The Bike Incident

This is another snake story. As I have said before Deb and Tim rode their bikes to school. During the night, even though thefts were not common in our area, I made it a rule that before they went to bed they were to bring their bikes into the kitchen so they would not be a temptation to passing natives. Well, one night I decided to do it for them. I was (as I often was) walking around barefoot and went out and stepped on a stick (I thought) and felt a sudden very sharp pain in my big toe. I brought the bikes in, then looked at my toe. Ma was living with us at the time and she asked what the problem was, I told her what happened and she sat me down, picked up my foot, and said, "I think you've got a snake-bite!" She stuck my toe in her mouth and sucked hard, spat and sucked again, then told Dad to take me to the emergency room. By this time my foot was throbbing quite severely. There were two very definite fang marks, but very close together. The hospital gave me an anti-venom injection and some medicine to take. It took care of the bite. When I showed it to Dr. McNair he said, "I don't think it is a snake bite, I think it is a scorpion bite, they often strike twice. The fang marks are too close for a snake." Be that as it may, I definitely felt only one strike. A night adder is a very small snake and so its fangs are very close. It was when I stepped on the "stick" that I felt the strike. Night adders are only very mildly venomous. but can make you quite sick. Since Ma had so much experience in dealing with snakes of all sorts, and since she was used to treating snake-bitten pets with her snake-bite outfits, I think she knew what she was saying. I think that is all I have to say about personal experiences with the critters.