I was walking thinking ‘ow, okay, ow’ and i kept rubbing and slapping it a little as i walked. I sat down in my chair, and i still felt this almost stinging, pricking feeling like the worse paper cut ever, almost. So I was just like okay, I went to the bathroom and pulled my pants down to see it, and there was two marks like two dots big enough to tell they were circles and were about a quarter centimeter apart. And there was blood drawn as there was a little on the inside of the pant leg.

I just put a band aid on and it just hurt all day, like a stinging, burning pain, and annoying. There is also a bruise just above it and slight red irritation. That was at about 8-8:15am. At about 6pm, I started getting a little nauseated. I’m not sure if I was bit or if I’m getting the flu from the weather. I put hydrogen peroxide on it and it immediately all turned white fizzle, even in between the two dots! I kept putting it on and it kept fizzing.

It now looks like a shallow cut and instead of two dots it looks like it all connects into a minor scratch. It still hurts and all around it, but looks better. Not sure what to do. Not sure if something was hiding in my pant legs. I’m just monitoring it until tomorrow. Will much happen within 24 hours if it is a spider bite or BRS? Is there anything in particular I should notice or look for that would make it stand out?? I’ve never been bitten by one.

So, he gives me an tetracycline and tells me if it doesn’t get any better in the next couple of days, go back to my gyno…well, it didn’t get better and by this time it was red and kind of flaky…and looked like a small bruise was in the middle of it? Strange…so, I go back to my gyno again…she confirms that my family dr. was correct…it’s Cellulitus and to continue taking the rest of my antiobiotic and when I was done with it..give it a couple more days and it would be ok. I take the rest of my antibiotics and wait a few more days. It looks the same. I get in the shower one morning and it starts burning…so I look at it and the part that looked bruised, kinda of a scab looking thing (but you couldn’t feel it, like you could pick it..it was under the skin).is gone and it’s all open skin now….puss starts coming out of this like you cannot even imagine!! It had no smell, but it continued to poor out of this erase size hole for hours…I go back to my family dr. the very next morning saying..something is wrong…there is a hole now…puss is still coming out of it and now the hole has turned BLACK.

He swabs and sends it off..tells me he has no idea what it is….?? I’m freaking out…looking to him for answers! Since I have implants, he refers me to my plastic surgeon that had did the augmentation over 7 years ago. I call and make an appointment with him. My family Dr. has NO IDEA what to do now…so, my plastic surgeon tell me, it’s probably bacterial infection of some sort and calls me in Bacterum and says call him in a few days if doesn’t get any better….It doesn’t…puss is still oozing out of it…I am wearing gauze pads and putting cream on it…?? He tells me now, come in..I need to see it. I make appt..next day, go see him…he is dumbfounded by whatever this is….he said…..I have been a surgeon 32 years and have never seen anything like this…so, by now..I am like OMG!!\

so, he gives me more cream and tells me to let that infection or whatever it is to drain…and drain….I continue with the Bacterum and cream for another week…go back….he says OK….let’s stitch up the hole…we cannot have that implant open …on your skin…so, he gives me 7 stitches to try to close this now size half dollar on my breast. We want it to hold, it really isn’t swollen at all and the same area is still red, but now the center is black (my implant?)…one week goes by, i go back..the stitches wouldn’t hold because whatever this thing is that has caused it…has eaten my tissue..it was like sewing wet toilet paper together….it breaks loose. Now the hole is even BIGGER. He advises emergency surgery the following day. He is a great surgeon…but tells me after it was over that he HAD to remove the implant…the infection was all over it. He cleaned it all out…stitched up the hole….and now everything seems to be ok…cept, I have no implant. He swabbed it again during surgery and NEVER from any Dr. has anything came back positive for any type of bacterial infection or anything…he says ..it’s the strangest thing he has ever seen…I’m like…”ME TOO”!!

so, thanks to him….I still have my breast…we both concluded that it had to have been a spider bite…but Brown Recluse? not sure…we do not know. I have to wait 6-8 weeks to get a new implant put back in…but will have a scar…I don’t care though…because I’m alive…believe me…every single thing i put on now….I check it for spiders….I still do not know when, where or what day I could have gotten bit. This has been going on now 2 months for sure, maybe 3. I am still healing, but a bit sore. Whatever it was ate through my breast tissue…I think if I hadn’t had the implants, maybe it would have kept eating it?? Who knows….has this EVERRRRR happened to anyone else??? I can’t wait to see my surgeon next month! Thank God every day for him!! Excuse any misspelled words…I had so much to type and wanted to get this story out here after reading the other ones…..

The next morning my finger felt fine (possibly due to the amount of Advil I had taken) and I went about my normal day. At about ten am. I noticed my finger was bruised looking and I had red lines all around it, by lunch the lines were up my arm, my whole hand was swollen and I felt as if I had the flu. The amount of time it took me to drive to the hospital and see the doctor, which was approximately and hour, the lines were to my heart and I had gone “septic”. I was on several IV’s and was told I was lucky to be alive.

My hand swelled so bad that the skin split and bled. The nurse had to remove the band-aid I had on, my skin was stretched so thin from the swelling it came off with the band-aid. Without hesitation, three nurses and two doctors said it was a brown recluse bite and I was lucky I got to keep my finger. I don’t have too much scarring, but my knuckle/ joint still hurts every once in a while and I still have a hollowed spot in my finger.

I was like this isn’t a bad mosquito bite it’s something else. So I went to a walk-in (because it was going to be two months before my family doctor would have seen me) whom not only gave me the wrong advice they told me it was just a bad bug bite (they also didn’t take my insurance).

I went into work the next day thank God I worked at a theme park were 2 RNs were on staff and they were like that’s a brown recluse bite get some Aveeno or effective lotion before it gets worse because right now that’s a sign the venom has already gotten at the skin and is moving towards the muscle. I went right out and got Aveeno and the scab not only came right off within a week, I felt much better.

I still have the scar to prove it as I am sure I will because the venom got to much of my skin and some of my muscle because I sometimes have pain in my foot hear and there when I walk, but other than that now I know what to do before the reaction starts (and what to look for).

My son recently was bit by one too and I knew immediately not to delay and get the Aveeno. His scabbed right off within minutes which means I got to it right away it pussed out for a few days then scared and that scabbed and his now skin is a-OK no noticeable scar.

My hand was sore and my fingers hurt to move them. When my cousin saw it, he said it was a BRS bite and I needed to get to the emergency room right away. At the ER, the doctor confirmed that it was a BRS bite and gave me a tetanus shot, put medicine on the wound and bandaged it, and gave me medicine to take orally. Since we were on vacation, he told me to get home (So. California) and see my own doctor right away. We packed up and headed for home. On Monday I went in to my own doctor who had no idea what this was or how to treat it. He spent four hours on the phone calling colleagues and looking through medical books. Finally he took a scalpel and cut out the gross mess, put medicine on it and cleaned it up, then just kept forking the clean meat with the scalpel until it looked like ground beef, then poured liquid skin over it, bandaged it and said ‘lets wait and see’.

When I went back on Friday, it was healing up very well. After about two more weeks, it looked almost like nothing had happened. I have a scar in between my two fingers and the skin looks kind of strange, and the scarring on the palm is almost gone now five years later. I think the worst bite a person can have is a BRS bite because it takes awhile before you know that you’ve been bitten.
Now when we visit NE Oklahoma, I am more watchful of those spiders.

The physician wrote a script for antibiotics and simply MISdiagnosed her as having an abscess. The VERY next day she went back to the ER. New physician & much wiser. My mother was ADMITTED and so began the treatment. The bite w/ greenish pus was about the size of a silver dollar. However, the redness and sore itself measured nearly 7 (seven) inches ! My mother literally had a TEAM of doctors working to SAVE her life. She developed staff along with the bite. The Wound Care Unit cut open and began the process of removing the rotten flesh caused by the spiders venom, cleaning out the pus (infection) cleaning the wound, packing the wound with medicated gauze, applying triple anti-biotic cream around the bite and finally a clean cover of gauze to protect the area.

The wound was also measured to monitor the healing process. Second Tean, Infectious Disease. Constantly administered an IV drip of meds to combat the infection from the bite ans staff. She was released from the hospital after a weeks stay. Care continued at home, we had the help & instruction of a Home Care Nurse for a week & then it was just me for the next 3 weeks.The POINT I want to make clear is that you should NOTwait and try to SELF medicate. If you’re not sure what bit you go anyway. If you’re sure it’s a BRS GO and GO FAST. Don’t let yourself be pushed aside ! Be PERSISTENT. After all your life could actually depend on it. Much love and best wishes from Atlanta, Georgia.