Quote:
Originally Posted by Rob
Let's here your recluse story Melanie.
Did you get bit in Florida or a dif state?
How long did you wait to go in after the bite etc etc.
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Well, my story is a long, torrid tale, but since you asked....
My first encounter came in June of 05. My husband had what looked like an ingrown hair in his armpit. We ignored it for a couple of days until it swelled so big that he could barely move his arm. For the record, my husband is likely to die before he will go to a Dr. but he was in agony and I talked him into it regardless. To make matters much worse, it was his birthday and we had pit tickets for the Seether concert for later in the evening. The Dr. quickly assessed that it was indeed a brown recluse bite and that from what he could tell the infection had already moved down to the elbow and was worried about gangrene. He said he would need to open it up, let it drain, and take some samples. We left the Dr. with my husband's underarm cut open and packed with gauze. We must have been crazy to decide that we should still go to the concert. He was knocked and banged into more times then I can count and held out like a trooper. By the end he looked like he was close to death and I am certain it was the worst birthday ever.
Two days later he went back to the Dr. to get stitched back up. The Dr. informed him that the spider could have very well killed him. Not only had the spider shared it's venom but also the E. Coli bacteria it was carrying.
My experience came 3 weeks later while on vacation in Kentucky. On the plane I noticed a small bite on my left inner-thigh. At the time I didn't think much of it. I am allergic to any insect bite and have a tendency to swell and just sloughed it off. By the next day it had swelled and was becoming slightly uncomfortable. Again, I ignored it thinking it was just a mosquito bite. By day 3 it started feeling hot and the swelling and pressure were really uncomfortable. On day 4 we were visiting a family member who is an ER nurse and I casually asked her to look at it. The look on her face was horror at first site and said that it had appeared to have already gone into cellulitis and was eating the tissue all around it. She wanted to take me to the hospital immediately. The pressure was unbearable. I'm not much for hospitals, especially being that we were away from home and decided I wanted to take a hot bath to relieve the pressure before heading to the ER. I sat down in the tub and almost immediately it exploded gushing the nastiest smelling, black infection I have ever witnessed. I jumped out of the tub in a flash, fearing sitting in a pool of infection. In agony and shaking all over from the pain it continued to pour out like an erupting volcano and I sat naked and helpless. I don't remember much else. I passed out and my husband found me out cold on the bathroom floor. When I came to the pressure was gone and I felt much better. I guess all in all I saved myself a hefty hospital bill. I still have a large round purple scar on my thigh as a reminder.
In general, I'm not scared of spiders. They eat bugs and are fairly useful. The brown recluse is quite another story.