The smell was even worse today. I decided it was time to go to the ER. When I got there, (i lived in a very rural area) there was no real doctor there. The person I saw told me to come back the next morning to see a doctor and a surgeon. I went home with antibiotics and pain medicine. That night, I was in so much pain, I would shake even though I wasn’t cold. I went to the hospital the next morning, and the doctor came in, took a look at it. He took some blood and was back in 15 minutes telling the nurses to get me into surgery right then. It was a brown recluse bite. And it wasn’t only one, there were 2 bites within an inch of each other. I went into surgery, and after coming out, I couldn’t see what it looked like, it was bandaged up. At the worst, I thought it would have a small cut. WRONG!!! I had an 8 inch cut with a gaping hole in the middle of it. The nurse came in and told me that i’d never believe in a 1000 years how much dead meat there was in my leg. They stuffed packing in the hole for 2 days. That was the worst, when they would pull that packing out. They released me with no packing, and told me that the wound needed to stay open to let the venom drain out.

I had no idea what I thought it would look like, but it was yellowish pus strings. I had never seen anything like it before. Over the course of several weeks, the skin started to grow back. It took a long time to heal up, and 7 years later, even though it has healed up, if you run your finger along my scar, you will feel a hole under the skin. I will never forget this. It was very tramatic for me. Even after coming home, I couldn’t even go to bed without feeling like spiders were crawling on me. I think it hurt just as much mentally as it did physically. If you have any of these symptoms, don’t wait. Please go to the emergency room ASAP!!! I waited to long and it made it worse, if I would have gone right from the get go, things may not have been as bad.

Having been bitten (about 14) fourteen times – by brown recluse spiders near the end of October 2006, during a visit to my Mother’s home in Tavares, FL. I had come in late from a weekend at the beach and was chilled, she pulled a quilt from her outside storage closed which I happily rolled up in. I slept soundly, but woke up with what I thought might be red ant bites or something similar. My Lymph Therapist and Mentor thought I had chiggers. She said to put nail polish on them to suffocate them. My doctor thought I had boils and prescribed antibiotics (which did nothing) and pain killers (which I was happy to have). Friends who lived on the shores of the Wekiva River knew the bites were brown recluse having seen them before. About that time, I noticed 2 small spiders in the bathtub and promptly flattened them. I did some research online and ordered some spider traps and nutritional supplements. I learned that the brown recluse injects a packet of venom which quickly develops into gangrene which is necrosis or death of the tissue. My Mother called her homeowners insurance and contacted surgeons who recommended removal of the affected tissue (removal of my left butt cheek) indicating that it would be a long recovery.

Staying in Florida to complete my training to become a Lymph Therapist, having just completed the classes and purchased my equipment: a Lymph Star Pro Machine, a Gem Galaxy FAR Infrared Cold Laser, a FAR Infrared Ozone Sauna and an Ionic Footbath. I contacted Jennifer at Rightway Enterprises, from whom I had purchased the equipment and received my training, she advised me to apply the ozone to each bite 30 seconds twice a day and sleep with the passive head of the Gem Galaxy Cold Laser on the worst bites. The next day, 11/09/06, I was about 50% better and much relieved. About three weeks later 12/03/06 I was nearly completely healed and not only is the skin completely normal, I have no scars at all. After I take a sauna you can see where the bites were, as red spots are visible. I’m told that I still have the venom in my blood and the Red Cross will no longer let me donate blood.

The photos I took myself, which was difficult – I had three bites on the top front off each leg, and a few down the back of each thigh and one large one developed on my left butt cheek which is shown in these photos: Photo 4403 was taken on 11/08/06 prior to treatment, 4422 was taken the day after 11/09/06, 4458 was taken on 11/11/06, and 4558 was taken on 12/03/06. People have commented that the photo on 11/09 looks worse than the photo from 11/08, but let me assure you that it was 50% better, the bleeding and oozing had stopped and I was able to stop taking pain killers and to sit for the first time since the necrosis had developed.

Certainly I believe it would be very beneficial for people who have brown recluse bites to have similar therapeutic treatment at the earliest possible opportunity. I praise God that I had the equipment and survived this awful ordeal.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me

Sally
“there’s joy in the journey.. in Christ.” (John 15:5)
Svernon2k4 [at] aol.com

Carol

IF the doctor sends you home with nothing or tells you to monitor it and it is getting worse, GO TO A DIFFERENT DOCTOR! Maybe call around to see if anyone has experience with your issue before you spend your money.

IF the doctor is looking up treatment options it’s because he/she may not have experience with brown recluse bites. Not all doctors know all things and by looking it up, at least he is trying to use his knowledge to help. This isn’t a big deal, docs look stuff up all the time.

NEVER ASSUME JUST BECAUSE THEY ARE A DOCTOR THAT THEY ARE AUTOMATICALLY RIGHT!!!!

After I did a search on Google, I could find another other site that offered healing of a spider bite without massive amounts of medicine and doctors. Hope this help everyone! Thank you for your site, Drew

i have a few pics of the bite ill post in a few. the area is really dry around the bite and it has a black scab on it. there is some puss coming out of it also. they say its infected, its not as bad as some of the pics, only about a quarter to a half dollar in size. but the thing i am worried about is his foot burning. im googling the side effects of the medication he is on to see if that’s a side effect. he works on his feet all day and he cant afford to take time off for the bite as he is taking off time next week for my c section of our third child. what would you recommend to do to help with anything the burying, the swelling, the pain, ect.. just something to get him through the week. you can email me at toshagallegos [at] gmail.com if you have any advice. thanks