If i upload a picture of one of three fairly gruesome bug bites i have (will be work safe, it's not on my hootus or anything), would anyone be able to identify and tell me if i should go to the doctor before i have to have my legs amputated?
I've never had anything like this and there seems to be small "trails" traveling out from there.
Or maybe i'm just becoming a zombie.
Trails are bad. That usually means it's badly infected.
Small trails indicates an infection. Which means get yoself to the doctor. Sooner rather than later. As in, finish the phone call you're on then excuse yourself from work and go to the hospital.
It is likely minor, and may even cure itself, but the potential impact is extremely high and not unlikely. Literally lose your leg high.
Before you go to the hospital... can you post pics to entertain us?
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Before you go to the hospital... can you post pics to entertain us?
Absolutely!
The first two are the worst, crazy itchy and i've been really good about not scratching them, but they don't seem to be healing at all. First noticed them on Sunday night. Pretty hard-feeling mass under the skin, painful when compressed.
The last one seems to be healing on its own a bit. Doesn't itch much, doesn't have much inflammation.
Numbers 2 and 3 have the small "trail" i was talking about.
WTF by concealer404, on Flickr
WTFF by concealer404, on Flickr
WTFFF by concealer404, on Flickr
squeeze out the pus and pour some vodka on it.. It'll be fine.
Also.. don't listen to me.
Hrmmm... I'm no doctor but I'd bite down on a rope and poke-with-razor/pop-like-a-zit, wash with soap and fill with neosporin.
If you die, I was wrong.
Don't waste the vodka by pouring it on the wounds. Drink it and do what GPS says.
I'm 99% sure it's nothing terrible, but SWMBO is freaking out because she was bit by a Brown Recluse as a child, and isn't into bionic husband action.
Also: You guys like my painfully white legs?
Swank Force One wrote: Also: You guys like my painfully white legs?
Cannot fap.
Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote:Swank Force One wrote: Also: You guys like my painfully white legs?Cannot fap.
completion.
I'd get to the doc, but I want to see a pic too.
While in college I pulled a tick off the inside of my calf, I've had hundreds of tick bites over the years, but this one made the dreaded bulls eye red rash around it. Freaked me out, my dad suffers from Lyme disease so I knew what was at stake.
I got to the doctor right away, at first the nurse that saw me couldn't have cared less about me being there, or the fact that some college kid was wasting her time with a silly little tick bite. Then I pulled my pants leg up to show her the bite/rash and the look on her face was priceless (a little concerning at the time, but funny thinking back on it) it was very much a "holly E36 M3," look if I've ever seen one. Her attitude changed, she drew about all the blood I had, and the doc ran and/or sent off for all kinds of tests.
I got lucky, tested negative for Lyme, Rocky Mountain, etc. The Dr.'s decided with my mild flu-ish symptoms, and the rash that it was Southern Tick Associated Rash Illness (STARI). Which was neat for them because I was their first STARI, 10 days of antibiotics and I was back to normal.
Long anecdote to say, GO TO THE DOCTOR, maybe you can surprise a nurse, and be a first too.
Iggy clearly more dedicated than GPS. Not sure if i'm creeped out or honored.
Ignore them. They're below the knee so at worst you'll get a bitchin' peg. Tell women you lost it to pirates.
Those don't look like Brown Recluse or black widow bites to me. They look kind of like tick bites, but you didn't say you pulled any ticks off, so...
The "trail" almost looks like poison ivy rash.
spitfirebill wrote: Those don't look like Brown Recluse or black widow bites to me. They look kind of like tick bites, but you didn't say you pulled any ticks off, so... The "trail" almost looks like poison ivy rash.
I didn't pull any ticks off, didn't walk in any poison ivy that i know of.
I was in TN/NC Smokies this past weekend, but wore jeans the whole time and didn't really do any walking around in underbrush. Don't remember anything biting me at all, really. I have no other bites/rash anywhere else on my body, even my arms or neck, which were exposed the whole time.
Swank Force One wrote: Iggy clearly more dedicated than GPS. Not sure if i'm creeped out or honored.
I'm more of a boob than leg man... your bug bite when zoomed in.. well.. lets just say..
In honor of Canada day, this is how I feel about this thread:
because. Eww.
I'm not trying to judge you or anything, but it's pretty obvious you need to do a better job shaving those legs!
Chigger bites that have been scratched.
^not my leg
I do have similar bites up both legs, at first I thought mosquito. But after the 2nd day of intense itching I'm sure it was chiggers from cleaning out overgrowth at my mom's house in shorts. They concentrated around my sock line and I had a couple on the back of one knee.
I wouldn't go to a doctor for that
Chiggers would make sense... that have that anticoagulant deal that results in pooling, which would explain why the hard/swollen mass underneath is bigger than "normal" compared to a skeeter. And they're all over the place down where i was.
Basically... ride it out and see if they get any worse over the next couple days? I'm all for seeing a doctor, but i also like to do my part and not go to the ER/Urgent Care for stupid crap.
I usually just stick a knife in um.
I reserve this spot for a photo I need to upload from my home computer. 
I saw no "doctor type" opinions here...... 
I'm gonna vote "chigger" on this one and say that you'll be fine without medical treatment in a week.
If the "trails" start to grow significantly or the bites turn black in the middle then go but otherwise you'll be fine. Hydrocortizone cream for the itching.
<---army medic, not a doctor
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