Staph Infection
Did you know most bites are actually from non venomous bugs but because the area becomes infected, people point the finger at the brown recluse, black widow and other spiders.
A Staph Infection can result from any bug bite. One of our visitors was bitten by an unknown bug and was kind enough to document the entire process, from start to finish! Here is Dede’s well documented story and I am sure it will help those looking for answers:
3/9/08: Got a bite on the top of my foot last Saturday. Never felt a thing. Noticed though what looked like a pimple. Knowing one doesn’t get pimples on ones foot I knew it was a spider bite. Sunday my foot was throbbing with pain. The bump area developed redness around it. Monday it was still throbbing and now the topside of my whole foot was pink. Tuesday I went to the Doctor. The symptoms or redness and pain were indicative of an infection and I wanted to treat that should it become systemic or staph. See the images below.
WHICH BY THE WAY…… insurance or not everyone that is concerned enough about the symptoms or progression, enough so to look it up online, should seek medical attention and at least get antibiotics and a tetanus shot if you hadn’t had one in the last 10 years. Have you not seen the pictures of what can ultimately develop? My flesh, my life - all worth the costs associated of seeing a Doctor over something that could go very bad. I’m not that much of a gambler and I do value my flesh and life.
Back to the Doctor visit…. Wasn’t much he could or should do at that point. I was prescribed a mild antibiotic, told to elevate my foot, cold compress (ice pack), ibuprofen. I had been using an ice-pack, which did help a bit. I even did an Epsom Salt compress (dissolve Epsom salts in hot water until the crystals stop dissolving - use about 1 cup of hot water and lots of Epsom salt - take paper towels immerse in the liquid then hold to the affected area. Keep repeating until the water cools - about 5-10 minutes). NOTE: This only helped the first night of throbbing pain. Wednesday and Thursday there wasn’t any improvement. Ah yes, I even tried a drawing salve but that only enhanced the bump forming under the bite and didn’t do much else. I do on occasion experience some stinging in the area but it only lasts for a few seconds.
Friday I went back to the Doctor because there hadn’t been any improvement and it was continuing to ache. The bump under the skin had grown a little as well. The Doctor did a little nick on the bump but hardly anything came out. He concurred that the drawing salve was of no benefit (I asked). He advised that he didn’t feel that it was a brown recluse bite but here in GA there are plenty of nasty cousins that could have been the culprit. (I never saw any spider and never knew it happened. Clearly from the location it happened as I was slipping my foot into a shoe and as I was probably about to squish the spider it elected to zap me a good one on it’s way out of this life, at least that’s how I envision it.) So the Doctor told me, same as the first, to keep my foot elevated, try to stay off of it, keep it covered, apply topical antiseptic cream (neosporin or bacitracin), use an ice-pack, take ibuprofen to help with the pain and swelling, and he prescribed another, second, antibiotic to help cover all the bases since the bite wasn’t improving at all.
Yesterday I awoke and noticed that the bite area/bump developed to white dots - looked like pimple heads next to each other, perhaps where a spider would have bitten me? Doubt that, it would have been one big spider with a very wide fang spread. I figure it was just two points in which whatever was brewing under my skin wanted to peak out. Later the same day there were two more white dots, a little closer together just below the others. I did sanitize a needle, poked each and gently (because any pressure is very painful at this point) apply pressure from the outside of the reddened raised area. I did not squeeze nor should anyone from what I’ve been reading. What came out started as pus (very loose) followed by some blood and plasma (clear). And yes, the act of doing that created a lot of pain under the skin. The actual top skin of the raised bump is rather numb. The pain I have is the pressure under the skin. Anyway, I did this a grand total of 4 times, twice before bed, once in the wee hours of the AM (could not sleep due to throbbing foot) and once this morning. The first two times much yuck gooped out from the 5 little holes I poked into each little head. I’m done with poking and any extra pressure.
Last night my foot from where my toes meet my foot up to just below my ankle was showing signs of Edema (water retention) and “dimples” when I poke it (finger indent stays for a few seconds after taking finger away). This morning my foot was exactly the same, even though I slept with it elevated all night. It’s not super puffy but when looking at it compared to my other foot I can easily see the difference.
Today is Sunday, one week and a day after the initial bite. Today I have been elevating it more than any day prior and have been applying an ice-pack. I take ibuprofen (2-3 capsules) every 4 hours. I applied some baking soda paste (w/water) to it and have it covered. Why? Because someone wrote here about that and I’ll attempt things that seem logical to me and this did.
To be honest, I am a little freaked out at the thought of the top of my foot looking anything like some of these pictures with gaping wounds. I think it’s natural to assume the worst. The 2nd Doctor I saw predicted the evolution of this……. he said he expected it would turn darker in the raised area, even almost black, the skin would to slough off a bit and ultimately I would have a little crater once it was all healed - and this could take a few weeks. He said that with spider bites there isn’t a whole lot one can do beyond what I noted above herein. (disclaimer: I’m sure he was referring to what I had versus a black widow or other ultra venomous spiders). I just have to allow it to run its course, which it is. In the meantime I’m dealing with the pain and aggravation of not being very mobile. Not sure what else can be done by a Doctor at this point - I have antibiotics and am now current on my tetanus shot so I’m glad I at least did that. I just need to be closely watching my foot, continue to keep a record of progression by taking pictures and should I grow concerned about any dramatic changes seek medical attention again. Better safe than sorry, regardless of the cost.
3/11/08 - Dede from GA again. Back for an update. I elected to go to the ER today to get the area cultured. It simply was not improving. The foot was still swollen, the redness around the sore was growing larger, and the sore itself was not improving. I was having a real problem walking on that foot at all last night. I also needed the peace of mind that I was doing everything possible to take care of this. Peace of mind is priceless. Worry costs a lot.
They did take a culture. It will take a few days to get the results. They did not cut or lance it at all. I applied very gentle pressure at the base of the raised area and they took the culture from that. As a precaution they also gave me a heavy duty antibiotic through an IV. That’s in addition to the 2 oral antibiotics I’m already taking, which they said to continue taking. With a medical marker they drew a circle around the outer perimeter of the reddened area to gauge it when I return in a few days.
Tonight the sore is oozing and morphing into expected ugliness. I can see that it’s opening up now in the middle. My foot is still puffy from the retention of fluids, which is a normal bodily function when fighting such a thing. The puffiness/swelling isn’t from the spider bite; it’s from your body fighting against it.
TIPS: If you are elevating a limb ease it down slowly, like very slow over the span of minutes. The faster you bring it down the faster blood rushes back in and there is pain associated with that. Be patient or prepare for the pain of the rushing blood flow.
I’m not poking any more holes in the sore now, there’s no need. The original pokes I made stayed and “stuff” has oozed from them since. I’m not apply pressure to milk out anything either. It didn’t help. Initially I thought it might ease the pressure and tightness but what happened was soreness where I applied pressure and whatever oozed out was replenished soon after. At the ER they did not open or drain anything.
I am taking 800mg Ibuprofen every 6 hours (that’s 4 tablets at 200mg each). They offered morphine at the hospital but the reality is that on a scale of 1-10 I was only at a 3 at the time. The real pain comes when I bring my foot down from elevating it or there is pressure on the topside. When that happens the pain goes to about a 6 or 7 but doesn’t last beyond a few minutes. No need for morphine. I still have some throbbing and occasional stinging but both are subsiding, slowly.
I’m using Polysporin ointment with a gauze pad and 1 strip of tape. I was keeping a large foam adhesive bandage on it but I can’t quite take that much adhesive at this point (hurts when it comes off) and the gauze pad is better for leeching up the ooze, because it’s now doing a lot of that.
Upon my return from the ER I’ve noticed that the reddened area around the sore is looking better, as you will see from the picture. The sore itself is looking nastier though. That’s because it’s now starting to open in the middle, which I expected and is a natural course of action with such a thing.
NOTE OF CONCERN: They did advise at the ER to be very concerned and rush back should I notice any dark lines (veins) leading up my leg from the area - towards my heart. That’s bad stuff and is deemed an emergency. In my case I have no such problem, thankfully.
After my follow-up visit with the Doctors in a few days I’ll post an update with current pictures.
As a strong reminder, if you are reading this because you are concerned about a spider bite and not sure if you should go to a Doctor or not, regardless of your reasons, DO IT. If it doesn’t get better by the following day then GO. It’s better to be safe than sorry. Take pictures also as a form of documenting the progression. If you don’t have a digital camera then use your cell phone; most all cell phones have the ability to take pictures these days. Make sure to note somehow the date and time of each picture for proper reference.
3/17/08 - DEDE FROM GA UPDATE: Picking up from where I had left off, I returned to the ER on 03/12 for a wound check and the culture results. The results of the culture only showed that I had a mild staph infection. The doctor I saw told me that wound could have been an insect bite (including but not limited to a spider) or anything for that matter and an infection soon followed. He stated that what most people think are horrible sores/wounds from an insect bite is really a staph infection that probably started as a bite but evolved into a nasty sore due to the introduction of staph. It can happen to anyone regardless of circumstances, immune system health and/or personal hygiene. He proceeded to open and drain? the wound, which was very necessary at that point. I was given multiple shots of Lidocaine in the affected area to numb it. Lidocaine shots initially feel much like yellow jacket stings, but the pain is brief. Then he cut open the wound and cleaned it out and cut off the dead tissue. Yes, it hurt. After he cleaned it up I was told the following:
- Keep it elevated as much as possible for the rest of that day.
- I could resume normal daily functions.
- When sitting try to elevate the foot, if possible.
- Clean the wound site 2-3 times per day.
- Keep the wound site dry and covered at all times.
- Use Bactroban (for the nose) in each nostril in the AM and PM (prescription).
- Back onto the initial antibiotic I was given for 7 days, instead this time I get 10 days worth (Bactrim aka Sulfamethoxazole). Stop taking the 2nd oral antibiotic (Keflax aka Cephalexin), which was of no aid for what I had.
- Because 4 Ibuprofen wasn’t doing much for me I got a prescription for pain meds (mild).
- No need to put anything on it, like Polysporin, Neosporin, etc. Nothing more but washing it, per the Doc.
- Expect it to take a few weeks to fully heal.
The wound is indeed healing. The swelling on my foot is completely gone. That started to go down that day. I don’t need any pain meds or Ibuprofen at all, no pain anymore. I am keeping it clean by washing it with Hibiclens (in a light blue and white bottle, in most drugs stores by the iodine). I use a gauze pad to smack the Hibiclens into the wound (rubbing isn’t a great feeling there yet). I rinse with water then rinse with Saline solution last (get the cheap store brand for contacts, works the same as the expensive stuff you find in the wound care section). After I shower I rinse it with Saline also. Found a new ointment specifically for Staph and started applying a little of that today. I will do that once a day only. When I go out I have an extra roomy sock I put on over the dressing and I have a slipper that has Velcro straps so I can control the pressure over the wound site. It’s no fashion statement but it works. At home I walk around with only the dressing over the wound. I use a non-stick gauze pad and another larger standard gauze pad over that, tapped down. Keeping it covered and clean is very important for the healing. Although the wound is getting better slowly it still has some discharge visible on the gauze when I change the dressing. I was told I’ll need to see an Infectious Disease doctor if this doesn’t get better OR comes back. Staph can come back. Here are recent pictures:
I did everything right and thankfully caught it before it got out of hand or became anything like some of those ultra horrifying pictures you see online. Yeah, it got gross and it hurt a lot but it could have been way worse. If you have anything like what I’ve described or seen in the posted pictures you NEED to see a DOCTOR ASAP and for your own sake don’t procrastinate or make excuses, like no insurance. It is probable that whatever began as a bite became a staph infection and is quite serious. The doctor said that the pictures one sees online of nasty spider bites are usually always pictures of staph infections that very well could have started as a spider bite. Know this, I am a very healthy person, no medical issues, rarely get sick and if I do it’s over quick, I don’t need or take prescription meds of any kind (exception being the antibiotics now) and with all that I still got a staph infection.
To those here wondering what bit me (meaning you), from what I’ve seen online there isn’t any way to know for sure what bit you unless you have the insect/spider that did it. Describing it isn’t going to help, how your body reacts to a bite differs from person to person. If your bite is getting worse (painful, red area getting larger, swelling, red lines going in any direction but major red flag if the lines are leading towards your heart, etc.) seek medical attention right away. If you elect not to then you are a fool asking for trouble and the cost of what can happen will greatly out weigh the out of pocket cost for seeking medical attention. Better safe than sorry. It may even require a few trips to the doctor. My bite changed daily but I stayed on top of it, took pics to show the docs the progress, and after 4 trips in 1.5 weeks to the docs it’s getting better.
Thank You Dede!
It is people like Dede who make the world a better place! Thank you for taking the time to document your experience and sharing it with the rest of the world!
Written by Jim on March 18th, 2008 with
15 comments.
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Hi,
I had these very same symptoms when i was bit about 3 weeks ago and was instructed to go to the ER by the nurse at my job. I was bit on a Friday and by Monday the white pimple has spread and was oozing pus. I was very afraid. The ER dr. prescribed an antibiotic and instructed me to elevate my leg (that is where the bit was. By Thursday the area had increased in redness and the pus area had expanded.
I returned to the ER and the doctor immediately started and IV for antibiotics and I was admitted into the hospital. Around midnight my dr came by the hospital and told me that i had been bitten by a spider. He told me that I would have surgery the next day to cut the infection out and that both the surgeon and the infectious disease dr would be coming by to talk with me.
The next day I had surgery and received loads of antibiotics around the clock. I had developed MRSA as a result of having an open wound. Four days later I was released from the hospital. I left with a whole in my leg but it will heal and the pain is gone. I was released with 15 days of antibiotics by mouth and I am close to finishing those.
I feel so much better. So I can definitely relate to your story but I am surprised that none of the doctors you have been to have admitted you to the hospital. My wound was very similar to your’s and the doctors i saw took this matter very serious and addressed the issue immediately because of the possibility of MRSA.
Thanks for sharing your story.
I just wanted to thank you for the time you have put into these article. I also leave in GA and was bitten the same weekend as DeDe and I have not gone to the Doctor but pretty sure I was bitten by a spider. It started out as a small water blister on my side. I rubbed it and it busted (didn’t meat to bust it , it just happened) from then it kept getting bigger and finally to the size of a quarter. I really don’t have a photo as to the beginning stages but it finally has stopped getting bigger with a scab around it. Its about the size of a quarter now and I believe it to be getting better. The only pain that I have had is when I was cleaning it. The bite is beside a scar from a surgery that I had several years ago and some of the nerves in the area have never repaired so I don’t have feeling in the area of the bite. Its located almost to the back of my side so I did not realize it was there initially. Anyway, I just wanted to tell you thanks for all of your blogging this is a big help and I wish everyone well in the spider bite world.
Thanks for all the very important information! I had this appear on my chin while on vacation in Germany, it really knocked me off my feet the entire 3 weeks. Wasn’t sure I would survive the plane ride back home.
When I landed, I was immediately admitted in a hospital and told it was MRSA. It took weeks to recover and I was flat on by back in bed.
It was very frightening….
Yeah thanks for the help. I’m in the early stages of this and i believe it’s from a recent tattoo. i too lanced mine and loose plasma and pus emerged.
Wow. I had a friend who had a bite that looked just like that on his leg… I feel bad for who ever gets a bite like that!
i don’t have any pictures yet of my bite but i got bit by a brown recluse last week and just went to the doctors today and they said they cannot tell if i was bitten by a brown recluse but I’ve looked threw pictures on the computer and it looks exactly like them. it’s so disgusting.
we assumed my husband got bit by a brown recluse last week, but now we are not sure, after researching it looks like it could be mrsa. the sore on his are is still getting bigger and he says it is very painful. it got the puss pockets on it, and i poked them with a needle. it oosed some. today he went to the dr again and he lanced and packed it, and also took a culture of it. he sees the dr again on monday, but cant return to work until further notice because of it being contagous
I am curious as to how to protect myself and the kids from getting it from him. i am disinfecting alot, and using a lot of precautions, but i have herd it can be airborne. does anyone know exactly how it can be spread??
MRSA (which is short for “methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus”) is a nasty little bug that’s been around for over 30 years. It’s not a single organism but a family of related germs, all of which share an immunity to an antibiotic called methicillin and its relatives (something we call “cross-resistance”).
MRSA is most often contracted in or near hospitals, where sick people gather and can’t help coughing, bleeding, having their sores and other skin lesions pop, leak and suppurate.
Once a few individual MRSA organisms have set up a happy home in your skin (maybe from the spider itself. maybe when you presented at the ER wth that spider bite, maybe when your mailman sneezed on you the day before that, you can’t tell without expensive DNA typing to identify the specific strain of MRSA that got you and compare it to that of other people’s MRSA infections) then they immediately start growing and reproducing.
As they do this - inside the cells of your body - they create little capsules of protein called “plasmids” which contain the actual genetic instructions for MRSA to produce chemicals called beta-lactamases which are the actual things that make MRSA resistant to so many antibiotics.
This biological “strategy” is so successful that the human race is beginning to experience waves of different strains of disease organisms, all of which, like once antibiotic-resistant Staph. aureus, no longer die as efficiently as they once did when your family doc gives you an antibiotic.
I’m going through this process with an sinus infection which used to die just fine in the presence of clarithromycin, and before that penicillin, ampicillin, and a number of other chemicals. Now we’re trying an antibiotic I’ve never heard of. Big fun.
Please feel free to blame the pharmaceutical industry and the FDA. Not being happy with sales of perfectly good antibiotics to the medical profession, Big Pharma decided it would be great to pick up a few extra bucks by selling these same antibiotics to farmers, ranchers, poultry raisers, whatever to put in their animals’ food - so these agribusiness guys save money on the labor it takes to keep animal pens clean enough not to serve as giant incubators for germs by putting relatively inexpensive antibiotics in the animals’ food and water.
Problem with that approach is that the big, filthy, urine and feces-swarming animal care facilities at your local chicken/beef/whatever farm now become incubators for germs which share resistance to the latest antibiotics placed in the animal feed. A plasmid which evolved randomly to give resistance to one antibiotic can, swimming in the sea of urine and feces our food animals wallow in, move on to other disease germs, and eventually reach us through our food, or through dirt on the shoes of meat plant workers, or run-off from the animal pens into our fresh water supply… there’s a hundred ways for antibiotic resistance to spread.
The Food and Drug Administration, which is controlled by Congress, which takes bribes from Big Agribusiness, allows this crap (literal crap, teeming with new and even more resistant strains of MRSA, thanks to Big Agro, Big Pharma, FDA and Congress) to go on and has done so for decades.
We flatter ourselves that things have changed from the time of Sinclair Lewis, whose magazine articles on the abuses prevalent in the meat packing industry a hundred years ago caused Congress to create the FDA in the first place. They haven’t - except for effectively getting worse, because the widespread use of potent antibiotics in agriculture and meat packing has spread the problem Lewis documented farther and deeper in our society while allowing us to kid ourselves that there’s no longer a problem.
Every now and then, Nature tries to correct this self-deception of ours by sending out antibiotic-resistant strains of E. coli that strike with ferocity, getting past the porous web of sanitation surrounding our fast food and supermarket industries to invade someone’s hamburger or taco and - if the victim is a child or someone with an unusually poor immune system for a number for reasons we know about only too well - that person dies.
Sometimes the sanitation web around our food supply allows fogs of resistant organisms to enter our food supply and we then read about epidemics of resistant E. coli or MRSA taking down dozens of kids (whose songs about grimy gopher guts and mystery meat at school cafeterias are vindicated after all, at least for a short time).
Cure? Find out if your Representative and or Senator voted to weaken food safety regulations. If he or she did, fire him or her, or educate him or her with an Email or FAX explaining what I just told you. Then come the next election, make sure that this becomes a major campaign issue - before ALL of our antibiotics become useless against killer germs.
Get ‘er done, folks!
I felt a bite in the middle of the night and remember scratching immediately after. It’s summer now and my dog gets fleas outside every now and then and she was infested. I was meaning to buy bug foggers to fog the entire house and give her a flea bath; which I did…after I was bit (Don’t know if it was a flea or a spider).
I felt pressure. It looked like a pimple and the pus was noticeable. I’m a popper, so I popped it and nothing would come out but I felt pain and hardness around the pimple. Shortly after, I noticed two more smaller pimples appearing about 2 inches below the main bite. I continued to squeeze my skin (I grabbed a hold of the hardness that surrounded the wound and squeezed as hard as I could handle) time and time again and eventually from 1-10 of pain, I began to experience a terrible 30.
I had pus, blood and clear liquid ooze out. The area was red, hot, hard and painful. I began to cry because the pain was so intense and I could feel a throbbing sensation. I then applied a heating pad but put a cloth in between my skin and the pad. I asked everyone around if they had any healing suggestions.
My sister told me of my nephew’s experience of staph and how he applied a slice of bacon and the gunk inside came out. So, I applied a slice of bacon. I tried heating an aloe plant and placing it on top of the wound as hot as I could stand it (four times). My wound turned into the size of a head of an eraser. I had a little hole. I only covered it with a bandaid because my clothes were irritating the sore.
Although, the majority of the time it was not covered. Gosh, it hurt to bend. I’m a very active person but began walking around for a few days as if I was a little old lady. I did go to the doctor about 4 days later and was told I had a staph infection (no culture done) because it was already healing. I was instantly put on a 10 day course of antibiotics along with pain medication. I continued to squeeze the pus and by a little over a week I saw a major difference for better. I am free of pain, closed wound and still taking my antibiotics. I have a little hardness where the wound once was that I am questioning the doctor when I go back for a follow up visit.
Although, you must know that my boyfriend,also, after a couple of days of my bite developed a bump on his stomach. He thought that this was something different because he did not have a pus pocket. It was red,painful, as big as a quarter and hot to the touch. So, I sterilized a pin with alcohol and poked an opening in it to try to squeeze the pus out.
The redness around the area of the bite was about 6 inches across, from one end to another. The only difference in his treatment is that we did not try bacon. We are having trouble controlling his infection but he too, sought the same physician as myself.
At the first visit he asked to be drained. So an incision about 2 inches across was made and 2 cc of drainage followed (includes blood and pus). A culture was sent to the laboratory and yes, Positive for MRSA. He was prescribed some stronger antibiotics and has had his follow up visit just recently. He requires another visit in two weeks. I’ve been doctoring his wound about 3 times a day. As soon a I see it soiling, we put a new dressing and clean it with 3% hydrogen peroxide.
Right now what hurts more is the tape that’s used to keep the gauze in place. Have purchased several. Also, bending over or sitting is hard to do. He takes his medicine 4 times a day and slowly is improving. So, I do know that every person has a different reaction.
Our bodies fight differently and you should seek medical advise immediately. Disinfect constantly. Use gloves during change of dressings. Discard trash after every change of dressing. Use a pill dispenser to help you keep track. Make sure you take all of the antibiotics.
For those without insurance, go to Wal-Mart and check to see if these medicines fall in the $4.00 range. You can call around and compare prices with all pharmacies. You will be amazed at the difference in prices.
I had a spider bite last September ( yes I saw the spider), I of course scratched the living day lights out of it and then immediately contracted a staph infection. My knee looked JUST like the pictures above. It stayed an open sore for 3 months.
I am terrified now because yesterday I had what I assumed was a mosquito bite on my leg. It was itchy and was red. When I woke up this morning I had a small white blister on my leg with a red swollen area around it going out about 1 inch each way. I can not handle another huge hole in my leg I still have my massive purple scar from the last one.
I immediately took my cipro ( anti-biotic) and I hope and pray that it will just shrivel up and die and not turn into another huge painful and costly experience for me.
A customer where I work happened to be a nurse and when I was showing my infected bite to a coworker she informed me to clean it 2-3 times a day with hydrogen peroxide. It stung so much I ended up visiting the doctor in the ER who put me on Bactrim for 10 days and was told to keep it clean and dry (hard to keep it dry though, since I live in the south, have no AC in my car, and it’s in my belly button). It wasn’t improving, so I did a follow up with my doctor and he said it had gone from a bite to a full blown staph infection (it was oozing through it’s gauze pad, although I’d just cleaned it an hour beforehand). He gave me Altabax, this great antibacterial ointment. After a few days of using it, it would sting really bad after applying. But on day 5 of using it, I look so much better today! It had started spreading but most of the new spots are normal skin looking now! The main hole has scabbed over and the new pustules are smaller. Since it’s in my belly button, I can just pour a little hydrogen peroxide in it and let it sit for a little while. Seems to work pretty well.
hi Jim,
I’m sendikng a picture of this bite I got a couple days ago. It’s getting very painful and resembles that of a spider bite? I work A LOT and don’t have time to go to the dr.
I had a spider bite last summer in Florida. I didn’t feel it when it happened. I must have been sleeping.I just noticed a sore on my butt that looked like a boil in the morning. I had never had a boil before so I assumed it was a spider bite because we were camping and sleeping outside. I didn’t do anything about it but showed a few people that had been bite by spiders before. They told me to go to the hospital, it looked like a spider bite. I didn’t go because i was afraid so hoped it would just go away. In the matter of one week it went from looking like a small pin dot boil to the size of a silver dollar. And it hurt !!!.
It felt like there was burning acid on my skin. I finally went to the hospital after I couldn’t stand the pain any longer. They had to cut it open and remove the poison from inside it. Then they put packing inside the hole and I had to go back in a week and have the packing removed. It had ate a large piece of my skin and left a large hollow place in my butt. We did find the spider in my car. It was a brown recluse. Next time I will go to the hospital as soon as I notice something that looks like a boil if I’ve been outside in Florida.
I got my ‘bite’ in Holland of all places. I woke up after one hell of a heavy night (so I was obvlivious to any bite during the night), and I was immediately aware that something had bitten or stung me.
This didn’t hurt too much at first - just a little swelling. However, upon my return to England 24 hours later, the area at the top of my leg had begun to swell and it was becoming increasingly painful. Of course, being a man I thought it would heal itself and that I would need nothing more than some cream that contained Hydrocortizone and Crotamiton….it didn’t help a bit. The wound had swollen up and little white pimples as described by others above had appeared on my sore too. The pain was excruitating and I attempted some DIY lancing with a needle. I guessed that once the swelling could be reduced, I would feel a bit better - ha! When I had inserted the needle about half a centimetre into the swelling and I wasn’t feeling any pain, I decided to stop. It was now obvious that some professional help was going to be needed.
The following morning the wound had started to leak a bit. Looking at it, I could see a gaping oozing hole had appeared and it was time to get to the doctor.
The lesson here is to get a medical opinion straight away. Once I was on the antibiotics (Flucloxacillin) and having the wound cleaned and packed with Kaltostat every day, then slowly (three weeks) it began to heal and has now cleared up leaving a scar to remind me of the happy event.
I still do not know if I was bitten, or if the swelling was as a result of a bite. Either way, seeing an infected wound on you own body should be enough to spur anybody to get help as soon as possible. Enjoy the pics!
thanks for sharing this information on here.i have a 14 year old daughter that had a red spot come up on her upper leg kind of like a mosquito bite,it got bigger and redder,with a pimple in the center of it.we decided to pop it and now it is bigger and has a red streak running from the side of it. i told her she needed to see a doctor and she didn’t want to,but seeing this on here she has decided to let me take her in the morning to see a doctor.so thanks for all your information.
christy hopper
lexington,tn