[Lilly]

Originally Posted by lindsay ormerod

Further to me having issues with these and their bites a couple of years back I have been bitten again at weekend and have now had one of the e most painful weeks ever! One landed on my hand at the cricket club on sunday and I hit it away as soon as I saw it, not quick enough obviously! My hand has since swelled to about 3 times it's normal size, weeping goo from the bite and was boiling hot to touch and hard as rock. Visit to casualty confirmed the bleeding obvious, that I react badly to the little gits, also the bite had developed into "cellulitis". Cue a sling for massive hand, and a massive course of antibiotics ( 500 mg flucloxacillin x 28) with instructions to go back immediately if the infection kept tracking up my arm.
It now seems to be abating, still massive, still hard, very unpretty to look at, and back to A and E tomorrow for re asssessment.
All the advice I can give is if you get bitten by one of these sods, clean the wound as quickly as possible with water and something anti bacterial, eg Dettol, TCP.,and at the first sign of any swelling or redness go to casualty, they are geting loads of these in at the moment and if not treated promptly you are looking at full on blood poisoning; my fingertips had already lost circulation when I went in on Monday.

Ewwwww that sounds awful.

I hope your hand gets better soon. My mum was bitten by one of these horseflies a couple of years ago, she hardly felt it at the time but soon after her leg swelled up and the bitten area filled with yellow goo.

Horrible.