We have three poisonous spiders in Western WA - black widow, brown recluse, and hobo. (yes there are a few others, but typically not in Seattle).

I was bitten about 6 weeks ago, on the inside of the elbow area.

Wound was VERY pronounced (think a popped giant zit) and itched for several days, and then started to heal after about a week. No necrosis of any sort - nor bruising. About a week after that (so two weeks after the bite) I started getting pains in the area of the healed bite. A burning sensation that I can only describe like a lactic acid burn after running that only "hurts" when lifting things.

Pain is in the tissue, not the joint. After about a week of that I had similar sensations in other parts of the arm - down near the wrist, and definitely up in the shoulder. It does impact lifting heavy objects and occasionally grip.

I did speak with my doctor who said that since I did not have any serious reaction to the bite itself and it had (at that time) been about a month since the bite, there was nothing he could do other than prescribe an anti-inflammatory..

So my question is, is it common for "long-term" symptoms to result from a poisonous spider bite?

I am quite certain that you are going to die, eventually

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So my question is, is it common for "long-term" symptoms to result from a poisonous spider bite?

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There can be long term symptoms. Though what you describe sounds odd. If I'm understanding correctly, the pain didn't show up for a few weeks? And there was no discoloration at/around the bite site?

Find another doctor.

What you're describing would be an atypical reaction for sure. Did you actually see the spider bite you? With out seeing and/or collecting the spider or having one of the common systemic reactions you can't call it a presumptive spider bite. It's pretty common for patients to call any solitary painful pustule a spider bite.

I wouldn't begin to try to work through what it could be over the internet and would definitely say that if it's not something that improves pretty rapidly to follow up with your doc

Sounds more like the after-affects of a recluse bite, but I don't know anything about the hobo spider.

I'd get a second opinion.

Did your Doctor rule out the possibility of a bacterial infection like strep or staph?

Oftentimes, the bite can be very similar to those infections and considering you had a very delayed reaction, I would lean towards it being something else.

If it is staph or strep, the swelling and pressure from the wound will probably or extra strain on your nerves that run down your arm which would explain the wrist pain.

The pain in your shoulder could be a number of things but likely because your overcompensating for loss of strength in the forearms with your shoulders and or triceps/biceps.

Not a Dr. but have had plenty of experience with staph (MRSA - that kept coming back despite antibiotics) ... I take baths

ttha_aggie_09 said:

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Did your Doctor rule out the possibility of a bacterial infection like strep or staph?

Oftentimes, the bite can be very similar to those infections and considering you had a very delayed reaction, I would lean towards it being something else.

If it is staph or strep, the swelling and pressure from the wound will probably or extra strain on your nerves that run down your arm which would explain the wrist pain.

The pain in your shoulder could be a number of things but likely because your overcompensating for loss of strength in the forearms with your shoulders and or triceps/biceps.

Not a Dr. but have had plenty of experience with staph (MRSA - that kept coming back despite antibiotics) ... I take baths

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All good points, and no staph was not seriously evaluated although briefly discussed.

I am traveling most of this week, but have a return visit scheduled for Friday.

Hopefully I can get some better understanding then.

Shingles? Lesion and arm pain are both symptoms. I am now 29 years into having the title "Entomologist" and of at least a dozen "spider bites" I have been asked about; one was caused by a Brown Recluse and the rest proved to be Shingles.

Dexamethasone injection around the bite is something that really works and it saved my butt when I was got bitten on thumb by a Brown Recluse in our barn lifting a hay bail. I had some dexamethasone in our show box and immediately gave my self subcutaneous shots right around the perimeter of the bite. Then when I got to the ER the doctor said I probably saved myself from having to go through a very long process and surgery from that type of bite. I remember a Navy doctor saying when I was in the Marines that if your every bitten by a poison spider subcutaneous shots right around the bite with Dexamethasone is the key and can save your butt a lot of trouble.

Fun fact: current thinking is that only 10-25% of recluse bites result in necrosis. Also, there is no good evidence one way or the other that the steroids work.

Maybe this was a 'dry' spider bite. Instead of injecting venom it just laid eggs. Now they've hatched and they want out.

Something to think about.

Just kidding. Hope it gets better.

I'm an ER doctor and I can tell you the rule is if you didn't see the spider, it is not a spider bite. Almost all of these "spider bites" end up being MRSA (methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus). AKA staph.

as noted above

Probably staph.

I had the exact same symptoms and it turned out to be MRSA. Even went to the ER as noted above because the pain was unbearable. I ended up having a very hard time completely eradicating the infection as I had around 5 more nasty boils pop up on different parts of my body over the course of a year. I had to also have a couple of them lanced. The infected areas looked very similar to the picture below, with what looked like black, rotting skin in the middle, and a ring of very inflamed and painful skin around it.

It's covered in this thread by multiple people in the thread. This was our rule of thumb when I was a student trainer and now I'm going into the EMT/firefighter world. Had people try to swear they were bit by a spider and "I saw fang marks"

Biggest question here is did you see the spider bite you? More than likely it's not a spider bite and it's staph infection, MRSA or cellulitis.

All good feedback. The key factor for ME believing it was a spider bite is that I shower at night, and there was nothing there that night, I have had no recent scratch in that area due to it being fall and wearing long sleeves, and we are at the tail end of Seattle's spider season (unless you live here, you would not understand).

But I agree with all your comments that I should push the doctor to evaluate for MRSA to eliminate it from consideration.