[DanaC]

Mum had a bite of some sort a few years ago, not sure from what, that turned into a major infection. Started out as a little bite mark on her hand, then swelled up. Ended up with her on a penicillin drip in hospital.

She wasn't going to go to hospital, she was going to just take painkillers and go to bed, but fortunately my sister in law (a nurse) had a look at it and told her she had to go to hospital immediately.

When she got there, the ER nurse rather cheerily explained that the red lines now tracking up past her hand and up onto her arm used to be called 'the lines of death' in the days before antibiotics. She had cellulitis. Quite common apparently from some spider and insect bites.