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 – 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 – 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 – 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!
I have the same bite on the picture by Julie. It is swelling. It has puss around it. My dad might not or he might bring me to the hospital. I’m very scared.
This was really great to read. I was recently bit for the first time in all my 23 years and I was bitten 4 times along the left side of my body. Only 2 have abscessed. I had to have one lanced 2 days ago and now currently have a 1in in diameter, 1 1/2in hole in my hip. They did not want to lance the other bite because they believe they can treat it with antibiotics. I am having to take out the packing and replace it and it is the worse pain I believe I have ever felt. (I believe this is because on your side it’s pretty much just nerve endings) I have to take 3 pain pills and wait for them to set in before I can do it.
I was told to do the Epson salt compression but I like the method that you mentioned you did and I believe I will try it that way this evening. I believe I will talk to my dr about the saline solution and the hibiclens.
It was also nice to read a story about it, my dumb self looked at pictures online and had horrible nightmares of what would/could happen with my bites.
This was very helpful and enlightening. Greatly appreciated!
@sunny
go to the hospital if the bite has not gone away for a year and its black and is going to probably need surgery for a staph infection.
One day I woke up and i noticed itching on my right calf and I looked down and I saw of what I thought was a mosquito bite and i put some itching cream on it and went on through my day. At night, when i went to bed, I noticed the bite had increased in size dramatically. It went from the size of a tic-tac to the size of a quarter. I asked my mom if it was Black Widow or Brown recluse and she said probably just a house spider or a wolf spider. I wasn’t concerned because I have bitten by both of those before. I went to bed. The next morning I woke up and I felt like my leg was asleep. And it was now the size of the bottom of a water bottle. I showed my mom and she said that she would get me into my doctor for an appointment within the next couple of days. The next day I woke up and it was now the size of a cd or dvd.
Two holes now appeared and the very middle the size of a tic tac was bruised. i was very concerned and my mom called for any appointments canceled the day of and there was none. The next day the bite was the size of a 42 ounce steak and was now shaped like a bulls eye. I looks up symptoms of spider bites on this website and black widow popped up. I had all of the symptoms but two and there were no other matches for black Widows. I went to my appointment and my doctor wasn’t that concerned and said “just keep ice on it to reduce swelling and it was as hard as a rock and to drink plenty of water and if a line appears to be running up your leg, to go to the ER and get it treated right away. in about 10-12 days it went away and I know about how to control spider bite spreading.
This information was very useful and helpful in many ways 🙂
This was enlightening for me to read. I’m awaiting the doctor’s office to call me as I’m experiencing a similar thing as you’ve described above, but not nearly as severe …yet. There is so much information here, I’m not sure what is going on! Guess that’s why I’m not paid the big bucks to be a doctor. :<
I wish you didn't have to go through something like this and thank you for being so diligent with keeping records to present to the public.
I was outside and felt a piercing sting just under my big toe and thought it was a red ant but I didn’t see one. I went inside washed off my foot because I had sandals on and it was burning so I sprayed Benadryl on it and that burned worse. A little later it looked like I had a very tiny cut and it was bruised all around it. Everyone looked at i and said it looked like I had gotten a spider bite and should have it looked at. The next day it was swollen and was hurting more so upon my husband and friends who told me horror stories I went to the dr. It had been 48 hours since the bite the doctor looked at my foot which was bruised in a circle shape about the size of 2 quarters with dark purple around it and he felt the lump and said there was fluid under there but since the pain was further ot the circle he said I could take antibotics for a few days and come back if it got worse which he felt would happen because his past experience unless it is cleaned out the antibotics can’t work I decided to let him numb it and just take some of the fluid out to see if there was an infection. He said if there was he would then have to lance and scrape out the infection. Well the needles were let’s say not quite enjoyable. he took out a little fluid and then pus started coming out so that cleane it all out and packed it.
I was given antibotics to take for 10 days and he said I could take the packing out after 48 hours. I needed to keep it very clean and wrapped until it completely healed. If I did not see an improvement or it started swelling or oozing pus I would have to come back and they might have to clean it again. I am so glad I didn’t wait! That was only 48 hours after and it was already infected to that point. I will tell you that I had this done this afternoon and my foot hurts so bad I couldn’t sleep not even on my pain meds! It hurts to move my toes, foot, and ankle. It is difficult to walk. I was not expecting this much pain and I pray it starts to feel better soon but it would have been much worse had I waited!
Saturday evening i had woke up from my nap and my lip hurt bad and i told my mo and she said it was a zit Sunday it was worse and it hurt more so ii took Tylenol because i have a surgery appointment for June 7th and by the way i am 12 turning 13 and yesterday i woke up because of pain and i went to the er and the doc took the scabs off and i got some stuff out it is a staff infected zit is what the doc said he subscribed antibiotic bactrum and said take it twice a day and put hot compresses on and come back today if it gets worse and when we got home i took a nap woke up stayed up for a while and took another nap and yesterday my dad looked at it and then told my mom to look at it and the thought it was a spider bite and my bed is on the floor till we get my bed frame fixed and i do have hygiene problems with not washing my hands after using the bathroom and now i do wash my hands because my lip sticks out almost to the tip of my nose and i am very scared if you have any advice please tell me
5/25/2011 Thank you all for sharing your story. It is so very helpful in understanding the initial experience and learning about the healing journey. My 28 year old son was admitted to the hospital yesterday for some random insect/spider bite [to the top of the right foot] while flying from the east coast to LAX. Couldn’t walk/bear weight by the time his flight arrived, swollen, red, hot & very painful. Went directly to the ER & was treated with rocephin -antibacterial injection- + bactrim -oral antibiotics, pain meds, marked the sight, determined to be cellulitis, [most likely a strep or staph infection] and was told to come back to the ER for a recheck the next day. Next day, swelling about 2cm beyond the margins, admitted to hospital, treating with iv antiobiotics- vanco + unasyn, blood thinner, & more pain meds. It’s been just a little over 24 hrs. since the onset of iv antibiotics. No idea how long this will last, but after reading everyone’s experiences, looks like it takes forever to improve. Absolutely one surreal experience. Praying that you all completely recover.
Thanks guys for the article, at least now I know what I have! I am going to the doctor right now! Appreciate your help guys! Hope you all get better soon!
I have a red spot on my backside like a spider bite its started to cure once the another one came back very itchy sometimes its cure again then another one came back very red sometimes its about 3 months now… could you help i still don’t know what is it?
I got a bite and didn’t realize I was bitten until it was swollen.
the same thing happened to me, i thought it was a spider bite or a bug bite but then it started to hurt. and began to leak…….. going to the doctor it was staph….. an i had to pack to wound. and the doctor told me putting ice is the worst thing you can do for it. placing a heating pad helps healing 🙂
My sister that’s 8 years had a bug bite on her left leg in August 2009 and it swelled up and was filled with pus, but we never got it looked at by a doctor. Recently she was complaining about her leg, so I told her to roll up her pants and on her right leg there was a bump that looked exactly like the bug bite she got in August 2009, we have suspicion that it is a staph infection.
I have a spider bite on the inner right side cheek of my butt, and today it started to bleed, Ive had this bite for almost a year now I think. The skin around it is black, I think it has lost feeling to. What should I do about the bleeding, and do I need to be concerned about it
Last year (2010) I had a battle with staph for the majority of the year, being as how I live with two other people, it possibly started from a simple tattoo or cat allergies or visiting people in the hospital or a prescription of antibiotics. Staph bacteria lives in the skin, and if you have allergies or eczema you are especially prone to this infection. After numerous prescriptions, doctors visits, and obviously extreme amounts of pain, I finally won the battle. Here is my advice:
Antibacterial soaps DO NOT work, antiMICROBIAL soaps DO ({Hibiclens} blue-green bottle)
Sterilize everything you have used for clothing, bed clothing and towels
Antibiotics become worthless if not used properly, if the medication isn’t finished properly or unevenly, the bacteria will become immune to it, even if you’re taking three prescriptions at once.
I find that after taking the bactroban ointment treatment in the nostrils, it’s helpful to keep some handy in case you feel a pimple begin to form in the nose, which by the way is where some staph and mrsa form.
Keep yourself clean and comfortable! Gauze and tape are a pain, but they deliver oxygen to the wound which helps deplete the bacteria. Adhesive bandages actually are worse, almost suffocating the dermis.
Once you’re over antibiotics, make sure you take a probiotic supplement to help your body’s natural defenses and to build the natural bacteria up to help fight off the foreign bacteria. Yogurt isn’t enough.
Good luck.
Hello every one I am new here. I was reading some stories and I have been showing signs of MRSA. I have the little red spots. I have been in and out of the emergancy room 13 times. I’ve seen my doctor 9 times and yet my doctor tells me I have eczema. I know what eczema looks like and I don’t have it. I will load pics of my legs and arms. I just had a trip to the emergency room 3 days ago to have a spot lanced open. I have been dealing with this stuff for 4 months now. Can some one please help me I don’t have insurance. I am low income and I need help. I don’t know what else to do.
My daughter (9) had what she said was a mosquito bite Christmas morning on her shoulder. Knowing that there are no mosquitoes in December in Colorado, I assumed it was a spider bite. It turned into what looked like a pimple with a white head by the afternoon. I popped it by wiping it with a soapy cloth and figured that was that. We then discovered a similar “pimple” on her torso. We headed out on vacation to the mountains.
It looks horrible 8 days later after azithromiacin, epson salt baths and compresses and anti-biotic ointment. It is about the size of a quarter. Purple and red ringed with green pus and a gaping 1/4″ crater in the center. The one on her shoulder looks much better, which gives me hope. I’ll take her to the doctor tomorrow and see what they say. I grew up on a farm in Ohio and I have to say I have never seen anything like this. I have never had an infection like this after stepping on nails in barns and cutting myself in dirty creek water! I’d post a photo but she is freaked out enough. I have to pretend I’m not worried. Please respond if you have any advise!!
I got bit last year by a brown recluse on my temple and didn’t go to the Dr. till my eye was swollen shut. Now I have a place that looks like that bite in the middle of my chest. Red circle with a white dot in it and the red is spreading out. My chest feels like someone hit it with a sledge hammer and I’m weak again. I went to the Dr. and they said it might be from an ingrown hair but i know better. I’m taking bactrim and they said come back in 5 days if i still hurts. It’s on my heart and that’s all they say to me? I feel like I’m having a heart attack. Sorry for the rant but should I wait a couple more days to see if the meds help or go on to the E.R.? Thanks in advance. Oh and I’m sorry for all who has been bitten because I know the pain. My head felt like it was about to explode and they had to cut out the dead flesh so you all are not alone.
My daughter is 2 and a half. She started to get these little white bumps on her body. Maybe 5 or 6 of them. They almost looked like pimples but were completely white and had no redness. The family I nanny for has three kids and 2 of them had the same thing. Their doc said it was staph and to wait until it turns red and then keep clean and covered as well as apply the muciprocin. Most of them went away on my daughter except one on her back at her belt line and a few smaller ones on her thigh. She has had them over a year or so and the one on her back recently became inflamed and swollen, probably from the rubbing of her pants. It got a head and after a week or two of looking horrible it popped itself. So we now are administering the cream 24/7 and using bandaids. Does anyone know if this will happen forever? It looks better but nowhere near “well” and its been about 2 weeks. The one on her thigh looks like it spread to 3 connected bumps. What is this? Is it staph? Will she be more likely than others to get it the rest of her life? Thank you!
Wow, all these stories and it amazes me how close they are to mine. I have no time to document right now, but, I can tell you, through my experience, 3 times now I have felt the little prick like feeling similar to a mosquito bite and ignored it at the moment it happened. I mean, you don’t freak over a mosquito bite. It seems it is the start of MRSA though, not a bite at all. The doctors don’t seem to want to disclose the fact that it is MRSA, because it causes panic. But it is very dangerous. If you have something suspicious like this DON’T WAIT, and, ask the doctor if he suspects it may be MRSA and to please do a culture to be sure. When you are prescribed antibiotics and they don’t help, and the doctor switches to a new antibiotic, that is a tell tale it is MRSA. Without a culture, they have no way of knowing it is MRSA until they see the antibiotic doesn’t help. MRSA is Methicillin-RESISTANT Staphylococcus aureus. So Methicillin doesnt work, the staph has built up a resistance to the drug. When you see them using Sulfa based drugs, often Bactrim, that’s what works on MRSA so they are suspecting MRSA when they prescribe that but they may not tell you that.
My case, I waited a week because, well, I don’t run to the doctor for a bite, but, when I couldn’t walk or take the bedsheets brushing up against my leg, I knew I had to go. The first antibiotics, after 4 days, there was no relief, then I went back and the doctor sent me to see a general surgeon that same afternoon who immediately admitted me to the hospital where I needed IV antibiotics round the clock almost for the next week. It was very scary…if MRSA gets into the bloodstream it is life threatening. I was quarantined and visitors were limited and had to wear a face-mask and hospital gown over their clothes when they did come. I wish I had gone sooner that first time, the 2 times since, I went immediately, got the right oral meds and did not need hospitalization. But those second 2 times the doctors NEVER said it was MRSA. I had to ask, they just say “you had a staph infection”, and the first time they instructed me to keep it quiet!
I believe we need to be educated more as this MRSA is becoming more and more prevalent. It is very contagious and will come back if you have it in your home. Or are yourself or in contact with someone who may be a carrier at work or school or anywhere and you wouldn’t even know it!. There really is no need for widespread panic if we educate. Just like strep throat…if you have a case in your child’s school you are notified that they are exposed and to watch for a sore throat or symptoms. If they come, you don’t just give home meds, you get to the doctor for a culture because you were exposed. Same here, If there is a case of MRSA in the school or anywhere, it should be told so that if you or your child gets a cut, you watch it closely, don’t just bandage it. If there is a cut or sore that is painful or doesn’t heal as expected, it needs to be looked at and cultured if there had been exposure, because the staph lives on surfaces we come in contact with every day. The staph also lives for something like 3 months as well, and when they sanitize the schools in a panic because there was a case in a school, that’s great, but, the moment the doors open and the children come back into the school, the germ comes right back in because statistics show that something like 33% of the population are carriers and walk around with the germ never getting symptoms. you can touch something, pick up the staph, scratch an itch and it gets under your skin or into a wound and grows. Moral of this story, don’t wait, GET IT CHECKED if it is questionable at all. I should have known from the MILLION mosquito bites I’ve had in my life that this was a little extreme for one! Hindsight….. 🙂
I was bit on my chin by a brown widow, Sept. 29, 2010. Very painful, turned into MRSA, spent 5 days in the hospital, IV and morphine, pain meds. Went for iv’s for2 more weeks. Still weak and get tried easy. Had it lanced and packed, thank the Lord and all the prayers I didn’t have to have more surgery. But like they say once you have it , you have to be very careful, it can come back easy. I had an infectious Dr., he said never pick or squeeze any bump, or pus filled bite ,pimple of any kind. I feel for all who have had this, my pain was unbelievable!!!!
Sunday night I felt a sharp pain on my left foot, my foot was swollen and red, but there was also a bright red circle with a white dot in the middle, it looked like a pimple. I thought “I did not know that pimples on a foot can be so painful!”
But I felt the pain on my right leg and saw another red circle with the same white dot in the middle.
I put Benadryl on all the bites (6) and went to bed. I do not know how to attach the pictures here, but I took pictures from day one until today.
Monday I went to the EC and was given an ointment (antibiotic) and told to come back if it got worse.
Today (Friday morning) I went to a different doctor. He took a culture and gave me Bactrim twice a day. He told me to do compresses with soapy warm water for 20 minutes several times a day. He said he will call me when they get the culture results back.
I keep my legs elevated, they hurt, it is a mixture of burning and pain. I feel stings suddenly, then a sharp pain, then just back to the burning sensation. For the most part my legs hurt all the time, all my lower legs.
I have the flu-like symptoms and feel very sleepy when I take the Bactrim.
What bit me? I have no clue, I did not see anything, just felt the pain and was shocked to see how many bites I have. I hope someone can help me identify the bite, and I also hope my documenting of the bite in pictures can help people. I disregarded the bite as harmless on Sunday night, but Monday morning I thought different and saw the doctor, then I kept a close look at the bites and decided today that I had to go back. After reading many posts here, I see that I may have to see the doctor more times.
my son is 4 years old. about 5 months ago he was bitten by some kind of insect ( not sure what it was). when he was first bitten it looked like a regular insect bite but as the days went longer it started swelling more and more. it was about the size of a golf ball on his left arm above his elbow. i took him to the doctor and they had to lance it and at that time we got a lot of puss and infection out but they did not give him anything to numb it before they did it and i will never let that happen again. after that we were told to put a hot compress and keep draining it.
well after all that it still did not get any better. i have been taking him back and forth to the doctor and they kept telling me to keep trying to drain it and it would eventually get better. well that did not work. it has been 5 months and every time i took him it look the same as all the other times. no the spot is hard as a rock.
there is no way to get any kind of infection to come out. at the appointment this time the doctor decides that it looks really bad (and its looked the same as the other times i have took him). today he has an appointment to give him ladocaine shots around it and have it cut open and get the hard core of infection out because from what the doctor says this is the only way that it will heal. i am very concerned that my 4 year old has been going thru this whole time and they haven’t even tested him in anyway for staph infection or anything. i need all the advise that i can get. i am hoping after they do all this today that it will completely heal up.
I have seen this many times before. This is not a bite from anything. It will appear at any time. There is only one thing I know that can help. Black walnut tinture. This can be bought from a health food store or vitamin shop. Make sure you get the one made with alcohol. Apply a very warm compress to wound. The wound needs to be open to allow the black walnut to seep in. After the compress, apply a few drops of black walnut directly to wound, allow to remain there. Apply a little black walnut to bandage before covering wound. Do this every time you clean the wound. In a matter of days a white substance will emerge, this is what you are waiting for. Gently apply pressure around head of wound, this white substance will pop out, do it again until all is out and clean blood is all you see. Apply black walnut again and then bandage up again. You will notice the healing by the next day. Continue to clean wound until all is healed. Remember, next time this happens, you got to act fast. Good luck.
Brown recluse (and other) spider bites can often closely resemble MRSA or staph infections… If you think it’s a recluse bite, SEE THIS INFORMATION – IMPORTANT… A simple nitroglycerin patch can save you a lot of pain and surgery.
Good god, man! I know that had to hurt!
Sorry, no pix, but here’s my story:
Mid July 2010, I noticed a pain in my right foot/ankle, thought I may have twisted it. (interesting side note here: there was a persistent itch just under the surface of the skin the first few days, but no noticeable bite) After about a week, I was limping at work. I borrowed a cane one day, just because, and my boss saw me using it & told me to go to the doctor. (I drive forklifts, so it really didn’t interfere much, yet) July 25th I went to the ER. They said “spider bite” and “staph infection” in the same sentence, after an x-ray revealed no break or sprain.
They prescribed two antibiotics. (I had a mrsa abcess before, on my butt-cheek, very painful, so I don’t want to take any chances)
My boss told me to take a few days off. I elevated the foot, took motrin & tylenol together, soaked it in hot water, used hot wash-rag compresses, saw no change, and did a stupid thing. I turned up the water heater all the way and ran my foot under the hot water. I decided it wasn’t hot enough, so I nuked a wet wash-rag in the microwave and put it on there. (very bad idea!) I made a paste out of epsom salts and baking soda, and put that on there. It finally formed a big bump, which I tried to squeeze like a zit, but only yellow water came out, and then it formed a scab, and turned black, like gangrenous death. I went back to the ER on August 1st. They gave me IV antibiotics, morphine, and said that it wasn’t mrsa. They told me that I had a second-degree burn from my stupidity. They gave me a prescription for vicodin, told me to stay off of it, and no more compresses. (hot OR cold!)
To make a long story only slightly shorter, I lost two weeks of work, had to pay over $80 for prescriptions, and got billed for a couple thousand bux worth of hospital bills (which, by the way, I have no intention of paying, since I have no insurance, and crappy credit anyway, so it doesn’t matter)
Moral: Don’t try to hasten the process with boiling water, it doesn’t help, it only aggravates matters! I’m just glad it wasn’t a recluse!
Peace!
my husband is recovering slowly from what we feel was a spider bite–he has had 6 different prescriptions finally it looks like Septra is working—–also was lanced twice—also has a staph infection—-we are going to a “wound specialist” as advised by our Dr—-we live in Ontario–Canada–Good luck to everyone going thru this—-
That happened to me 3 times and all of them left scars on me too .. 🙁
My mom has lots of bites, like right under her thumb and we asked our friend she is a nurse and she said that it was a spider bite so tell us any info you can get. Thanks.
– Candy
i know how everyone that has it bad feels i got the same bite bout a week ago and the pain in unbelievable, i don’t know what to do been to the doctor soaked it and everything i just wish i had something for the pain. its right on the forearm area
Hello,
I was wondering if anyone had the same thing that has happened to me this past week. Exactly the same thing you went through, I did. I felt the bite though and actually thought I got bit by a mosquito. But a couple days later it got very bad…so day 2 I go to the ER and the doc does a skin culture. Even though the size of the bite had reached about 3 inches in diameter and about a quarter size hard area underneath the main bite site. So, as you did, I poked it to try and get something out, nothing really happened but i knew from the space under the skin that was filled was becoming an infection. I wait two more days and now the bite is completely out of control.
Pain shooting through my entire left leg and I could barely walk. I actually started becoming very ill also. Very weak in my body and flu like symptoms. I return to the ER and explain that it has severely changed and now is 6in by 4in in size. it had opened itself and started leaking yellow pus and other bloody fluids through out the day. Once i told the dr this he decided to numb me and cut out the small area that had started necrosis. He sent that for a culture. Then while waiting my first culture came back. I HAVE A SEVERE DEADLY STAPH INFECTION CALLED MRSA…pronounced mersa…its resistant to most antibiotics and very deadly. Luckily they discovered this very early. MRSA is highly, highly contagious and severe measures need to be taken to prevent passing the bacteria. They said that the brown recluse or garden spider that bit me was more than likely carrying it and thats why I got it. Nothing anyone can do to protect themselves from it, it just happens sometimes. So I am now on 3 types of antibiotics, a topical antibiotic for the wound, and vicoden for pain.
All up to chance because you do not know and there is no way to know which antibiotics the MRSA is resistant to, its just trial and error. Since yesterday the redness in diameter has lessened back to about 4 inches. and the wound leaks onto the dressing lots of infectious blood, puss, and green stuff (don’t know what it is). I work in the operating room as a surgical tech so i see this stuff everyday, but this bite was no joke. Very severe and could have killed me if I did not catch it as soon as i did. Especially with the MRSA infection, my immune system is down. Ill try to put some pics up from the healing process. Hope this helps…
Meagan Navarro
When I was a freshman in high school i got the bacteria after a trip to my uncles ranch got me a horrible bug bite that i didn’t notice until i had accidentally scratched off the top layer of skin. I was in the weightlifting class in P.E where my Dr. judged my open bite must have come in contact with with someone else s sweat and started the infection at first i didn’t notice anything strange but then it started swelling and turning into a pus ball (by the way this was on my right side on the hip)id gone to the doctor and they told me to see come back in a week but the third day it had swollen to the size of a baseball,was hard and it was black and red. My chest throbbed constantly also. They rushed me to the Dr. Again only to be sent to my now surgeon/doctor who practically bit my former doctor’s head off for not noticing that it was a staph infection and sending me to the E.R. He immediately preformed surgery , by that time i could no longer feel anything in the area and i was starting to feel numb all over, my chest was tight,my vision blurry,i was sweaty and everything seemed slow mo.
He cut into it at first, saying how i had ruptured a blood vessel ,and it poured out globs of blood then he completely cut out the stretched out black skin and green stuff started oozing from it in liquid and in globs about that time things started to come back into focus then he took one of those popsicle stick things and started scooping out the rest of the still pooling goop that was once meat I noticed i had a hole now about an two inches wide and half an inch deep and that that hole had other little holes leading off deeper filled with the green stuff. Then my Dr. noticed and took a syringe and started sucking the goop out after a while they started bleeding again and leaking out little bits of the goop. My doctor said it was good because it meant the infection was coming out cleanly. Then he stuck what looked like a metal pencil with a hook at the end down a particularly open hole, it turns out that the infection had made a tunnel there about the length and width an un sharpened #2 pencil down into my leg. When he brought the hook back out with a pop there was a small cyst with veins leading from it at the tip of the hook and the hole started to bleed anew.
I suddenly felt a sharp pain in the area of the infection. The feeling had finally returned to there. The area was stripped of any dead skin and left over pus. The hole had to be made bigger because a small chunk of the goop go lodged in one of the mini holes and had before our eyes killed off a good centimeter of skin and meat. My doctor doused the whole thing with peroxide even poring into the tunnels separately.
By the time it was said and done I was a bit shaky and clammy and except for the 2inch and a centimeter hole in my side I felt fine.
I was told not to wash with bleach or Clorox and to not do any exercising for a while. Nothing that would make me sweat. i was to wash with hibiclens every other day and was given a cream to put in around my nostrils and the infected area. I was also given ibuprofen for the pain. the Dr. said i got lucky and we caught it before it reached the bone or my heart directly but it could have still killed me. Unfortunately it went into my blood stream and it’s going to take until I’m in my 20’s for it to be cleaned out.
I had to be bedridden for a few days and miss school for two weeks before I could walk without falling every few feet and my 105 fever went down enough for me to stop seeing things.There were a few moments I remember feeling like I was gonna go and thinking “Oh jeez I really don’t wanna go this way..not this way..not yet”.I was left so sensitive to the infection any bug bite,scratch, zit, cut, slice basically any split skin were pus could form could send me to the E.R. and it did twice once for a cut i got while wrestling and once for a zit on my shoulder both of which luckily didn’t turn out like my first time. I still get minor ones i can clean out (on my right side my left side has had them only once or twice) and I’m careful with what i do. I have little scars from the small ones but the scar that still hurts even though its healed is the raised asterisk shaped one on my hip.It’s a permanent reminder of how I stared death in the face and pleaded for mercy. It’s amazing how the thing that hurt me the most isn’t a bully, it is a microscopic bacteria I couldn’t even see until it was too late. Please guys if you have the symptoms or know someone that does skip the doc and go to the E.R. I was centimeters from losing my life from a lack of judgment and I don’t want anyone else to go through the same thing.
Hey everyone, I just wanted to share a little something with you all regarding a spider bite and staph infection. In Jan. 2006 I was bitten by a spider (so I thought) so i decided to self-treat the bite as i have no medical insurance. i thought this would be no big deal. WRONG, needless to say that bite kept getting worse and worse. i went to the ER and they did a culture of it, and sent me home on antibiotics. it started to get worse, so i went back to the er they said to continue taking the antibiotics and come back if it got worse. 11 days later i received a letter in the mail telling me to get back up to the er asap because i had staph infection.
needless to say by this time it sent me into septic shock when i arrived to the er i had a blood pressure of 85/35 and had no clue where i was or that i was even alive. this staph infection ended up going to my heart and lungs. It caused my heart valve to leak creating a vegetated mass on my heart (i was 25 yrs old) the doctor who started treating my staph infection gave me so much penicillin that it literally sent my kidneys into shock and they had to cut my neck and put me on dialysis for 4 rounds. i was scared to death. anyways I am much better now, but i have learned from all of this that once you have something like this happen the best thing you can do is use antibacterial EVERYTHING. constantly sanitize your hands, don’t use anything of anyone elses, towels, clothes, nothing. once you get one of these, you will always be succeptable to them. as a matter of fact i was walking out onto my patio yesterday morning and there was a bees nest built in the track of my sliding glass door that i didnt know about and when i opened it, a wasp dive bombed me and he stung me on the cheek, and he must have gotten me on my left breast because i had a small little bitty bump come up and not the redness has spread and its about 4-5 inches wide and about 6 inched long.
i am going to have to go to the doctor tomorrow to get antibiotics so this doesn’t get any worse. anyways my best suggestions for any of you dealing with spider bites or staph infections, stay out of the lakes, rivers etc, i cant go into any of these its a guaranteed staph infection every time. Pools are the same way, but not quite as bad. i always use either safe guard soap or dial. they also have a newer antibiotic called staphaceptic (available at rite aid and walgreens, walmart doesn’t carry it) that helps with any type of these staph sores.
I woke up in the middle of the night to a sharp pinch on my butt. I jumped out of bed, turned on the lights but didn’t see anything. The next day, I looked at where I had been bit, and it was the size of a golf ball. I let it go for two more days and it grew to the size of a baseball, with a huge red ring around it. Went to my parents and showed my mom and she then attempted to lance it her self. After several attempts, and me screaming my head off, she told me to go to the emergency room. They saw me right away, drained the bite and prescribed me some antibiotics. After about a month, It finally healed but then I noticed two more bumps, right around the initial bite. Now, after 8 months, I have one huge scar on my butt and two small ones. I still break out with similar looking bumps on my thighs and my other cheek. I’ve even noticed a few on my arms and stomach. After reading all of your posts, I’m really worried that it might be a staff infection that was just misdiagnosed. I don’t have any other symptoms, just the reoccurring painful bumps that leave very dark, bruise like scars. Any advice or suggestions would be much appreciated.
I’m going through my second staph infection in 4 months
They tested my culture the first time and apparently I’m not MRSA positive.
I live in a basement apt in North Vancouver, Bc. I’ve spotted little brown spiders around my place but I honestly don’t know if I’ve been bitten.
I think there might be other possible causes such as stress, recent dental surgery (root canal), exposure to the sun, or spending time in the ocean. The first time happened just after returning from a trip to Hawaii and now southern BC is going through a heat spell. I am pretty active so I get my share of sunshine, and I did go swimming last week in the ocean.
Additionally, I put myself through quite a bit of trauma via a constant barrage of mountain biking injuries. Is it possible that by putting my body through so much healing, I’ve compromised my ability to fight this bacteria?
Thanks everyone for sharing your experiences and knowledge and a special thanks to the first article that has brought so much comfort and inspiration.
staph can be stop at the first stage as it start out as pimple/ before it turns into a boil get worse.
My spider bite came during the night of Saturday 17th July. It was probably a house or garden spider as the spiders in Malta are not known to be poisonous. However the area looked very red just like the photo #12 taken by Teri P on June 23rd. 2008. Being an aromatherapist I put pure lavender essential oil and pure Tea Tree essential oil as well as witch Hazel and ice. The swelling and redness increased between Saturday 17th July 2010 and Monday 19th July I also used a small amount of anti histamine cream but i then used a mixture of lavender and Myrhh essential oils with some aqueous cream and it seemed to do the trick.
The center of the bite did not develop into a pustule. The original margin of redness had a diameter of at least 2.5 cms with edema. but 3 days later the swelling is almost all gone and the redness area has a diameter of approx. 1.25 cm or less. I kept treating it with the essential oils three times daily . I think they did the trick. As you said all spiders have their own kind of venom even if it is not like some of the well known poisonous spiders.
I have gotten a staph infection 3 times now. the first time I got it on my upper thigh and that time I went to the ER and they squeezed it out.. and it hurt so bad! 2nd time on my butt which really hurt..that time i was not going back to the ER i put drawing savve on it.. its been 4 years and now i have one on my under arm..
Not to mention the last two I still have scars from it..:(
go to the doc if this sounds like what you have.. its really painful the longer you wait
Going into week two with my two spider bites an inch on the inside of my right ankle and mid-calf on the back of my right leg. Guess the little critter crawled up my pants leg while I was in the garden and bit me. Didn’t feel a thing, either. The leg tendon hurt pretty bad last weekend from my ankle to my knee from the ankle bite zone. Walking and flexing the muscles and tendons around the ankle bite site has not been a good thing to do in healing the bite above the ankle, but I have to work for a living and had no choice.
The lower bite hurts slightly to moderately all the time sitting or standing or laying down. The size is constant at about a half an inch wide with a quarter inch reddened skin outlining completely surrounding it. It looks like a gun shot wound from a small caliber round. No red streaks (as if blood poisoning is occuring) are present. There is a burning, itching, and pulsing type of pain associated with the lower bite site. Sometimes it feels like a very bad bruise when I walk and the boot makes contact directly with the bite.
The upper bite has scabbed over nicely and is healing. Sometimes it itches after I first get up and start to walk about from resting or sleeping, but it quickly subsides by the time I drink my first cup of coffee. I don’t pick at the scab or squeeze the area around it when it itches. I walk off the annoying sensation by staying busy or watching the news on TV.
The baking soda rubbed into the bite crater forms a hard, powdery seal that scabs over till body fluids dissolve it. Reapplying the baking soda as it cakes up and falls out .
Wiping out the decayed flesh with a rough cloth and applying the dry baking soda quickly afterward has appeared to keep the rotting flesh and depth of the increasing bite site to a minimum. Yeah, it hurts doing that with the cloth and I wouldn’t recommend doing it to a little kid, someone with a heart condition, or a whiny person, but the hole noticeably stopped spreading after I began wiping out the dead flesh with the rough cloth and began rubbing the dry baking soda into it. Daily I pour pure hydrogen peroxide several times into the bite zone to flush out any bacteria and then let it dry before rubbing in the baking soda. Rest of the time, I just reapply the baking soda. Even applied a very strong garlic tincture made with 90 proof vodka during the first week which too out a lot of redness after the pimples popped over each bite site. Garlic kills bacteria on contact and is a blood purifier.
The baking soda and clean water paste helped a lot at first in pulling out the venom and dead flesh and bacteria when I first discovered the bites in their pimple-looking stage, but I couldn’t work or walk with the paste attached to my leg. Kept falling off as I walked. I applied the paste at night and slept soundly after the stinging subsided in a little while.
Spider bites, from my numerous ones in my half-century life span, appear to heal faster if air can get to them.
When I stand too long or wear my work boot too tight or both, the bite above the ankle feels like it wants to explode out–like there is pressure building in the bite area that laying down takes away. So far, it hasn’t blown out.
Luckily, I have the day off and will stay off my feet as much as possible. That sensation that the bite mark wants to blow out with a lot of force is very uncomfortable and kind of scary. The mental image of a torrent of dead flesh, blood, and venom pouring out of the bite site in a gushing stream is sort of nauseating, but that is what the bite site feels like it wants to do if I stand too long or wear my work boot too tight. I might want to lay off the science fiction television for a while because images of alien bites exploding is the backbone of scifi TV.
As of now (two weeks after the initial sign of the bite), the crater fills with a amberish/clearish fluid that I wipe away and treat with hydrogen peroxide and dry baking soda applied directly into the crater to fill in the hole. It hurts, but it appears to be working in stopping the spreading of the bite’s overall size.
I wouldn’t try doing this sort of painful treatment to a small child, a childish person, or old person unless I sprayed a strong type of painkiller over the bite mark and kept the person distracted while the treatment was in progress. A very strong clove oil tincture is a good topical pain killer if you can’t afford the expensive sprays from a pharmacy.
Hope the above info helps. Note: I am not a doctor and use my above treatment method at your own risk. I assume NO liability if you further injure yourself. I strongly recommend you go to a doctor for treatment, but in our current financial state in the USA, you might not have the medical insurance that will cover a series of doctor’s visits it takes to treat a nasty spider bite. Contact your local county health clinic and maybe they can direct you to free medical care.
Abia the Cat
@lavelle, glad to know you’re well now, amazing how a spider can literally put your life at risk.
I developed a staph infection from some sort of bite on my inner thigh and all I used on it was 2.5ph acidic water or hypochloris acid, as it is recognized as by the FDA. I got this from my Enagic SD501 water ionizer. I kept the wound wetted with this special water that is used extensively in Japanese hospitals and clinics to heal wounds topically. The infection Rapidly retreated so that now, two days after a full-blown infection covering about an area the size of a duck egg, with redness and heat extending almost over my entire inner thigh, to waking up with a boil with a head the size of a dime and base the size of a half dollar.
It started draining immediately upon applying the strong acidic water, which I did by saturating gauze and holding it in place on top of the wound with a large band aid. I am a nurse and have done a lot of wound care in hospitals and in clinic settings and have Never seen any kind of infection retreat this way, especially without the use of oral antibiotics. If you are like me and prefer to avoid drugs and antibiotics in favor of just giving the body essentially what it needs (I also hydrate my body internally very well with the alkaline ionized water), this is the way to go! It is not the first time I have personally experienced the wondrous healing powers of this water either!
A co-worker, while on vacation, was bitten by a spider-later to find out it was a brown recluse. The bite swelled up and was very painful. On his trip home, he stopped by a Rite-Aid and asked the pharmacist what to do. He recommended the Rite-Aid brand of “DrawOut Salve”, a tar smelling ointment that reminds you of what your Grandma would have used. Well, it caused the swollen site to drain profusely. The next day he went to his doctor and she confirmed it was a spider bite. She also said, had he not used the Draw-Out salve, she would have had to flay the arm open to drain the poison. He was put on antibiotics. A week later there was only a small scab where the bite had been. The Doctor not only recommends the Draw-Out Salve to her patients but has it on hand in her office.
A niece of another co-worker was also bitten a few weeks later. After going to the ER with little results, her aunt (knowing the value of the Draw-Out Salve’s results with the first bite) treated her niece with the salve. Within two days, all swelling was gone and there was no necrosis (skin eaten away by the venom).
all of the above, however I have thick brown stuff on my tongue and food taste funny, any advice, I can’t find anyone with this problem
Having experienced staph from a boil and having experienced it with my husband (him from a bug bite, probably a spider) and now going thru this with my 13 yr son, i can tell you that the best thing to do is to apply warm to hot wash towels, boil the water with salt or onion and apply every 2 hrs for 15-20 min. Before it was confirmed that my son had staph, he showed me a red Bump on his pelvis that looked like a bite, it had a black head on it (this was weds night). There was no swelling to it yet. The next morning it became painful. I applied wash cloths and within 30 min the black head had fallen out. We did this throughout the day since he wasn’t feeling sick or anything and the cloths eased the itch and pain and the black head had disappeared we thought it could have been a bee bite. But on Friday morning he felt burning on the inside and when i looked at it the redness had formed a circle around the bite and it was now swollen, i knew right away he had staph.
He couldn’t see his pediatrician that morn, so i applied the wash cloths mixed with onion & salt and by that afternoon that he saw the ped, she confirmed that it was staph and was able to pop out enough pus for lab work. She gave him antibiotics and told us to keep with the wash cloths and that it may not pop entirely. Well i continued with the washcloths friday evening and by Saturday morning it started oozing. We continued this sat and sunday, by sunday afternoon the bump had diminish to about 1/4 of the size it had been. Now, oozing out the yucky stuff is extemely painful because you have to apply a lot of pressure to the hard areas around the bump to push out the pus and blood. this morning it looked so much better! The two holes he has where the pimple heads were look clean and healthy. He has a follow up on Tues. I truly believe that the warmth of the cloth whether its wet with hot water or steamed helps bring out the infection out of the infected area. When i developed my boil under my armpit, it became infected with staph (mrsa), the redness and burning associated with it had spread down to the side of my breast. The dr told me to apply the wash clothes, preferably with hot water (as hot as you can stand it) for 15-20min every two hours. He said my boil was so hard that it probably would not burst and if it didnt’ to come back in a week. He sent me off with antibiotics, gave me an antibiotic shot and 800mg of pain medication. I got home around 12:30 and started doing the wash cloths, but i boiled water and added onion and salt. Did this every 2 hours as scheduled and lo and behold while I was doing the 8 o’clock one, i notice blood & pus on the cloth, i ran to a mirror and saw a head on the boil.. i gently touch it and it began oozing… i rushed to the clinic that night and the dr could not believe that i was there.
He couldn’t believe the boil had busted that quickly. He even asked me what i had done, and i told him just what he said except i added onion and salt to the water, he said that probably did the it. He drained it that night and inserted a packing that i had to replace every other day but the important things was that the infection was out sooner and faster than expected!!! SO USE THE WARM to HOT CLOTHS with onions or salt!!! Oh, and to the person who has MRSA on her skin, clorox showers were recommended to us. Take a cup of clorox bleach and mix it in about 5g pail of water and pour over your body from your neck down after you have showered. do not rinse afterward!! this should be the last thing on your body.
When I went to sleep one night I woke up the next morning with itchy bites on each of my legs then they started hurting and i couldn’t walk, I was taken in the doctor’s office the next morning and they said it was definitely a spider bite. I was very scared because next my doctor said i had something called staph infection. Spiders usually carry it so i’d watch out it was completely terrible!
We actually just found a camel scorpion spider in our garage in Yuma, Arizona…It was absolutely huge…It was unbelievable…I have never seen something like that in my life..Today we called the Pest Control company to come out and spray because we have a small dog and if it bites a small aniamnal it can KILL it….It may not be able to kill adults but it can kill an aniamal
I have bean bite or gotten a staph infection on my toe it is like a red blister and the skin around it is red.
I have a little raised cut that looked like it was infected. Then the next day it started looking like a volcano. After three days I went to he doctor and he gave me antibotics. It was really getting large and was red and hard around the middle. He thought it was a spider bite. The next time I was there he decided to drain it. He gave me a shot of lanocaine and I hit the roof. He jammed that needle in me. He then made an incision. He also suggested I inject hydrogen peroxide into the wound -I could not find any one who would agree with that. Because he jammed the shot into me and I doubted his knowledge I decided to go to Centra Care.
Got a super nice doctor who gave me a shot of lanocaine -which hurt but not as bad as the last guy and he packed it with medicated gauze. I went to another doctor 2 days later and he removed it and said it looked good. Still on anti botics. Guys don’t feel around with this stuff or you’ll end up having your arm or something else amputated. Keep your wound bandaged. Get some non stick gauze and put a little triple antibiotic on it to keep it from sticking to your wound. I would keep it dry and not get it wet when showering
Two days ago my ring finger on my right hand started to itch. I first though it was just another mossy bite as I didn’t see anything biting me. But yesterday I noticed two small points filled with clear fluid. The wound itself is not painful, but I find the palm of my hand itching all the time. I took the first photo last night and the second one a few hours ago this morning. There seams to be a big difference and I wonder to what it will change next. Sound familiar to anyone? I live in NSW Australia.
What happened to me to truly life threatening. Unfortunately, I don’t have any photos to share. I was bit by a spider or some kind of insect on the top portion of my right thigh on Thurs, Nov 19, 2009. As I was being bitten, I felt the sting, but did not see any insect. The site was red, swollen just like a mosquito bite. By Friday, it got bigger, by Saturday, it was sore with a yellow pump in the middle. By Sun, it was huge, as big as a baseball. I had chills, leg cramps and it was very painful to walk. I decided Mon, to go to the Dr. My Dr. immediately admitted me to the hospital.
The bite got infected and caused an abscess to form under my skin. I had to have it surgically removed or the infection would enter my bloodstream. I had emergency surgery Mon night. My wound was about 4cm deep and 8 cm wide. What happened after that was a nightmare. I was given IV antiobiotics of Vancomycin, however, my body had a reaction and my kidneys went into acute failure. I had gained almost 40 pounds of fluid. I had to have 4 treatments of dialysis including a blood transfusion to try to restart my kidneys to normal function. After 14 days in the hospital, my kidneys started to function properly and after 16 days I was released. I had to have a home health nurse to visit twice a week to change the dressings on the wound. By the way, I was on a Wound Vac which really help heal the wound quickly.
Now I am doing well and thank God for my recovery. My doctor told me if I waited another day, the Mercer Staph infection would have infected my bloodstream and would not be here today. So please take this seriously!!!!! If you have an infection like the photos picture through this forum, go to the doctor or ER immediately!!!!!!
After reading more of the above incidences maybe the key difference in what happened to me and some of the others is that I had Cellulitis vs Staph because I have not had any other recurring problems since then and no one around me had staph during that time frame. Also note that they did the culture the same day that I went in on the second visit after receiving the initial antibiotics for the bite which weren’t working. (Tue and Fri)
2 yrs ago I got bit, unknown what kind of spider but noticed an itch right away. That night washed the dishes and either ran a fever and chills or the next night (lost old skin on feet and hands). big bump developed next day on arm about golf ball sized. went to doc’s on Tues got an antibiotic that did not work by friday and went back, they took culture and decided cellulitis was problem not the venom. took that and it didn’t really do a whole lot for me. applied fresh garlic on site and kept disinfected and covered, worked some but still a problem. when my muscles in the forearm started to spaz i had to massage the muscle which would work for the pain for a few minutes, couldn’t hold anything with that hand (right hand). numbness in hand also because of that. since it was full of pus i started to squeeze it out to drain. i am glad i did because i had a streak that was going up the inside of my arm towards my heart! that was the best thing for me so i cannot say don’t do it, may be it is situational but if that pus stays then it is more poisoning in your system. eventually it healed with no real help from the docs.
bitten by garden spider whilst gardening – amongst wood chip mulch. First indication was extreme itching, burning, like a chillblain but worse. Next morning a white spot which broke and oozes blood and pus, in two areas about the size of a 5cent piece. I washed and applied tea tree oil – not good. Second day after reading on the internet I bathed the foot in a plastic container of hot water and common salt, applied paw paw ointment and a gauze pad. Next day less ooze, and looks clean, a bit raw, and redid the soaking in salty hot water, and reapplied paw paw ointment and gauze, it looks better and no pain – I think I ‘ve had a win….. hopefully
i have an infection on my foot and it is bleeding every second.the doctor said i was loosing to much blood and i can die from it.he gave me some cream for it but that just made it worse.so i went to him again and he gave me some pills that made it go away half way but then i got it more.so i am coming to someone else i think i can trust and get more help for my problem.and it also has a big hole in it and it has this pink stuff coming out of it.i think it happened when i got a cut and i never put a band aid on it or i didnt wash it.and then it got magnets in it and that’s when i went to the doctors the first time for it.then he told me to come back in like a week so i did and that’s when he gave me meds for it and i got it worse!so please if someone ever read this i would really like it if you help me because i really want to keep my foot!thank you.
I got what appeared to be a regular spider bite on my leg around 2 weeks ago, and i’ve never had a pretty bad spider bite. I’m more used to mosquito bites and since i am allergic to mosquito bites i am used to the swelling and redness of skin. The “bite” turned to a small pimple type thing and the redness was gone, so i though it was gone and popped it. The next day it came back, and of course popped it again. -Repeat 2 more days.
Then it started to scab. I thought it would last a while and dry out. But its been 2 weeks and the original sore is about the size of a dime and after i shower the scabbing comes off and clearly i have a crater on my leg. Also in the last week i got another about 3 inches above the other and i did NOT tamper with that one it still manages to leak out some clear fluid and it has stayed pretty much the same size. I was doing peroxide washes, and also lime juice washes that seem to ease itching and also dry out the sore. It has been clearing the sores really well on one leg and i was pretty sure it would be gone withing a week.
Today i noticed another white “pimple” on my opposite leg and since I’m in the gym everyday i thought it was nothing more than a sweat pimple. So i popped it thinking there’s no way whatever this is can travel through my body to this leg. And it’s already swelling up. I’m going to the doctor ASAP which is tomorrow, and i hope this goes away. I haven’t gone yet because, again, i’m used to swelling and blistering from insect bites, but i decided to do some research today and it’s pretty scary knowing what can potentially happen if left untreated.
Not all staph infections can come from a spider bite or any other bites. How about chicken juice?
Told as understood from the doctors at the ER:
I had some kind of cut or scratch at the cuticle area around the nail on my hand. I was cooking chicken for dinner that night. I ate dinner washed my hands like always and my boyfriend and I watched a movie. I fell asleep during the movie and when I woke my finger already started to swell.
Over that night my finger swelled to about an inch or more around and felt very tight. I had thought I may slept on wrong anything other than the worse. I had a remaining portion of antibotics and pain meds left from when I was sick a couple of months earlier. I started to take those that night. I was in high hopes that it would go away the next day and it didn’t. It become worse.
I decided I better go to the emergency room as I didn’t want it to get any worse. The looked at my finger and gave me shots at the base of my finger to release some pain as they lanced my cuticle. When they lanced it pus shot out and they drained it.
The ER Doctor told me that the juice from the chicken got into the sore and started the staph infection. He told me that because I already started the antibiotics in the beginning that it didn’t get as worse as it could have. For it to completely heal, it took about 4 weeks.
However, my finger does look a little odd and slightly bigger from the infection.
If there are any signs, then I would strongly suggest going to the doctor or even an emergency care facility. The sooner it is treated the better
4 years ago I got bit by something. I have no photos, but looks a lot like the above pictures. It became infected and I ended up in the hospital with MSRA. Now this year I have had 4 outbreaks looking just like the photos.
All 4 times I had cultured and they were MSRA. The last time I had one in July and was so sick I ended up in the hospital for over 8 days. My folic acid was extremely low, I had anemia very bad and a liver infection from the MSRA. I lost my job due to the time off of work and the fact that it is contagious.
My thought is that the bite is not the worse thing but getting an infection that develops into MSRA. I have talked to numerous specialists and they all say I will develop this again. I have 2 small children at home so I have to be very careful about them getting this.
I disinfect my bathroom daily with Clorox especially when I brush my teeth or use the toilet. My kitchen has to be disinfected also. Also, do not let your children sit on your bed or use your personal towel or any personal items you use. I also have to wash my body daily with a special soap that removes the MRSA from my skin to be less contagious to other people. A person can die from MRSA because it attacks your body. I don’t know the solution and neither do the doctors. Good luck.
I’ve had 3 spider bites that got staph infection, one on my leg, one on the back of my thigh, and one on my lower back.! if you have staph, hurry up and recover it, it can get bad because they can come back anywhere, and if it comes back on your brain, or heart… YOUR
DEAD!
thanks soo much for this post. I recently got bit by what i think was a spider. im not sure though. i went to the doctor today and she said its infected. they took a culture so ill have to wait until that comes back. right now im on 2 antibiotics, one for staph infection and one for strep (idk how you get strep in your elbow). once the culture comes back, i will only have to take one antibiotic. i hope my bite doesn’t get to the point at which ill need surgery. :/ thanks again.
my friend haley has this ginormous bump on her knee and we poked it with crayola scissors and a bunch of rainbow colored pus came out and shot me in the eye and it really burned and im not sure what to do now because i can no longer see out of my eye that it shot me in.. and is it possible that maybe, just maybe. . she got abducted by aliens the other night and implanted with their alien spawn life form??
Because a couple evenings ago, haley claims that she went for a walk and all of a sudden a big green light shot down upon her and sucked her up into this futuristic metallicky UFO (alien spaceship) she then remembers being tortured and anally probed by these so called “aliens” then woke up on her roof the following morning with a very sore tush. i find this to be very disturbing and im worried about her alot and i many times wonder if shes alright??? what do i do because like i believe her story because now im blinded in my left eye but then again it sounded fake to me come to think about it…
so ummmmm help me please…..
well I don’t know how I got staph but it was extremely painful. I noticed on my side along my bra line under he arm a small pink bump. I didn’t think anything of it. Figured it was a mosquito bite from being at my son’s football games. Well I went to my dr for an unrelated problem about a week later. In that time I thought I was getting the flu. At the dr office my temp was 103 and I said on by the way can you look at this thing on my side. He immediately said that was where the temperature was coming from. He said it wasn’t cellulitis or a boil. there wasn’t any drainage or a head on it. He put me on 875 Augmentin and 500 amoxicillian twice a day. I was off work the next two days and then that weekend it started to drain brownish stuff. I went back that Monday and he immediately sent me to the ER. They had a surgeon put me under twilight and cut it out. It was staph. I am still getting it packed and cleaned everyday. i went back to work this week after two weeks off. It doesn’t hurt but it’s going to take at least a month more to heal. It is five inches deep and four inches wide. My Dad is going to pack it for me as the nurses no longer do it once you go back to work. Boy am I glad I showed the dr that day. It was hot to the touch. He said it was either a bug bite or a hair follicle but I don’t have any hair there since it is well below my arm pit!
well i don’t know if mine is staph or not but i do know that it hurts a tin…it is about big as my hand that is encluding the swelling and i tryed to squeeze it and nothing comes out so im thinking if i do have it they will have to lance it and i dont kno what the crap bit me but i hate it so bad right now any info or sugestions email me jessica_rim_rocka69 [at] yahoo.com
I discovered a spot just under my left breast in late June of 2007 this spot eventually became a staph infection which spread from my breast to my stomach. On my stomach I now have a scar the size of a silver dollar and that has no feeling at all. I learned the hard way that if you contract MRSA do NOT pick at the “pimples” trying to pop them. That only gives the staph a chance to spread quicker.
It is best to go to the Dr and be treated but if for insurance reasons this is not an option then coat the area in Neosporin and continually clean with Peroxide and some sort of saline solution..most importantly keep it thoroughly coated with Neosporin and keep it wrapped because it can be contagious…my husband had the staph first and was told by our family doctor that it is contagious and can be easily spread by contact. I never want to feel that kind of pain again…ever…I would rather go through childbirth again.
What should you do if you think the spider bite is infected This is on a 16month old.
it sounds like you are lucky. i had a staph infection on my arm, but i didn’t know what it was so i didn’t go to the doctor for awhile. by the time i did, half my arm was swollen and black. i was terrified. i noticed that the scar it left is black itself but my doctor said that is normal. now i have another staph infection and I’m on my way to the hospital once my ride gets here. its even scarier now because I’m seven months pregnant and its on my back so i cant see it to tell how bad it is. the only reason i know its staph is because on of my friends looked at it and told me its pretty big, red, swollen, with a ring of black around the outside and a ring of black on the inside of the red and yellow inside that ring of black. i have no idea how i got it. i live on the outskirts of a woods, so it could literally be anything.
I thought I got bit by a spider too. But, it ended up being MRSA. I had some minor surgery to drain one infection and am on my 2nd installation of medication and getting better every day.
But, don’t let it go. Go see a doctor and have a culture done as it may be something very important and difficult to get rid of without prescription medication!
My advice to anyone out there if your bite turns to a staph infection be sure to have it checked for mrsa. chances are you probably have it, too. Have a culture done on the infected site and also your nares (nose) this is where mrsa will collinate. If the problem is not corrected for your nares you will run a high risk of another staph infection.
1ST OFF SPIDER BITES HURT! If you think that you have bitten by one but did not feel it or see it then odds are that it is MRSA (staph) infection. More often than not this is misdiagnosed by people even doctors especially in the early stages. Most people dont feel as comfortable admitting or telling others that they got a staph infection cause they feel like it sounds like they are nasty or have bad hygiene, etc. None are the case since ANYONE can get a staph infection. So they feel more comfortable saying and even believing that they have a spider bite.
I have had a bad staph infection when I was 18, started from an ingrown hair under my arm and It formed a bump that was tender so I tried to get it out (Ingrown hairs happen all the time to me) and it got worse and the bump got huge (boil) Had to get it lanced and drained. Took antibiotics and it went away after 2 rounds of them and then a while later it came back but I went and got antibiotics so it never got big or bad.
My bff has been fighting it for well over a year it is in her blood and keeps coming back.
I got a sore pimple type bump on my back about a month ago I tried to pop it and nothing came out and i put antibiotic ointment and band aide for a few days and it stayed a bump but did not get bigger and the other day it was feeling a little bigger, sorer, and looked as if i may could pop it but i was scared it would turn in to mrsa if it was not the whole time. i asked my friend after i applied hot compresses for half an hour to help me since it is hard for me to reach i cant with both hands. i told her not to squeeze to just push strait down close to the sides and she did not listen she squeezed it hurt. A little plasma came out and i could see a tiny black dot that i told her needed to come out for it to go away.
i put polysporen and band aids on it for a day or two finally it formed a bigger white head and a tiny one beside it and i put hot compress on it and got all the whitish yellow pus and more plasma and i could see a big black spot right there which come to the surface of the whole after the pus came out and it did not act like it wanted to come out. i put antibiotic and bandages on it and today there is no swelling the whole is smaller i can still see the black thing there but it seems like it is going back down in there and even may heal over.
Does the black thing not need to come up???
Couple years ago, I was bitten on the top of one foot by probably a Parson spider when I put on a slipper that was laying on the floor. Parson is the little black ‘hunter’ type that you often see in houses along baseboards and corners, but they roam, especially at night. Whatever it was, it was offended by my reclaiming its nice new home, so it nailed me. I recalled feeling it, but rubbed my other foot on top of the painful area, and probably snuffed the Parson. I didn’t think of it as a bit until a while later when I realized it was still hurting. I found something that might have been smushed spider in the shoe, but still didn’t pay attention to it, not thinking I’d been bitten.
When I went to bed, I noticed two pimple-like dots about 1/8″ apart — probably from the fangs, and I thought I must have been bitten. I washed it off, but I did not swab it with alcohol or anything — didn’t seem that big a deal — and went to bed. Next day it hurt all day but I could wear a shoe and didn’t slow me down much. Same next day, but the pain was not decreasing, and that puzzled me. I had put some ointment on it, and it was red in the area, but nothing extreme or much swelling.
Third day (Sunday) it was getting noticeably worse. Foot was swelling but not a lot redder, so it wasn’t looking scary, just hurting more. By Monday I was having a hard time with stairs at work, and was trying to keep the foot up as much as I could, but it was worse by afternoon. Then someone came in and mentioned that their child had been bitten on the cheek at camp once, and within three days was in the hospital with a bad staph infection. She was diabetic, and her circulation problem evidently made the situation worsen more quickly than it might have otherwise.
That story finally made me realize that I might have a staph or worse infection, and did some quick research (why I did not before is strange — so unlike me to not look up a medical situation, but I didn’t) and realized that I was at significant risk for this getting worse, and I needed to get checked anyway. So I left about an hour early and went to a doc-in-the-box, figuring that was good enough. That may have been a poor choice in some ways, but it was fast, and that turned out to make the difference.
It took about 45 minutes to get there as I needed to pick up something first. Before I got there, I was starting to feel very nauseous and ‘hot’. They got me in pretty quickly though and after looking things over and some bloodwork, said I had an infection. They gave me some strong anti-biotic and the usual advice to wash it, elevate, etc. So I went home and took the meds. They seemed to take hold pretty quickly, as within a few hours the nausea and fever had abated. It took another full day to notice anything at all about the wound, but it seemed to respond fairly quickly, too. But it still took a good two weeks for the swelling to go down enough to wear some shoes, and being on my feet was tough.
This was a little scary, as I live alone, and I am not sure I would not have passed out had I not gone to the doc when I did. I also don’t know if the wound would not have gone to the super-bad state shown in some of the pictures here. Further research told me that it could have been much much worse. It also told me that I may have been lucky in only getting an anti-biotic as I could have contracted something viral instead. Both types of medicines should probably have been given.
What bothered me most about this was I told my regular doc about this later (he had been out of town when this happened), and he was totally clueless about the risk of infections from spider bites. Or any insect bite or sting. He said he had been trained about black widows and brown recluse, but they are a pretty rare problem and present obvious symptoms. He just did not get that this was a potentially dangerous situation for anyone, but especially someone with circulation problems, immune deficiencies, or even someone quite healthy as I was. It seems that he is not an exception to the rule, and I am VERY thankful for sites like this that are helping to increase awareness of these seemingly innocent but rather common events.
I have a family relative who is obsessed with “brown recluse” problems, has “kits” and all types of info … never seen one but they’re ready. But they aren’t. Recluse and widow bites would be nasty, too, but any old little spider can do you in simply with their poor dental hygiene. Or other bug, splinter, scrape, etc — especially if lower extremities, poor circulation, or other risk factors exist.
Thank you to everyone else who shared.
Dede,
This article was incredibly helpful! My brother returned from field training today with a HUGE spider bite on his neck. His medic at field training identified the spider bite, and but it open to see if there was a build up of pus. A few days later he said he was having issues moving his neck because the pain was getting worse. I removed the bandages today, and thought that he had a staph infection, and your article has made me even more sure. Thank you for posting such a useful entry with useful photos.
thanks
Hey, I live in Weston-super-Mare in the southwest of England. I recently was bitten on the hand, at first it looked like a mosquito bite but then my whole hand swelled up. the bite is tiny. there’s two very very small pinpricks visible. the morning i was bit, it was very very itchy, later on that day i started feeling really ill. sore throat, headache, shivery, that sort of thing. the next day at work i noticed the swelling was getting larger and when my fingers and palm swelled up and after taking two anti histamines knowing whatever had bit me was causing an allergic reaction, it just continued to get more swollen. my hand is more itchy than painful. I was put on a course of antibiotics, amoxiclav and also told to take anti histamines and put canomile lotion on to stop the burning/itching. the flu like symptoms got worse in the evening. there’s no pus. i would be really interested to know if anyone has had anything similar and if it is a spider bite, which im convinced it is. contact me at:
thanks
We live in Connecticut and my husband was bit yesterday July 19, by something. He became sick very quickly. He has a large red spot about the size of a Kiwi. No Sore like I have seen in these pictures. Does that come later or does CT not have spiders that do that? He had body aches and sweats. No fever that I have seen. Very weak. Any suggestions. At what point do you go to the doctor?
to:Rick Dalton
I will be watching about this issue you have posted about your
thigh.
I seem to have had something similar on my thigh. It started out as a white bump that looked like fluid in it. It wasnt like your color but I will be watching for the sighns of a staff infection. I have never had anything like this on my thigh at all looking like what I seen a few days ago. I am going to read some more of your post and others to get an idea of what to look for.
Staff infection is caused by: rubbing your nose or picking your nose and that is one way of getting it. Staff is in your nose, on your body, and other areas as well that has hair. People can pick staff up just by sharing razors, bedding, wearing other peoples clothes, touching someone that has it and sharing anything else when someone has staff or just touching their staff wound….. etc. Mrsa staff is caused by an antibotic that may not work. Staff is more common after having surgery or an infected wound. Staff also seems to be more common from bug bites or spider bites that I have seemed to read on but yet some staff infection sites dont post this and should. My daughter has a really bad staff infection on her leg that has gone to the bone and she is being treated by the doctors and if by monday it isnt better may have to go into the hospital to have an ivy. Hopefully the antibotic she is taking wont cause it to become an mrsa staff infection. I have a friend who I use to speak to on a support group who has mrsa staff infection caused by antibotics and she is dieing from it and I feel very much for her. I never realized though in all my life that my daughter would be the one to get a staff infection that has already hit to her bone but it is being treated and lets hope it doesnt get worse. I asked her how she got it and it had to be from one of her friends that had two staff infections who was treated. i asked my daughter if she had shared anything with her friend and she said she had so she had to of picked up the staff infection by just sharing anything. it is important that if anyone has a staff infection to wash your bedding if you sleep with anyone because it can be a carrier through bedding as well. To avoid a staff infection wash your hands often after using the restroom because if you dont you can get a staff infection as well this way. Staff infection is more common in hospitals and i assume day cares, work, schools and just about anywhere you can think possible. If anyone doesnt know anything about mrsa staff or staff infections please do alot of research on it to understand more about it.
i noticed the other day that i had a bite on my thigh i just thought that it was a heat bump and my dad said to just put neosporin and cover it with a band-aid but the next day it was swollen and had a big red ring around it and it hurts and now i can barely walk with my right leg but today my dad is goin to bring me to the emergency room and he said he was goin to get them peoples to cut it and get all the nasty stuff out so yea im scared that this will effect me in the future but if i get someone to take care of it im sure that ill be okay:)…….
god bless who ever is goin through the pain im goin through
but im a big girl i will survive…………;)
GROSS!! i would never want to get bite by a spider tha looks painful and those spiders look painful to i never liked spider any ways so i watched this show it name is i was bitten by alligater snake and a boy was in the woods and got bite by sand flies and they were huge and they were carring magets and he had two huge bites on the leg and one night he put two bandaids on both legs and one bandaid was on and one bandaid was off he took the bandaid and he looked and he saw a maget and pulled it out and another night he did it again and he woke up and took the bandaid off on the other leg and saw another maget he took the twessers and toutched the maget but the maget went in and he said wene the maget went in it hurt and he said he in far and so he did it again and saw the maget and pulled it out and thats all that happened
There is so many photos that are so similar to bites that I have had. I have been biten twice by spiders in the last 3 months. But I have also had alot of staph skin infections not caused by spider bites. In the last 12 months I have had 6 really bad staph infections and frankly I am over it.
In my research I have found alot of information on reocurring staph infections but the information is really not that good.. I have a new infection on my leg at the moment and I am being a sook. Can anyone help me with information on reocurring staph infections.. I am young and healthy otherwise 🙁
I wish I would have taken photos to document my bouts with MRSA; unfortunately, I didn’t realize at the time how valuable these photos would have been. The most important thing one needs to realize about MRSA is that once you have it, you have it for life.
Two years ago in March, I got a bite on my finger. Within two days, I had the blister, and by the end of the week, my finger was literally oozing pus. I finally went to the hospital, was told I had a staph infection, and given levoquin. To this day, I still have a 1/2 inch scar on that finger.
Unfortunately, the levoquin did not suppress the staph (which turned out to be the antibiotic resistant MRSA), and I developed another infection in another finger. This was followed by one on my elbow, one on my hip, one in my mouth, one in my tear duct, and the king of all staph infections, the one in my stomach.
The one in my stomach started out feeling like a spider bite – just like the one in my finger that started the whole mess; however, this time the infection spread throughout my entire abdomen. The sore was hard and black, and oozed continually, and the entire front of my abdomen was dark reddish purple, from hip to hip. I ran a temperature of 103.7, felt like I had the worst flu of my life (I had enjoyed a bout of neuroinvasive West Nile 9 months before, which had lowered my immunity; however, I would have taken the West Nile over this any day). I ached everywhere, had fever and chills, and could not stand up straight, let alone walk. All I wanted to do was sleep.
It took me two full weeks before I could walk in a full upright position, and I still have a pit in my stomach where the sore was. Now every time I see a raised bump on my skin, I stress, even though it has been two years since that infection.
My advice is if you even think you have a spider bite, get it treated immediately. Don’t wait. And if a blister forms on the area, get it tested for MRSA.
Oh, the wound needs to be open to get the powder in, so I would make a small nick with a sterilized needle. Be careful, and God bless, and good luck!
To all that have either a suspected Brown Recluse bite or MRSA. Please try papaya enzyme (Powdered) on the open, oozing wound. My mother an R.N. used it on a co-worker who had been bitten by a brown spider a few days before and thought that she had MRSA. She was planning to make an appointment to visit her doctor the next day. My mother, knowing a bit about the Brown Recluse, including that some varieties have a necrotising venom that can mimic MRSA (Dad was a Biology teacher with as insatiable a thirst for knowledge as I do. It can take a lot of your time!) Anyway, we also knew that papaya enzyme (Papaine) broke down many protein based venoms including many spider bites, bee/wasp stings, and jellyfish stings. (Including Portugese-Man-‘O-War stings.)
She told her friend “Let’s stop here and get some Adolph’s meat tenderizer, we’ll try papaya enzyme, and if it doesn’t help you can see the doctor tomorrow as you were planning” they picked it up, put it on the oozing wound and went on. soon the friend notice that the pain was subsiding, and within 1/2 hour the oozing stopped, and the wound crusted over. by the end of the day the pain was almost gone, the wound had developed a normal scab, and the redness and swelling were almost gone. The friend decided to wait another day.the wound healed normally. To this day we don’t know whether it was. I still wonder whether the Papaine broke down a venom or the necrotizing toxin of MRSA or VRSA (Methycillin or Vancomycin Resistant Staph Aureus)
If you do try the Papaya enzyme on either, let me know how it works at warrior8jim@aol.com
Hi i noticed a small bump on my butt. It hasn’t gotten any worse. How do i know if it’s a spider bite?
Also i’ve been getting small pains on one leg. Does that mean I have a staph infection? Please help!
my mother started out with one lump under her armpit that started red and small and became very painful, at first we assumed it was a spider bite, It started to get worse, so when she went to the doctors the doctor cut it open and drained it and a lot of pus came out and then it healed. About a month later she got another one on her leg that looked like a boil and turned red and purple it was hard for her to walk and very painful.
She didn’t not get that one drained it took a long time to go away on its own and it left a huge bruise like scar on her leg. She also had a bump on head and that wasn’t as painful and also went away on its own, leaving her bald in that particular area. She is now starting to get a painful bump on her chin and shes is very worried that it might be something contagious, she is a grandma of 6 and doesnt want to spread anything to any of her kids or grandkids. are there any suggestions to what this might be?
I have these same kinds of problem but could this be from a spider bite or perhaps flea bites. I have pus and blood. These are awful looking and I need help on making them just go away. Someone please help me. Thank you and God Bless!
I’m young but i got these bumps on my upper thigh and i clipped em open and put alcohol on it it burned really bad but they seem to be OK now i just noticed them this morning but i got 2 sets of bites then like 3 of them on there own but if you got any tips they would be more then welcome
I had to take my 6 year old son to the ER tonight. Yesterday at 8 p.m. he had what looked like a swollen mosquito bite with a scab on it. I didn’t think anything of it. He said it didn’t itch or hurt. He went fishing with my sister and her husband all day. At 7:30 p.m. they brought him home. She lifted up his shirt and said, “Have you seen this?” The bite, which is on his right side under his armpit, had swollen to the size of a softball. That’s pretty big on a 6 year old’s body. I don’t know much about spider bites. Is that a lot of spreading for 24 hours or is that normal?
Anyway, I took him to the ER. The doctor said it looked like a spider bite or an allergic reaction to a mosquito, but couldn’t tell me for sure. He’s never reacted to mosquito bites, so I’m convinced it’s a spider bite. Since there is a scab on it, I can’t see if there are fang marks or anything, nor could the ER doctor. He just put him on Bactrim (antibiotic) and is having us give Benadryl by mouth and topical for a couple of days. He also circled the circumference and said that if it enlarged more than 1″ in 24 hours or he started running fever, bring him back. He said that that’s a whole different story. There’s no way I’m going to sleep tonight. I’m scared he’ll start getting worse during the night. He’s laying on the couch next to me right now.
The things is, this bit never hurt him or itched. Does that sound like a spider bite? I can’t imagine it being anything else and being so large. Right now it’s about 5-6″ around and kind of hard and feverish. So far it’s not increasing. Wish us luck! Good luck to all of you!
Do get treatment for any strange bite that grows in size or changes color. Living In SW Florida, we encounter alot of biting/stinging insects. i thought fire ants were the worst until now. You just deal with them. After a week, what I thought was a mosquito bite on my neck developed into a grape sized painful lump. My glands under my ear & chin hurt the worst so I went to my doctor. She knew it was infected, but after doing some research of my own and talking to people, I didn’t realize how common these kinds of bites (spiders suspected) are & yet people ignore the symptoms – which are warning signs for worse to come.
I was prescribed strong antibiotics for staph and the would was lanced & cultures sent to the lab. The pain is better. My only advise from this, it to get treatment before it’s too late, why suffer anyway? And be aware of spiders/bugs in general. I did not feel the bite but I read online that spiders like brown recluse, like to hide and I may have gotten bitten when I put a towel around my neck after being in the pool. Our towels were hanging outside in a caged pool area, but from now on, at least through the nasty summer months, they will be kept inside and shaken before use, especially for my kids.
Hi,
I have to thank DeDe and give her a huge hug. Her story scared me into getting to the hospital. I was bit several times on my back thigh by something so ugly he must have been a vampire! If I had seen the culprit, I would have made sure he suffered as much pain as I have been going through (kidding) I was bit on Tuesday, May 5th. It was so itchy I couldn’t stand it. The next morning it had a fever in it and a hard small lump underneath, with a lot of redness. Within two days the lump grew 10 times the size which was actually bigger than my hand. Trust me I do have very big hands. Anyway, I had a very large purple bruise the circumference of my entire back upper leg. The swelling was so bad and the pressure building up in there was unbearable to drive a car, sit or walk. By Saturday,May 9th, I went to the ER room.
Doctor said it was multiple bites and gave me Bactrim and Kephlex antibiotics. He was treating me for staph-infection. Today is Wednesday, May 13th and I saw my doctor. He said he drained 3-4 ounces of pus and gook out of my leg. At least he has relieved the pressure for now. I have to keep draining it now by myself and take warm sitz baths to keep the wound open so it can completely drain before it heals. My doctor also told me that i do have Staff infection and it was a good thing I went to the ER when I did, otherwise I would be facing a much higher cost in medical problems. I don’t have insurance but I am not stupid when I know my life is in jeopardy.
HI, I was just released from the hospital yesterday, I was in Gatlinburg, TN last week and was bitten by a spider on the nose. I to thought it was a pimple and tried to take care of it myself, WRONG, On Tuesday 4-28-09 I was admitted to the hospital with full blown MRSA traveling through my sinus cavities and headed for my brain. Am I glad I went to the dr. they measured my bite on Wednesday the 29th it was the size of a nickel. Do get treatment for any spider bite.
I’m a bit worried my dad has gotten a spider bite that is red and swollen, is that bad?
Thank you so much Dede for your blog on this. I was bitten last Weds. night by a spider on my thigh (apparently while lying in bed while on vacation in a hotel) and the infection and irritation spread so that by Thursday night it was excruciating. I went to a doctor on Friday morning and he said, take antibiotics and painkiller, which I did. He prescribed Cepholaxin (sp?). But the bite got worse and worse and spread and now it’s ten inches across. So I went to a dermatologist today and he said, no, that antibiotic is not enough, you have to take erythromycin (I’m nursing so I’m limited in what I take) and gave me a topical cream and I’m taking regular painkillers. I really dread to see what is going to happen with this bite, but it’s so comforting to see that others have been through it and come out the other side. It’s really hard for me to move around as my thigh has become red and hard and itchy. Thanks so much and G-d bless you for your advice.
Thank you so much for documenting the entire ordeal you went through from beginning to end in a clear, concise, “user friendly” way. It’s been very helpful for me in explaining staph infections, spider/insect bites, and other types of infections to one of my son’s good friends. He’s got a badly infected finger, went to the ER 3 days ago, no improvement since, somewhat worse actually…he is hesitating about returning to the ER, even though we spoke to his doctor’s office earlier today and they instructed him to go back to the ER. Now he’s convinced he needs to go.
Again, Thanks a million!
hey people i have a huge question…. i caught staph infection from my ex fiancee’ almost a year ago. we thought it to be a spider bight but it wasn’t. anyways I’m pregnant now and i have o-negative blood. (more problems for the future) well what i was wondering is does staph infection stay in your blood? and if it does can it be transferred to your child while your pregnant…. i have searched for over three days on the internet and in libraries and can’t find anything on the subject. if anyone has any insight on this subject please contact me at e-mail: rocketgirl181990
@yahoo.com ……. please label the e-mail as ( response to your questions) so i don’t accidentally delete it
i have 3 little red dots no oozing or anything but a very painful arm muscle could it be a spider bite nothing else wrong with me
Hello, the stories seem to match up with my incident. I noticed a small ordinary pink place on my thigh. Saturday, 24 hours later it started to ooze, get rigid, turn black at the top and a burning sensation. I went to the ER and they prescribed Sulfameth/Trimethroprim 800/160 tablets (10 day supply). It is Monday night and I showered and cleaned it and put a band aid of triple antibioic ointment. Going to schedule a visit with family doctor Wed to see if it is healing appropriately.
my boyfriend has something familiar to this dr. haven’t yet said what it is they say its a staph infection its ulcer from the pictures i just seen his leg looks like some of the pics except he has 3 of them and his leg looks purple black color its not the same insurance is what stops us from going to the dr. its been bout 4 or 5 yrs since he has had a open sore on his leg its frustrating not knowing what it is but seeing pictures i think its clear on what he has he so embarrassed to show me his leg he doesn’t wear shorts so i don’t have any picture of his leg but i’m going to try light blue and white bottle and hope it works for him.
I have had two staph infections. I had one on my stomach. Now I have one on my arm it hurts really bad. I just hope not to get any more because I’m tried of going to the hospital for these bites. I wish there was away never to get them again. It hurts a lot now because it is draining now. I went to the hospital on Thursday and they drained it.There is hole in my arm now. I have it packed because it was so bad.The one on my stomach was worse then the one on my arm. The one on my stomach I let go for a long time so was on a IV for three days . I hope I don’t get anymore because they are nasty.
hi i have been getting really bad bumps and it itches really bad and when i get done itching it turns hot, please someone help me out i just want this to be gone.
Thank you and God bless
I have recently been bit on my hand. It’s been three days now and it seems the swelling and discoloratoin have gone down. I am just worried it will look better before it gets worse.
I have been taking antibiotics for the past week for an infected wisdom tooth. But I ended them the night after I was bit.
I am still taking tylenol nd advil for the pain of the tooth. I am not sure if I am feeling the actual effects or not.
Only thing is now the bite FEELS painful, like a big bruise. It started out with a bruise about and inch in diameter, and the sting in the center with a small white circle patch around it. Now most of the bruising color has dispersed and the sting spot seems to have formed a tiny scab covering.
I have no clue what’s going on.
Any advice?
I have Staph Infection too & but mine isn’t that & i don’t want it too be !! because it really HURTS REALLY BAD!!
I was bit by a brown widow spider (3 different times in 2mos) and had taken antibiotics 20days per each bite which healed each bite. after the bites finally healed, I noticed super small bumps (see photos) and they developed just like the spider bites did. Itch then very painful that wakes you out of your sleep and throbbing at times. I had a biopsy done which the dermatologist took the center piece of a 1week old liaison and put 1 stitch – that healed in a week after doing what I wrote below.
I have been using Silverdene and a band aid. I found that I pull out the bumps core and run ice water over and Silverdene (takes the pain and the itch away) and I put a piece of cotton between the band aid and skin with a dab of silverdene. My spots are lasting 11/2 weeks instead of 3 now. Does anyone else somewhere experienced this problem and how long did it totally last when all stops?
live in Las Vegas, NV which has several species of scary spiders and other creepy bugs. On Memorial Day, 2008 I noticed a white bump on my left thigh. It was itchy and hard and kind of throbbed when I touched it, but hurt especially when I bumped it and put on my pants. I then accidentally shaved over it and cut it open. I thought it was just an ingrown hair (which it may possibly have started out as foliculitus-infected hair follicle).
I went to my Primary Care doctor who immediately thought it was a spider bite. She prescribed me an antibiotic- twice a day for 7 days- and said to keep it covered with gauze. A week passed and the white bump grew larger and a red ring began to form around the bump. The redness spread up my leg and was puffy to the touch. I went back to the doctor who prescribed the same antibiotic, but increased the dose to 3 times a day for 10 days and suggested I see the dermatologist-whom I went to see the next day.
He also thought that I had a spider bite or possibly Mulluscom Contagiosum- a common skin disease in children. He prescribed an additional oral antibiotic-Bactrim to take with the one I was taking, Centany- a topical mupirocin ointment to put on the bump and in my nose, and Vanos – a fluocinonide cream. He did not do a culture or try to drain the wound although it was clearly painful, red and hardened. The wound eventually got white pimple blisters, and the original bite burst open-EXTERMELY PAINFUL.
I could not walk or wear any pants that rubbed (jeans, khakis, etc were too painful so I wore yoga pants and loose sweats all summer in 100 degree weather). After 3 weeks of antibiotics, I had to go to the Urgent Care and have the infection- which turned in to an abscess-cut out and a wick (long strips of gauze) had to be placed in the hole to drain the open wound. I then developed a bad staph infection which took another 2 weeks to get rid of, with several more antibiotics (21days worth this time) and eventually taking a bath in diluted BLEACH to get rid of the MRSA.
The bleach baths surprisingly completely cleared up the staph infection, taking them for 20 mins in regular household bleach; however it made my healthy, normal skin blister and form a rash. I would suggest that YOU request a culture be done and persist until it is done! My dermatologists was not very ‘hands on’ and it caused me to deal with the infection for over a MONTH! I would also suggest getting a second and third opinion if you feel in any way that your doctor is not diagnosing your symptoms correctly.
Look at the pictures- most of the aesthetic, mental, and physical damage caused from a spider bite or possibly an ingrown hair could have been avoided if I had been my own advocate. DO NOT WAIT TO GET YOUR BITE CHECKED! Many people looked worse than me and it was by far the worst experience I have had thus far in life.
i really feel bad for those people who got staph infections and who got bitten by spiders i hope they live i hope i can help here is my phone number 734 752 9008 so if you need anything just call my cell phone by the way i am a doctor so i will be here so any time you need something just call me so it is not too late to call and one last thing i wont be here on thursdays wendsdays or fridays and mondays . so call
Finally I found someone with exactly what I had. The only way to treat this is to immediatly open it up and put hydrogen peroxide in it twice a day. It gets sore but it’s nothing like the huge red bulge in the pics. After 3 days it’s completly gone with no more pain. The only reason I’m putting this out, is that I kept getting them for about a year but they lessened each time. So I eventually got annoyed, got aggressive and ripped it open. Hope this helps some people.
I picked up staph from improper care of a tattooed forearm. I was disheartened at first because I made sure the parlor was clean. But the staph was not a result of the shop itself.
It was the result of my forearm being shaved. I’m not a dude who shaves his arms, so my forearm was pretty sensitive. It didn’t help that the dude who shaved it went against the grain and used a razor with no soap or cream. That was the first mistake.
I went back to work after getting the tattoo on saturday. I wore long sleeves over the area, and the shirt irritated my skin. Second mistake. This, combined with the lotion I was using to minimize peeling, set up folliculitus. The hair follicules of my arm became infected, and as the new hairs began to grow out of them, filled with pus.
At first I was scared that I had gotten a dirty needle or picked up some more serious condition. After looking at my arm (which looked like a circle of 20 pimples and a couple of boils) I got on the net and noticed it perfectly matched a low level staph infection.
I immediately stopped the lotion and switched to washing the area 3 times per day with aloe based soap, drying with a clean cloth, and then applying over the counter 84% aloe vera cream. Within 2 days I noticed significant improvement. The pimples are drying up and peeling, the boils are shrinking and losing redness. I plan on using this treatment (along with eating lots of oranges for vitamin c and chicken/beef for protein) for the next week or two. I fully expect a complete heal time of two weeks after starting this treatment.
lesson: shave with the grain, and let healing tats get some air for a week!
WOW, thats really scary. I got some sort of bite on my leg, and over 2 weeks it has raised up and turned red, the pain from it is pretty bad, but I am planning on going to the doctor the 10th consiering i already have an appt.
i have had staph infection for times since july of 07 and the first time i had it, i had it in seven different places on my body and 2 of the 7 were on my stomach and i went to the hospital and me and my om were there for at least for hours and the lanced both of the ones on my stomach and if you dont know wat lanced means it means cutting something open but any ways the cut them both open and and this yellow white pus came out and then the doctor had to pack the hole with gauze and over time it healed.
Lots of great info, one big thing I didn’t see is once you have had staff you are WAY more likely to get it again. It’s on your body always. You can get staff from something as small as a HANG NAIL! You need to be premedicated (antibiotics) for dental work and some minor surgery. People also have to be careful of fevers of unknown source because if staff gets in your blood the fever is the first sign and blood borin staff is almost always fatal if left untreated even a couple days! I had blood borin staff and I went late to the hospital.
I won a 10 day stay in ICU and more tests than I can remember, a lovely temp of 105.7 that gave me hallucinations, my friends and family were told to say good bye. I was sent home with a PIC line (tube from your elbow just barely into my heart) so that I could give my self several IV antibiotics every 6 hours around the clock for 30 days. If the infection would have gotten to my heart I wouldn’t be typing this now. Staff is very dangerous, please don’t take it lightly or think that waiting for your doctor to fit you in is ok, it maybe to late and it was very painful.
Thank you so much for your article. Your story is exactly like mine but I caught it on your first pictures. I have been to the dr. 4 times in the last 1.5 it’s getting expensive. I’m taking antibiotics right now and hrbal supplements. I’m also keeping it covered. Very painful! What else should I do? The dr.s daid they really didnnks again’t know what is was. I’m glad I like to research . I like to know whats wrong when I am feeling ill. Thanks again. =)
I was bitten by a spider on my big toe last October 2007. It started out red and sore, but quickly turned very painful. I was bit on Friday and by Monday was at my Dr. to see what was going on. Most of my foot was red and the redness was inching towards my leg. The pain was indescribable. My Dr. prescribed an antibiotic and sent me home. A few days later, it was still very red and the bite itself was looking like a very infected blister/pimple that was full of pus. I wen back to see her and she immediately send me to Urgent Care to have my toe cut opened and cleaned. The ER Dr. had to inject my toe with 5 shots to numb it. He was in shock over the pain that I was in and how many shots he had to administer. He was pretty sure from the onset that I had MRSA, but did the culture to make certain. Turns out he was right.
I was informed that what I had was very serious and that I could possibly lose my toe or foot. All of this because of a spider bite? I ended up having to stay home and keep my foot elevated for the next week or so. Lots of soaking and lots of medication, both for pain and to fight the MRSA. I made a total of 15 trips to my Dr. and was just about to be put into a hyperbaric oxygen chamber when it started to heal.
This was a very long and painful situation that I would not wish on my worst enemy. If you or someone you know has these symptoms from a bite, go to the Dr. ASAP! MRSA is nothing to put off or fool with. It can and will kill you!
that is so cool
I was bitten on my butt last week by what I thnk to be a spider, t swelled up, became red, black hole in middlle and hurts badly, it just bean to drain and it is horribile looking, it stings badly, I have used antibotic ointment, proxidede, bandages and hot water to saok n, plus mild atibotics, the swelling is down alot but stll visible, ts red around the hole and has fever, on sunday befor I knew I has this I ran a hih temp, cold sweets whle freezing, thought it to be the flue, what can I do to survive this, its bad? Pls email me and let me know what to do….thx Trish
hyler72 @aol.com
I wish I had had this info 4 years ago.
We moved to the South of France in May 4 years ago. 2 weeks after the move I noticed a red lump on my cheek, which I ignored. 3 days later it developed into a larger lump with a blister on top. On the fourth day, a Friday, the blister broke and I watched in horror as the surrounding flesh started to necrose. By the Saturday it had grown to about 1 inch by half an inch. As we hadn’t registered with a doctor, I headed for the Pharmacy. They reckoned it was a bite of some kind which was infected and sold me some anti biotic gel.
Unfortunately, the gel helped, but didn’t stop the spread of the necrosis. The Monday was a National Holiday, so I was unable to get to a doctor’s. I had a fever, the whole side of my face was red, hot and very swollen, the necrosis had doubled in size. A friend who saw me was convinced my face was going to explode! My body ached from head to toe, every joint was on fire and it was painful to move. I had swollen glands in places that I didn’t know people had glands.
I was able to get to a doctor’s on the Tuesday, who told me it was a spider bite. He said the reaction was a combination of an allergy and infection. I was prescribed steroids, maximum strength antibiotics, yeast tablets to counteract the undesirable effects of the antibiotics and morphine tablets.
I spent 3 days feeling like death, confined to my bed and only drinking water, as everything else made me feel sick. The necrosis stopped very quickly after taking the antibiotics, but took 8 weeks to heal.
I have no idea of what the spider was that bit me and I certainly don’t remember being bitten.
I had no idea that there were potentially life threatening spiders in France, and was astounded when the doctor said it was a spider bite.
If I lived in the Tropics or Australia, I’m sure I would have been a little more suspicious, but France? Never.
My advice is, wherever you live, if you have a suspicious bite which is behaving in a way that is not “normal”. Seek advice earlier rather than later and don’t take any flannel. The infection I developed had already started affecting my heart, and had it been left any longer, could have proved to be far more damaging than just a scar on my face.
I had a staph infection about two years ago, but mine wasn’t triggered by a spider bite. Mine was triggered by an ingrown hair downstairs and it was quite unpleasant. I couldn’t move from my bed for three days.
I lanced the sore myself and started draining it, kept it packed with gauze and antibiotic ointment, cleaned three times a day with a saline solution. Only when I started hallucinating and leaking black pus from the sore did I run to the ER and it was ALMOST too late. $700 bill for a doctor to walk in, look at it, and tell me. “That’s a staph infection.” Then send a nurse in to prescribe me an $8 bottle of generic vicodin and a $60 bottle of antibiotics. It healed nicely, left a very faint scar. And now I think it’s coming back, only this time on my thigh.
thanks for the picture’s i am headed to the ER now. my bite is on the left side of my breast. yeah right over my heart. so thanks for all the info.
Hi Dede,
Thanks for the post. You’re a real trooper. I also had a recent boil on my shoulder even though I’m normally quite healthy… I was just wondering if it left a scar on your foot like it left on my shoulder? Thankfully my boil wasn’t quite as painful looking as yours, but I’m wondering what sort of measure you might taken for any ugly scars?
In 1983 when I was in the 7th grade I was bitten by something on my right leg near the knee cap. After a week or so, I noticed it growing larger, not smaller. Another week later, I was taken to the ER with 105.5 fever, shivering. Antibiotics were prescribed, but little did we know it was too far gone for the weak antibiotics prescribed to me. Another week later, my right leg had swollen to almost twice its size- if you cut a watermelon in half lengthwise and stuck it under your pant leg, you would get the effect. I could no longer walk without a severe limp, and putting pressure on my toes to attempt to walk was excruciating. My grandmother took me to the pediatrician, who referred me to an infectious disease doctor. He told us not to go home to get my things, but to go straight to the hospital. My leg would have to be lanced and drained. Over my week long stay at Hoag Hospital, I was poked with needles in an attempt to draw out samples of the liquid in my leg, I was given CT scans and x rays, even mammograms to see how far the infection had spread. Turns out the staph had dissolved away all of the muscle tissue on my outer right thigh. It was literally several millimeters from the bone according to the CT scan. If my grandmother had waited even a day the surgery would have involved removing the femur bone (which would have been dissolving) and replacing it with a pin, replacing my hip and knee sockets, and lancing a draining the wound. As it was, my wound was lanced and drained, and my leg was semi-closed up with thousands of stitches done in layers. I was on 24 hour i.v. antibiotics, teams of doctors were “observing” me and this then-weird phenomenon (I was a freak show), and my leg wound was left open, packed with gauze and betadine for three months as the gaping wound healed slowly from the inside out, as I took course after course of antibiotics (I was, however, officially excused from PE for the rest of the year–no way did my doctor allow me to even step foot into a scummy locker room).
After discharge from the hospital, I was an outpatient for 3 months so that every day I could go into physical therapy, get my packing changed after a betadine jacuzzi bath, and try and re-strengthen my almost nonexistent muscles in order to learn to walk on my right leg again (needless to say, crutches for 3 months makes for strong shoulder and armpit muscles). My doctor wrote articles on my case, because from what they told me was that there was only one other lady in Texas that this had ever happened to at that time.
My souvenirs of this fantastic time of fun? A huge purple “traintrack” car that runs vertically down my right leg (causing people to stare in revulsion), a circle-shaped “dimple” in my leg where the spider bit me, pounds of scar tissue and accompanying lack of nerve sensation in my right thigh, and one raging fear of anything arachnid. I have trouble even looking at their photos. My advice? Get a bite, see a doctor. Especially if it is radiating heat, as mine was, because no one wants to be lanced and drained.
What a mess! I hate spiders. I found out what I got a few days ago, 9/15 or 9/16, was a spider bite. I have a sore on my knee (of all places) and it is red and swollen around the circular hole. It’s painful everytime I walk because it stretches it. I went to the doctors yesterday and got a tetanus shot, the doctor said it could be a staph infection. He said it could have been caused by the spider but just to be sure, he gave me a tetanus shot. It was worth it considering all the pictures they show you on the internet…TERRIFYING! I definitely don’t want to start seeing my knee bone anytime soon! I feel I am sharing the same fears of all of us VICTIMS out there from these little annoying creatures. I know they only bite when they feel threatened but I was wearing shorts and I didnt’ even know it bit me. The doctor gave me 800mg antibiotics and told me I could put ice on it to kill some of the swelling and the pain. Also, I could take ibuprofin. He told me to return in 10 days if it looks like it’s getting worse.
I see some of us have been told to wait until it takes it’s course but with all of the doctors out there, is there really STILL no cure or ANSWER to keep from ending up in the ER? You would think there would be some type of anti-venom or something to get rid of the poison before it gets to that point. My doctor didn’t have any answers for me either. 3 days later and this thing is pusing, bleeding, and throbbing red. I know it can take weeks to heal but how do you know if you need to RETURN to the doctor that has already told you to “let it take it’s course?” Any feedback would be great.
I officially HATE spiders and am highly annoyed and worried!
Dana
Newark, DE
MY FRIEND WAS BITTEN BY S SPIDER THE END OF AUGUST 2008, HE DIDNT KNOW IT WAS A SPIDER UNTIL HIS JOB TOOK HIM TO THE HOSIPAL, THEY KEPT HIM, HIS FOR ARM IS STILL BAD THEY SENT HOME AFTER 2 WEEKS AND NOW HE HAS TO GO BACK TODAY BECAUSE HE SAID HES NOT FEEL WELL, IT STARTED TO BLEED AFTER HE CHANGED THE DRESSING, AND PUSLE IS COMING OUT AGAIN, HE HAD TO SURGERIES ALREADY HE MIGHT HAVE TO GO BACK SO THE CAN DO SOME MORE SO THEY WANT HAVE TO TAKE HIS ARM IF THE POISON IS THERE,
I developed a pin head size red dot right above my knee, and i didn’t think much about it at first. As the day progressed , i noticed a little whitehead develop, the next morning, my knee had swelled, and the area became red, from the knee down it seemed as though my leg was swollen, even my foot.I purchased some over the counter remedies(none of which worked, by the way )the 3rd day, this little spot turned into a mound the size of ahalf dollar, still with the whitehead at the center.I went to a dermatologist, he took a culture,gave me a prescription for antibiotics, and told me to compress it, and come back the next day to see him.
The next day i went back to him, it looked just as bad as the day before, he said he didn’t like the look of it and i should go immediately to the ER. I did.They knew it was some type of bite,and were concerned about MRSA, they ended up cutting it open, draining it, and putting a Wick in there (which stayed for a week ) they sent me home with the wick in my leg, and told me to soak it as ofetn as possible, and while soaking it, they instructed me to sqeeze as hard as possible to enable any substance to come out. That was a year ago now, and i have a quarter size scar to prove it !!! PLEASE, don’t take any chances,it’s very dangerous,and should be treated ASAP !!
Glad to read this site. I was bitten by a common garden spider in my flower garden in May of this year. It went from what I thought were two pimples on my chin to a sore that when it broke looked like someone had poured acid on my skin.
my neighbor told me that there are brown recluses out here where we live and showed me this white little box that has glue in it and told me where to put it and gave me one but also showed me one that had some brown recluses in it to show me what they look like because I had no ideal what they look like even after looking at the spiders I couldn’t see the little fiddle on the it’s back up by the head so I came home and put the trap down and then went to a web site and found all about brown recluses and sure enough you can see it as plain as day so I ordered some of the traps and put them around our house and sure enough we caught about 25 to 30 and one trap alone caught 3 there worth the money
they also sell stuff you can put on it if your ever bitten and it work if your ever bit by red wasp too the web address is www.brownrecluses.com or you can call 888-recluse there is also a money back gaurentee anyway you can check it out for yourself God Bless and hope you never get bitten again even my 5 yr old granddaughter has seen them in the light globe and came and got me it sure was a big one I’m glad we did not get bitten.
This site has answered a lot of questions. My husband and I have experienced MRSA infections – we’ve both ended up in the emergency room with extremely painful wounds. My husband hauled hay for his father last Friday and came home with what he thought was a mosquito bite on his lower right leg. It was a little itchy at first, but holy cow, what has happened over the last 72 hours is very representative of a MRSA infection but without the intense pain. Our MRSA infections have been incredibly painful. This has lead us to believe it is a spider bite this time, possibly a Hobo. We live in Utah and it’s the right time of year for this thing. Our Dr. has started him back on Septra which works best for his strain of MRSA and we’re watching it. I’m sure we’ll be in to have it opened, packed and drained. Since this began a couple of years ago I have turned into somewhat of a germ-a-phobe. I have small children and don’t want them to aquire this nasty bug. I disinfect showers daily. No one uses the same bath or hand towels. I’ve even starting using hospital grade cleaners. It’s crazy. My Dr. says that’s all fine and dandy but probably won’t mean that we won’t have occurences. He says most people carry MRSA on their skin, but your skin is the protective barrier. Unless it has a way in it won’t ever bother you. I’ve been told that obsessive handwashing still remains the best defense.
Hobo Spider bites and Staph Infections – separate incidences
I’ve read all of the above. My comments regard multiple bites I’ve gotten in July, mostly on my lower left leg, two on my lower right leg, and two on my left arm.
55 yr old female,I live in Oregon, have a large lot, and love yardwork. I’ve also been building new birdhouses in the workshop in my garage.
The first bite was on my arm. Symptoms all as described for Hobo.
Subsequent bites almost daily..I have 14 of varying degrees (Male, Female, Juvenile?) Painless, most didn’t even itch, but I’m pretty pain tolerant. All went from red welt surrounding white center and tiny hole, to red welt turning to bruise. The holes developed into a leaking blister which became lesions (some up to 1/2″). Following the advice on your site, I applied ice and cortizone cream, but did end up at Urgent Care (after a month), and he prescribed topical and oral antibiotics, said they were all infected, but they looked like any of the less severe Hobo bites you’ve shown. I wouldn’t have gone to Urgent Care except for the warning of extensive repercussions you shared on your site.
Again, very little pain. HOWEVER, I’m also relating to your Staph article. All of this makes sense, that some people feel pain, others don’t.
I’ve had Staph twice (both contracted at hospital) and it’s the most painful thing I’ve EVER encountered! I’m imagining that the people who responded as having severe pain contracted staph early…it also produces a lot of discharge, usually clear. I had one infection under my chin, when I touched it, I could hear and feel the ‘goosh, goosh”…they had to put drains in that fed behind my ears. It was so invasive it caused massive scarring sores down my neck where the fluid drained out… I was one day away from IV antibiotics.
I truly believe that we’re killing ourselves with overuse of antibiotics, we’re creating this resistance within out own bodies with the antiseptic handwash, antibiotics for less than severe situations.
Back to the spiders: My neighbor has her house sprayed four times a year (found spiders in her bed) so I had them spray mine…that’s NOT the right thing to do. This spray kills (according to exterminator) 56 different bugs. Hobo’s are not very succeptible to spray, unless directly contaacted, but it does kill all the beneficial spiders, insects, etc. I believe I picked mine up in my workshop, as my bench cabinets are 4″ off the ground, rarely cleaned below, and I leave my house and garage doors open alot for the fresh air (recently found a garter snake in my bedroom!).
What a perfect place for a spider nest..and when I disturb them they attack? Makes sense to me.
I saw a spider about six weeks ago that looks like the Hobo, except it was high above my recessed lighting ledge in my BR. I don’t mind them and left it alone, that’s about the time the bites began.
Just another perspective…
8/20/08
Sorry I don’t have pictures, but here’s the story.
My brother was bitten by what he thinks is a mosquito on his leg and abdomen it look like a flat closed sore at first. The first siqn was a itch, by day two it was swollen and red and painful, by day three it was swollen, red , painful to touch or even move, very hot, he had flu like symtoms. Finally he went to ER the surgeon said the bite on the left side needed to be cut and drained. He went to the hospital Sat 8/16/08 he is still there,the culture results (MRSA) bitten by a infected mosquito according to the DR. the bug is very hard to kill and the MRSA might return that’s why he remains in the hospital on IV antbiotic . The two others areas that was not cut open looks like the pictures on this site a white pimple that has open (they drain pus and blood) which is a good sign according to the DR. as long as they drain on its on they will not have to been cut. I hope this helps someone seek Med. attention because according to the DR it is very serious.
this article convinced me to go to the hospital
and i found out i had MRSA i am sooo glad i went
before it got worse
🙂
The best way to rule out a staph infection vs. a spide bite is to get tested using an accurate test. I just saw this article for a new test that looks like it finally provide a quick answer to MRSA testing.
http://www.forbes.com/prnewswire/feeds/prnewswire/2008/08/04/prnewswire200808041044PR_NEWS_USPR_____CLM070.html
First Molecular Tem-PCR Test to Identify Multiple Forms of Staph and MRSA Obtains CLIA Certificate
08.04.08, 10:47 AM ET
HUNTSVILLE, Ala., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire/ — Diatherix Laboratories, an independent clinical reference laboratory located in the Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology, announced today it has received its Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendment (CLIA) certificate* for its proprietary licensed testing process, Target Enriched Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction (Tem-PCR). This molecular differential diagnostic technology is the first Tem- PCR test introduced to the clinical market which is able to identify multiple pathogens, both viral and bacterial in a single test. In less than four hours Tem-PCR can simultaneously differentiate pathogens with Staphylococcus and determine their associated drug resistance. Tem-PCR can identify four types of Staphylococcus strains, including the increasingly important bacterium known as Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported that MRSA infections have doubled in the past six years. The ability to accurately identify these pathogens is important because, beginning in October 2008, hospitals across the country may no longer receive Medicare reimbursement for many hospital acquired infections.
Prior to the Tem-PCR molecular technology, it was not possible to quickly and effectively differentiate between hospital-acquired infections (HAI) and community-acquired infections (CAI) in a single molecular test. Unlike hospital acquired MRSA which affects patients in a hospital, community-acquired MRSA often occurs in healthy people who are not receiving medical care and hospitalization. The ability to differentiate between CA-MRSA and HA-MRSA may assist hospitals in preventing non-reimbursement for MRSA infections.
“This revolutionary molecular testing technology allows the healthcare provider a cost effective diagnostic tool which can identify multiple infectious diseases faster and with far more accuracy than any other test available,” said Dennis Grimaud, chief executive officer of Diatherix Laboratories. “Our Tem-PCR test can differentiate between the sometimes-fatal MRSA, Staph aureus, and other forms of Staph. This is important because non-MRSA patients can be treated with more effective and often less expensive drug therapies, and without the need for patient isolation. In less than four hours Tem-PCR can identify four types of Staph and three types of antibiotic resistance. Our test delivers accurate diagnostic information that will provide physicians the exact information they need to administer specific and effective infectious disease treatment. Tem-PCR technology is also an enormous benefit to hospitals from a business and financial perspective. In addition to identifying the most efficient treatment protocols, hospitals will now be able to determine whether a patient has an infection at the time of admission, thereby determining whether treatment is reimbursable. This will be vital information for hospitals if Medicare decides to deny reimbursement for hospital acquired infections after October 1.”
Jian Han, M.D., PhD, Laboratory Director of Diatherix Laboratories, invented Tem-PCR technology, which until now has only been available for advanced research. Dr. Han overcame the limitations of traditional Real Time PCR (RT-PCR) technology, a test that can only identify one pathogen at a time. Another limitation of RT-PCR is that it does not identify the differentiation between the pathogens and/or their various strains in a single test.
“Infections are a challenge for all hospitals, both clinically and in terms of financial reimbursement,” said Grimaud. “However, it is important to understand that MRSA represents less than 5 percent of total hospital infections. Massive attention is being paid to all infections, whether hospital or community acquired, because of the impending Medicare regulations. In addition to MRSA, healthcare facilities across the country are inundated with other infections, all of which can be more cost-effectively and rapidly identified through this new and exciting technology. Early, precise and cost-effective treatment can now be achieved with genetic accuracy. We can now provide Tem-PCR to medical facilities all across the country, and patients can start to benefit from this advance in genetic science. Later this year we will release our Hospital Acquired Infection Panel which identifies 16 of the most common hospital acquired infections and our Respiratory Panel which will test for 21 respiratory pathogens, both viral and bacterial, all in a single molecular test.”
Diatherix Laboratories Inc. is located in the Hudson-Alpha Institute for Biotechnology in Huntsville, Alabama. Diatherix operates as an independent clinical laboratory providing advanced multiplex molecular diagnostic services such as Tem-PCR to identify infectious disease to hospitals and the healthcare community. Diagnostic Network Alliance (DNA), with representative offices throughout the United States, is the exclusive US distributor for Diatherix Laboratory. DNA and Diatherix Laboratories share corporate administrative headquarters in Brentwood, Tenn.
*Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) was passed by Congress in 1988 establishing quality standards for all laboratory testing to ensure the accuracy, reliability and timeliness of patient test results regardless of where the test was performed. The final CLIA regulations were published in the Federal Register on February 28, 1992. The requirements are based on the complexity of the test and not the type of laboratory where the testing is performed. On January 24, 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) published final CLIA Quality Systems laboratory regulations that became effective April 24, 2003.
Update 7/31/08
My doctor cut it open on last Monday. Little bit of yellowish pus came out. Now I have like a black hole. What the heck is going on. What is causing this. No pain right now but some redness around sore. Been puttin perxoide and alc. to clean it with neosporan and a bandage at night. If any body knows what this is or how to cure and maybe prevent it from reoccurring, please e-mail me at ryan8644 @ gmail.com
Please help… is it a spider bite or MRSA??? I recently went to the ER with a pimple looking wound that was red around it and hurt to touch it or apply pressure to it… the redness went down my arm and really hot to touch but never anyreal pus “head” the ER DR asked me if i ever had MRSA or was a carrier for it i said WHAT IS MRSA?? I really had only heard about it once and wasnt really familar with it at all so he touched it, pushed on it, and gave me 38 antibiotics to take ‘bactrim DS 800-160 MG (two taken twice per day morning and night for 8 days) i have been feeling ran down.. lose of energy and tired all the time and kinda flu like symptoms for a few years now I had some tattoos done awhile back also i have 3 photos i would like to email to post with my story
thank you!!!
Me and my son are getting these sores on a regular bases. I have one on my upper right leg now.
Wow! great site and great info. The video of that young man cleaning out his infection is just too much! but very real. It can happen to you too if you don’t heed the warnings here and get on antibiotics right away.
I too was recently bitten (I assumed – If I knew then that it was a spider, I would have looked for it and bit him back!). And my progress looks almost identical to the above photos and posts. I noticed a small clear bubble on the bottom side of my forearm one day and just picked it off with my fingernail and that is when I must have infected it. I am one of those 40 million americans that do not have insurance, so luckily a friend of a friend is a Dr. and I was encouraged to call him. A few days into this once it convinced me it would not just go away and was getting worse quickly, I described it over the phone and he had a Rx for me right away that night. I felt I had caught it just in time after reading some of these posts. I will send Jim photos to post. Mine got to about the size of a quarter to half dollar at it’s worst. It looks a little better now than the most recent picture as a scab is beginning to form over the “craters” – and I do mean craters –
I would clean the wound each morning and then again at night before bed. There was pus in the larger crater that I could not wipe out easily, so I got the tweezers (soaked in Hdrogen peroxide first) and tried to grab ahold of the pus sak in the crater – trying not to touch the red inflamed tissue around it – a lot like that old Milton Bradley game called OPERATION – no, my nose did not light up red when I slipped, but I sure did make a loud sound!
Anyway, I was finally able to pull out what I can only describe looked like a white slimmy grub worm! – it was the built up pus sak. (I had joked with a guy earlier that maybe it was a spider that bit me and actually laid eggs inside my arm! – now I was beginning to believe that myself!) I figured this all would have oozed out eventually and I was just helping it along. And now I could almost fit the entire tip of a q-tip (again, soaked in peroxide) down in that crater. And yes, another loud noise occurred and a little bit of a dance too. Eventually, I got where I could pour in a little of the peroxide and let it sit and bubble in the 2 craters. (obviously depends on where on your body this has occured and how contorted you have to get – mine was easy. I can’t even imagine what you would do if you got one of these near or between your butt cheeks and you lived alone!) (ok, NOW I guess we can all imagine it).
I would say I am at about day 16-17, so everyone hang in there and let it run it’s course, but part of your course must be to get anti-biotic, keep it cleaned and dressed as Dede wonderfully describes above. I too live in Florida and here we have Publix grocerystores and currently, they offer free antibiotics (still need a Rx), check their website. But of course there is the $4 Walmart and I have also been told that CVS will HONOR/MATCH the Walmart price if you bring with you the list of drugs covered from the Walmart website.
My additional advice – I found LARGE bandages worked ok at first, but as the inflamation spread, the adhesive was too much on the bandage and when removing it really began irritating the sore area around, so I just simply got some sterril pads big enough to cover the wound, place a little antiseptic ointment in the center of the pad, covered the wound, then rolled up a couple sheets of toilet paper for added absorption, then wrapped my arm with an ACE bandage wrap – no adhesive to further irritate my sensitive area, just the wrap around my arm and that held it all comfortably in place – even in bed. Plus the wrap is reusable and all you discard is the pad and the TP. It all depends on WHERE you get kissed.
I will try and clean under my fingernails more often, continue washing my hands thoroughly and often, and try and stop picking at things!
Good Luck!
hello my son has a bite on his right calf and he told me of his leg hurting and burning with pain and he was limping on it that was on the 5th of july and i treated it at home thinking from being out on the 4th of july it was just a mosiqtoe bite or chigger but the next day it was swollen red,hot, and hard as a rock on the back of his calf it was the size of a grape fruit, and had a leision the spot of the bite.
i took him to the hospital on the 6th of july where they poke it open and got out green and brownish stuff and took a culture of it but now on the 8th it is still swollen and red purple blackish and the wound is alittle bit bigger and he still complains that it hurts and i have killed several brown recluse spiders just the other day i killed one that was crawling up the wall and have found several in there room but i have never seen a spider bite but i was wondering what they first start off like thank you
I’m stuck in a similar situation, but it seems to be in the very early stages. I noticed Thursday morning that I had what looked like a pimple on my forearm about 2 inched below my elbow, and didn’t think too much of it. Friday I noticed that I actually had a bump on my other forearm in the exact same spot (which seems a bit odd..). I thought it was just a narly spider bite and kept an eye on it. Today, I saw my parents and showed the bumps to my mom (who went to school for a while to become a nurse, but never finished up, but still knows a lot) and immediately she said it looked like a staph infection. I think I’ll be going to the doctor tomorrow to get it checked out.
They just look like pimples, and do not have a large red area around them, but I would rather try to nip it in the butt before it can get any worse. Hopefully it doesn’t get any worse, but I’ll update when I wake up with some pictures.
I had the same thing happen to me. Please let me know what you found out at the doctor.
I actually rubbed the tiny black spider off of the top of my foot when I just got in the car. It was in my shoe, and I thought at first it was a pinched nerve, then I pulled my foot out of the shoe. I rubbed it off with my hand and ignored it. A couple of days later it had a pus sac on it and stayed that way for about 5 days. I became annoyed with it one night and used a needle to open up the sac. It let out a little pus.
I used peroxide alot and let it go for about 4 days, then, when I came home from work exhausted, last night and fell asleep on the bed and awakened with my foot itching like a bad mosquito bite. It looks like the pic from Teri P. Now I wonder, is it from the bite or from me opening up the pus sac?
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
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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 pus 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??
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.
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!
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.
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….
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.
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.