About 3:00am Monday, August 18 I found a small raised welt with a yellow head on my right forearm just above the wrist bone. Since misquitos are abundant in Minnesota and it itched I assumed that was the cause. I drained it and thought nothing more of it. By Monday afternoon it was getting pretty big but didn't want to drain anymore. It also hurt to the point that it was difficult to move my wrist or close my hand. I started using neosporin on it but that did nothing but cause a rash that extended nearly to my elbow (I am terribly alergic to antibiotics). I didn't want to go to the Dr. because I knew they would put me on antibiotics and the risk of a reaction scared me more than an infected misquito bite. By Thursday it had grown fairly large an I had started pouring peroxide on it. My wife was telling me to skip school and go to urgent care but I don't miss class if I can avoid it. I finally went to urgent care on Friday, August 22. The PA who saw me said I had MRSA, took a culture and gave me antibiotics (yikes!). It continued to expand on my arm so I returned to the urgent care on Sunday. That is when the Doctor told me that the good news was that I had MSSA and not MRSA. He also said that I was bitten by a BRS and gave me a preview of the coming attractions. He also cut the site open to drain it and doubled my antibiotic dose. He asked me where I had been. The only thing I could say was my back porch. I had forgotten my trip to the tropical section of the zoo on Sunday August 17. Since I don't believe Minnesota is native to BR spiders I suspect it was an import hanging out at the zoo. So far, so good. No reaction to the antibiotics and the wound has stopped growing. I hope the worst is over. I like the idea of taking pictures of the whole process and I started this morning to record the bites progression.
