I hear all too often how Copperheads are a mild envenomation and have heard countless people refer to them as like a bee or hornet sting. I will write a longer thread when I have use of my left hand again but here is the very short version.
On Friday July 3rd at 2:50pm, I took a hit from a Copperhead while trying to extract it from a retaining wall. It struck me on the top of the left hand, Within the first 4-6 seconds, there was already swelling the size of an acorn at one of the fang penetrations. I got my wedding band and watch off and called the wife.
This was taken on the way to the hospital no more than 20 minutes after the bite.
Once in the ER, the edema was tracked and I started the antivenin. You can see by the time that I started av less than an hour after the bite.
The edema reached mt shoulder by about midnight.
In total, I got 18 vials of CroFab and 3 days in the hospital. I still have severe pain in the hand and only about 20% mobility. There is still some swelling at the bite site and my hand and are bruised from the swelling. But I am on the mend and shoud be back at work Monday although I am still on Demerol and steroid anti-inflammitories.
More to come when I can type again including the adventures in medical ignorance and my formal complaint submitted on one of the doctors.
