I was making my way through the forest in Argentina with a group of other tourists.  This was my first time in Argentina, and I didn’t really know what to expect.  The ground was covered with poison ivy which I was trying desperately to avoid.  I started to lag behind the group, and I rushed to try to catch back up with the group .

Suddenly I felt a sharp pain in my ankle.  But when I checked my ankle, there was nothing there but an extremely small cut.  I figured that I just got cut by a stick, so I kept walking.  I tried to ignore the pain in my ankle, but I failed.  After a few minutes of unsuccessfully trying to distract myself from my ankle, I finally checked it.

I saw the tiny cut was bright red.  The skin around in had swollen to be the size of a grape.  The green veins around the cut told me that I had been bitten my a venomous spider, and the poison was spreading.  The view made me light-headed, and I had to sit to keep myself from collapsing.  I was rushed back to the hotel, and there my leg was restrained to keep me from moving them.  If I did, the poison would spread through my bloodstream quicker.  The bite was searing, and as I was on the way to the hospital, I couldn’t think clearly at all.  I felt dizzy, and I couldn’t focus on anything except the pulsing pain in my ankle. 

Next thing I knew I was in the hospital bed.  They were preparing a syringe full of a clear liquid that I guessed was some sort of antivenom.  They painfully inserted the needle into the bite, and injected the liquid.  I could feel the liquid spreading through my leg, relieving the stiffness.  The doctor told me to walk around the room to spread the antidote.  Afterwards, I refused to ever go back into that forest.