Eric writes:
This afternoon Alison & I were working at an outdoor charity party/pig roast down at Westover, a historic plantation on the James river.
While moving a case of beer from under a table, we spotted a tiny little snake. I was in the process of herding it away so it wouldn't scare any of the old ladies when it quickly spun around & bit me on the tip of my right index finger.
Afterwards we got a good look at it & determined it was a juvenile copperhead.
At first it just hurt from the bite and bruised a bit, but within a couple of hours the finger was swelling up and the pain was quickly becoming unbearable.
So as a result, I'm spending the next 6 hours in the hospital under observation.
There is no real risk of serious injury. Even adult Copperhead bites generally only result in intense pain & swelling.
The ER doc who saw me had just recently published a journal article on snake bites & has seen hundreds of them.
I've received 3 dilaudid I.V. for pain and an injection of steroids to help with the swelling. Now the plan is for someone to come in every 30 minutes to draw a line around the extent of the swollen area so they can track that progress.
No plans for anti-venom or any other treatment other than pain meds & monitoring.
Hurts like hell, but will be a good story for the office on Monday.
IFrank Horn comments: n rural Pennsylvania, all snakes were killed whenever or wherever found.
ReplyDeleteIn Utah and Nevada, many old CAA government buildings were based on East Coast Lighthouse Service designs, probably from the 20's, many with full basements.
Our Mormon rancher friends had learned to capture bull snakes, and turn them loose in their barns and outbuildings, to kill rodents and rattlesnakes.
So, whenever I encountered a bull snake, it would end up in the basement of one of those unattended old CAA buildings. Worked pretty well!!
Bull snakes can act pretty nasty, but are better to have around than rattlesnakes!!