Tell us where your bite is (arm, leg, nose, whatever)
Back of upper thigh
Why I think it's a spider bite
The hubby caught the Black Widow later in the day after I told him I had been bit by something. She was hanging around her egg sac under the lawn chair I had sat on.
What happened
Went outside to watch my girls play, sat in a lawn chair and started getting eat up by mosquitoes. I felt a bite on the back of my upper thigh and thought it was another mosquito, until I went to stand up and felt the burn. Went in the house and looked in the mirror to see a red spot that was blistering up like a pimple and another small bite under it. She must have injected me with most her poison on the first bite because the 2nd bite didn't bother me except for a slight itching. My husband went out later that day to check out the chair and found a Black Widow underneath the seat by her egg sac. I have no health insurance and didn't go to the doctor because I thought I could handle it. The first night I started sweating profusely, had a bout of nausea and felt achy all over. The 2nd day and on, it started swelling with a knot under the skin that ended up being the size of a softball after 4 days. Very painful to touch, a lot of burning and couldn't stand to walk on my leg because of the pain. Some spasms in the muscles but not much, muscles hurt around the bite. On the 6th day, I woke up at 4a.m. with my leg hurting so bad I ended up going to the Emergency room where they told me it had turned into an abscess. They gave me the antibiotic Bactrim and tramadol for pain and told me to use warm compresses to help speed the drainage since it had started to open up on its own & sent me home . It started draining that night and has been draining since. I am now on day 9 & it's still draining a lot. The swelling has gone down some but has left a hole in my leg. I have a doctors appointment Monday to see what lies ahead for this nasty wound. Would post more pictures as it has progressed since I have been taking pictures on a daily basis but it only allows 2 pictures.
Advice
- Even if you don't have insurance or 'think' you can handle it, go to the doctor!
- The Tramadol helped with the pain but caused me to stay nauseated & vomited quite often, so I switched to Advil Liquid Gels instead.
- Use the warm compresses it works! I've been using a warm wash cloth 6 or 7 times a day.
