duration of spider bite symptoms

I was bitten by a black widow a week ago.  Within 24 hours the bite on my arm was extremely painful, swollen and had two bright red, hard and painful streaks running from the bite on my forearm to my armpit.  When I got in to see the doctor, my blood pressure was elevated, I had a slight fever, my arm was alternating between feeling numb, burning, and having muscle cramps.  He prescribed me 300mg of clindamycin every 6 hours for 10 days.  The infection seems to be gone, with only mild redness remaining.  However, I continue to have intermittent numbness and pain in the arm, mixed with overall fatigue.  Any idea how long these symptoms may last?  Is there any treatment for them?

[Bhupinder Kaur, MD]

Hello,
The symptoms that you are having are definitely due to spider bite and should take a couple of days to go away. Keep on taking the oral antibiotics and consult your doctor and get prescribed some anti inflammatory analgesic like Diclofenac or Ibuprofen.

It is very difficult to precisely confirm a diagnosis without examination and investigations and the answer is based on the medical information provided. For exact diagnosis, you are requested to consult your dermatologist. I sincerely hope that helps. Take care and please do keep me posted on how you are doing.

[james235]

The amount of poison injected is the big variable.  I was bitten at 10AM.  Within 30 minutes the acute pain started in the area of the fang maks.   Thinking nothing of it because wasps, hornets, bee stings are painful for awhile and then go away.

In the 4-6 hour time period it changed into all the classic symptoms listed. abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, fainting, dizziness, chest pain, weakness and tremor.  I had acute pain at the bite site,102 fever, felt cold and fatigued.    Within about 24 hours the fever had subsided to @ 100.0.  Within 48 hours my fever was about gone.   My swelling and fatigue is still persistant 5 days later.

I was bitten on the top of my foot.   The swelling and pain makes it difficult to walk