breakfast anymore...

Many people have heard rumors that Poecilitheria species have particularly 'hot' venom. I have always treated such reports and the anecdotal accounts that exist with suspicion. A long time ago I determined that if I were ever bitten by one, that I would keep a detailed journal documenting the full range of my symptoms and emotions. I did not know if I would ever have occasion to do so, and I certainly did not expect to do so soon, nor did I anticipate the content of the entries in the journal that follows.

January 30, 2003, 2:12 a.m. 

I just went into the tarantula room to pick up a Poecilitheria to refresh my memory on the color band variations to assist a client. The first one I picked up I thought was the most calm about it that I have ever seen because she was completely motionless and compliant. As I looked at her, even though she had not moved, the thought flashed before me,'I am about to get nailed by my first Pokie'. And I was. Maximum injection as evidenced by the surprising amount of venom running down my finger and squeezed from the wound. People say that these things are especially 'hot'. They weren't kidding. I've been stung by scorpion species that have killed people, so I have a base of comparison, and what I am feeling now is wondrous, enormous pain. I now own a large, purple finger and both the purple and the swelling are traveling fairly quickly down my hand. A few minutes have passed. The finger is swelled beyond anything I recall seeing since a cat bite as a teen that put me in the hospital for a week. The finger is now incapable of motion and remains quite painful though the pain is slightly less. I am still grimacing and grunting from time to time. Not only is the bitten index finger swelled by 50%, but so is the upper pad on the palm. The middle finger is now partially swollen and immobile as well. Holding it downward is very painful compared to holding it elevated, but elevation does not seem like a wise thing to do from the perspective of distribution of the venom through the blood stream. The pain just suddenly got worse, and is alternating off and on so that it feels like she is still biting me only worse. I am thinking that this throbbing is a result of the swelling and am keeping a close eye on it. Thus far, the symptoms are completely limited to my hand, and at the moment either relief of swelling or the application of a healthy dose of painkillers are the only possible reasons for a trip to the hospital. I keep interrupting my typing to pace from room to room. Wow, that hand has become warm. The index finger is now capable only of flexing approximately 1/3 inch arc at the tip. The pain keeps increasing because now I can feel it in the joints too, including the socket at the base of the thumb. Any part of the hand that does not simply hurt like hell tingles as if asleep. Yet somehow, I have the feeling that this thing is nearing a stage of containment despite the fact that it is still progressing. Despite anecdotal reports of a bitten individual falling into a coma from such a bite I feel that there will be no such thing today and my long held belief that the earlier case was aggravated by other conditions, if it happened at all, is being bolstered, though certainly no two individuals react the same. They say we get what we ask for and it is kind of funny, because while thinking about how I might 'top' myself should I make it to Carlsbad this year, I had considered ending my frustration with the severity of Pokie bites question and put on a show by allowing myself to be bitten intentionally. I got stung by a Centruroides exilicauda scorpion at the show once (though not intentional) and rather blandly reported its effects from time to time. I am now glad that I did no such thing as I would not have wanted anyone to see the look that passed over my face a few times in the last 20 minutes or hear some sounds that I don't recall making before. I am typing one hand now, because the pinky finger of my right hand is now the only one that has not lost most or all of its mobility. I am regretting my vow to record a journal of a Pokie bite should I ever receive one because the action of it is not necessarily improving my experience one bit. I am also glad that there is no alcohol in the house because if there were, it would have been gone 10 minutes ago, and they don't give pain killers to drunks. Finally the pain is starting to lessen a bit but I am sure that there is plenty left to last for days if am lucky. That was an attempt at humor, a sure sign that the vice of pain is loosening its grip. I think I now know how Billy Norton felt upon getting a bite and strong injection from his giant Scolopendra. This female was about 7 inches in legspan, not fully grown but she fired off an injection like a rattlesnake in spring after having saved it up all winter. I am questioning whether my bite does truly answer my questions because in adding a couple inches in legspan, a female P. regalis often adds a considerable amount of bodily girth and corresponding capability to produce larger amounts of venom with possibly more severe symptoms. I am no longer convinced that I wish to answer the question. Time for me to go try to settle down and get some rest if possible. I have no idea how I'm going to pack orders tomorrow.

2:30 a.m. Just checking in for a moment. I noticed that the swelled areas of my right hand are covered with droplets of sweat as if squeezed out from the inside while my left remains quite dry. Too bad that isn't the venom. Wondering if aspirin will be good, bad, or completely futile and immaterial as I suspect. I was wrong about the pain subsiding. Completely wrong.

3:17 a.m. Sleep turned out to be a joke. I laid there for 20 minutes thinking I would actually get some when I realized that my face had been in a grimace and my whole body tense the entire time. I thought taking a hot shower might help. It didn't. I tried cold instead and discovered that very cold water not only dulled the pain considerably, at least until the hand thaws out again, but also temporarily decreased swelling and increased mobility as well. Also, those big green, oversized veins I noticed on the backside of my hand also started moving back in the right direction. Perhaps for today a basin of cold water will be my best friend. My hand is thawing. Time to go. I can't believe this.

4:02 a.m. I got stung by a Centruroides exilicauda once and most of the symptoms were gone in an hour. A sting from a Hadrurus arizonensis hurt a lot more, but in a half hour I was laughing about it and driving Brent nuts squeezing the site of the sting feeling sparks go up my arm with utter astonishment. Once I got bit by an Avicularia versicolor whose egg sac I had just recently removed. She produced another this week by the way. At this point I can't see myself laughing again for hours and possibly days. I need to remember not to handle hot invertebrates late at night because the fact that it is now tomorrow isn't helping any. Note to self: Poecilitheria regalis do not like the 'carapace grip' method of sexing. 

4:30 a.m. I just noticed I got bit on my right hand while I was attempting a grip on the tarantula with my left and realize that though my memory appears to be clear despite lack of sleep and 'other factors' that I have no idea how this came about.


4:45 a.m. I am thinking that if there were a female anywhere in the house that there would be no chance in hell that I'd be sitting here now. I'm also wondering why I dropped the toothpaste in the toilet bowl. Another glimpse of humor, though it is true. Perhaps things are getting a lot better, or is it that I just pulled my hand out of a frigid basin again? Either way, I'll take it.

5:20 a.m. It has now been about three hours elapsed time. Still no sleep. A near frozen hand is tolerable, but a thawed hand is not. I walked 50 feet to the convenience store and the clerk asked me what the heck happened to my hand, so I told him. The clerks there have known me for years, know precisel what I do, and have even had me bring tarantulas into the store. With this track record and it being 4:00a.m., I was not worried about bad publicity for tarantulas. What I was worried about was the 'asleep' feeling in my hand combined with the swelling because I was concerned that it was not receiving sufficient blood flow. Then I realized that it was the worst at the bite site and relatively minimal at the fingertip. If it were circulation, it likely would have been the opposite. What is causing that sensation is likely pressure and partially dissolved nerves. Believe it or not, that is a relief. Mobility is returning,to my other fingers and I have, relatively speaking, much more in my index finger than I had before. This is how I know that barring circulatory complications or secondary infections that the worst is likely past. For this I am glad because what I did not say is that before this happened the pain had first traveled halfway up my forearm. The forearm and wrist are almost as painful as the hand. The only reasons that I think that I was not in a lot more serious trouble are the cold water and some Ibuprofen to reduce the swelling (completely unnoticeable against the pain), keeping it low to prevent spread of the venom despite the fact that this increased the pain greatly, and moving my fingers as much as possible to maintain as much circulation as possible despite again, additional pain.

5:30 a.m. Pain seems to be a recurrent theme here. I have had limbs torn open and tendons sliced in half by accidents with antique aquariums. I have broken once a finger and once a foot when a 20 lb. boulder and a 100 lb. boulder fell on them in mining accidents. And yet the pain of this Poecilitheria bite has me completely dumbfounded because I have never fely anything remotely like it. No doubt the majority of this pain is a direct result of the pressure upon partially dissolved tissues and nerves due to the swelling.

5:45 a.m. A reasonable person likely asked themselves long ago why I did not go to the hospital long ago. The reason is because all they could do is give me something to reduce the swelling, which I have managed instinctively to do, and to give me something for this most unique pain. In other words, nothing would be different except that I would likely beresting relatively comfortably, be in no more or less danger, and we would not have a sorely need, if you will excuse the pun, account of a Poecilitheria bite and its progression, something that I personally have wanted to see for a long, long time. Right now I will recommend two things, don't ever get bitten by a Poecilitheria, and if you do and you think you need to go to the hospital, get your ass out the door. You don't want to possibly go through an experience such as I just have of looking at your own body every few minutes, seeing something new, and wondering,What the hell is that?'. You don't want to watch the veins on the back of your hand double in size, turn an ominous green, and then to watch this freak show slowly travel down your forearm as you wonder if and where it will stop. You want some pain killers so that you'll feel a hell of a lot better in part because of less pain and in part because hopefully you'll be less cognizant of what your eyes are seeing and what it may mean. A person who became comatose from a Poecilitheria bite? I am now a believer. I am fairly convinced this morning that the only thing between myself and something similar was the distance between my elbow and my neck.

6:15 a.m. Four hours elapsed time. I am still gasping periodically from bursts of pain, and my hand is still functionally useless but I am cheering up to some extent because believe it or not that description is of a tremendous improvement. Of couse my arm just came out of a frigid tub too. Sleep is still completely out of the question. I am glad that it was earlier also because if I had been able to sleep as I wanted to I wouldn't have been soaking my hand and would probably have woken up to some very serious trouble. Maybe that is what hospitals are for too, a second set of eyes that never sleep. 

6:20 a.m. I still hurt like hell but it must be a lot less because I am thinking that I have not spent so much time at a sink since my college days. : )

6:26 a.m. What I find most ironic is that I have always doubted the truth of the anecdotal accounts I have seen of Poecilitheria bites, believing that they were prone to exaggeration. Oh, I was SO wrong.

6:30 a.m. I am still hurting like crazy but am once again confident I will be alive this time tomorrow even if I eventually do fall asleep. I am signing off for now. I just finished picking up that Poecilitheria regalis in a carapace grip and observing the color bands as I had originally intended, with the exception that the first time I had the use of both hands. If life thinks it can keep me down, it can just bite me. 

8:00 a.m. I finally relented and sought medical treatment. My suspicions were essentially correct. Not only did I spend a half hour educating the physician on tarantulas and the histories of the few anecdotal accounts of Poecilitheria bites, but in the end the only treatment offered that would be of any use was narcotics for pain relief. Apparently narcotics have met with little success in treating pain related to scorpion stings, but as a tarantula is not a scorpion, the physician was willing to write a prescription so that I might try them. I think that she did so essentially in relief so that she would not have to turn me away having done nothing and having told me nothing that I didn't know already. I was happy to receive the narcotics because even if they only took a slight edge off of the pain this would be a tremendous improvement and the same would be true if they had no effect upon the pain whatsoever but knocked me out and allowed me to sleep. 

9:30 a.m. Wow. Not only is the pain almost entirely gone, but psychologically I am feeling unusually well besides. I am speaking to my mother on the phone and decide against telling her that the reason I think that everything she says today is extremely funny because my body is full of prescription narcotics. Instead, I'll let her think that she's just especially sharp today.

4:32 p.m. I just woke up after sleeping much of the afternoon. I blink, roll over, squeeze my hand, and am amazed at the improvement. Even though by now the narcotics have worn off, the pain has subsided to the level that one might associate with a 'normal' injury. More entire palm is still quite red, the tendons are all very tender, the fingers quite stiff, and there is a feeling that I imagine may be comparable to a bad case of arthritis. But compared to hours earlier and the extent of pain, anticipated injury, and the time that seemed required to recover from both, I am extremely pleased. I am overjoyed.

11:35 p.m. I had gone back to bed and slept again most of the evening. I feel much like I did at 4:30, and the condition of my hand and forearm remains about the same. Apparently I have reached a plateau at which the perception of pain and the extent of actual injury are in good correlation, and I believe that it is from this point from which recuperation will procede at a normal rate as would be associated with any other injury. I just noticed that I am once again typing with both hands. A few odd effects keep showing up from time to time. For example, as I was typing this I yawned and stretched and experienced simultaneous 'Charlie Horse' type muscle cramps in both my arm and lower back, and this cause me to flail about a bit like a drunken dancer before they worked themselves out. But in general, I think that things are well on their way back to normal, or as normal as normal ever is for me. 

January 31, 2003 11:40 p.m. 

It has now been almost 48 hours. Most of the previous 24 hours were spent in fitful sleep.I kept waking up with a strange ball of muscle popping up grotesquely from my chest, a leg hopping around under its own command, a neck muscle bulging out and pulling my head around, etc.. I needed a few things so I walked back over to the convenience store. It felt like I was walking on sharp stones in bare feet and as is the tendons in my legs and feet are too short and are being severely stretched as if used for the first time. I did not expect such systemic symptoms. This morning I was quite nauseous, but at least that has passed, at least for now. Soon I will go to bed again wondering whether I will wake up tomorrow experiencing something completely new that I haven't even thought of, or if tomorrow will be the first of a sequence of ordinary days. I wanted to add that none of this was the tarantula's fault. She didn't ask to be put in any situation, and merely reacted out of fear and the wise instincts of self preservation. Any fault here, if there must be any (I've never been sure quite what purpose 'fault' serves) is entirely my own.

Signing out,
Darrin Vernier
gphx@msn.com