Sneaky spiders

When I awoke one day to find that the skin on my right middle knuckle was tough and irritated, I thought nothing of it.

Mosquito bite. Nothing more.

I had been night-fishing the night before, and I was sure nothing had crawled onto me in my sleep.

The next day, it began to swell a bit, but not to the point that I was alarmed.

The point here: Don't be like me. Be alarmed. Go to a doctor.

Another day passed, and the last thought that came to my mind was that I had been bitten by a spider. As the swelling peaked, I actually looked at my knuckle and was intrigued. Again, not the smartest reaction. At the same time, I knew that if it had been one of the two main types of venomous Florida spiders - the widow or recluse - I would have been in much worse shape.

As I looked closer, I could see two small, brown dots, about a quarter-inch apart. Had to be scars from spider fangs.

I went online and performed a search for 'Natural Spider Bite Remedies.' Two came up that received a lot of positive feedback. There was advice that you could make an incision directly on the bite and hold a piece of sliced potato on the wound, the idea being that the starch from the potato would draw the venom out.

I tried this, became impatient with the results, and went on to another possible remedy. I simply ran hot water over the bite, and poured salt over the wound. I let the salt sit for 10 minutes, and rinsed it off. That's an old-time remedy, and after I did this, my knuckle ceased to squeak. (Really - I would hold the knuckle to my ear, and when I opened and closed my hand, the joint squeaked. Not good.)

I did the salt remedy day after day, and finally, the swelling went down, and the joint stopped squeaking. Oddly enough, there remained something in my knuckle, maybe a quarter-inch long, that resembled a fang. I considered seeing a doctor for this, but I figured I'd just be doling out money to hear the words: "You're OK. It will go away naturally."

And it did. As time passed, this "thing" in my knuckle apparently disintegrated. The skin on my knuckle became dry and flaky for a couple days.

People who are engaged in activities where they cannot see where their hands are going (lifting boards, reaching into storage boxes, etc.) should wear gloves. Take it from me, that includes fishermen.