3 Things to avoid

The Rattle Snake bite, Black Stiletto bite, and a bite from the Brown Recluse Spider.

On animal planet last night there was a show on called 'I've Been Bitten'.

(I was going to post some pictures of the individual bites, but it is way too gross).

The show is pretty self explanatory, it has people on there who have been bitten by various things and the trauma and injuries they sustain with some actual footage included.

The first guy saw a rattle snake on the road and he and his buddy decided they should keep it. The one guy grabbed it by the tail (because he didn't think it could rear up and bit him--I know, right? Hasn't this guy ever watched the Crocodile Hunter?), and put it in a plastic bad and threw it in the back of the truck. Did they seal the bag? Nah...it won't get out...just gave it a few twists and that was that. In about a minute the snake was out of the bag and roaming around the back of the pickup in an agitated state.. The next part was a bit unclear...I am not sure if he was riding in the back of the truck with the snake or not, but either way, he decided to pick the snake up again, but this time much closer to the head, but again, not all the way to the head. The snake had had enough at this point, reared back and planted his fangs into the back of his hand. How terrifying. Not only did it bite him, but it had to be pried off because it really latched on. Man, I come right unglued when a grasshopper sticks to me, let alone a rattle snake.

Once the snake was removed, all the guy had was 2 little dots of blood on his hand so he didn't think much of it. Being that they were 40 minutes from the ranger station, he started to feel worse on the drive. He started to have trouble breathing, tingling in his muscles and his hand started to swell up.

By the time the paramedics got to him, his throat was all but shut and they were having trouble intibating him so they had to perform a tracheotomy. His hand, arm, chest, throat and face were now swollen beyond the point of recognition. The arm swelled up so badly the doctors were afraid of some kind of syndrome where basically the arm might pop so they had to slice it open to releave the pressure. When it was all said and done, he had to have multiple skin grafs and his arm is permanently disfigured and has reduced range of motion in his hand and arm. The whole thing was gripping and tough to watch...so I watched the rest of the show.

The Brown Recluse spider is very poisonous yet only transfers a very small amount of venom and will only bite when it gets swished or threatened. This spider is found in the southwest, midwest and has NOT established itself in California (don't think for two seconds that I didn't immediately find out where these little suckers lived). The guy who got bit was in bed, reached for his blanket that was on the floor and which the spider was mixed up in. He felt something crawling up his leg, smacked at it and then felt the pinch immediately after. Initially he had some swelling, but nothing major. The next day, it got worse, and worse, and worse again. Eventually doctors had to remove a 12 " diamater section of his leg to dispose of all the poisoned flesh.

The Stiletto snake bite is another one you don't want to mess with. The guy who got bit by this nearly had his thumb rot off. Part of the venom that this snake releases is a digestive enzyme and it literally 'ate' a large portion of this guys' thumb. The doctor didn't think amputation was going to be necessary because he felt there would be live flesh underneat the surface. When he stripped back the layers, he found a bone that was, in fact, being digested.

Fortunately, he was able to save most of his thumb, but here is the weird part: the guy had his thumb sewn into his groin for three weeks in order to aid the skin grafting. The thumb was so badly damaged and needed so much flesh, sewing it into the groin area would help that skin and flesh attach to the thumb more readily. They showed a picture of it but I couldn't figure out what part the thumb was sewn into. It looked like he was all shaved 'downtown', and the thumb was sewn into the portion just inside of the inner groin. That bit, however, tends to grow hair. My question is this: if the skin regenerates there, and now it becomes part of his thumb, will the folicles go with the skin, and if it does, will his thumb start to grow pubic hair?

There should really be a follow up on that part. Inquiring minds want to know.