5/1/04 I think I was bitten while trying on some old clothes in the back of my closet. I had lost 50lbs and was excited to get into them. I didn't shake them out. My guess is my friend was in a garmet and couldn't get out. Hence the 16 bites on my left side and back and the 1 big one on my back. I didn't feel a thing.
5/2/04 I woke up the next morning feeling like someone had kicked me hard on the left side of my back and I had a tough time getting out of bed. I felt a lump and checked it out in the mirror. There was a hard red lump with a small white area on the top. I felt fluish all that day..achy, feverish, lightheaded, chills, nausea, weak and was up most of the night with these symptoms but most of all...PAIN!
5/3/04 A neighbor friend who is a nurse came over to look at it this morning and told me to get to the ER. I was against it but did. A physician's assistant was the only one who looked at it and drew lines around it. He said he wasn't sure what bit me, gave me a tetnace shot, an Rx for Keflex, and vicodine, told me to put heat on it 4 times a day and see my doctor in 2 days. (I had been putting ice and heat on it until then). I was really sick and in pain the rest of the day and night. Vicodine didn't help...just made me sick to my stomach.
5/4/04 Bite is bigger and harder and much more painful. Still having flu symptoms and pain wakes me up throughout the night. No appetite. Can't get comfortable. Hurts to sit, lay, walk.
5/5/04 Was in so much pain called my doc to see if I could get in a day early. Instead she referred me to a surgeon and schedule an appt. for me 5/6. Woke up several times in pain again...had to take pain meds. My poor hubby.
5/6/04 Suffered the half hour ride to and from the surgeon's office only to find out that he can't do anything until the bite starts to ulcer. Then he can clean it out. At least he was sure it was a BRS because he has seen many of the them before. I couldn't believe the amount of pain I was in without my pain meds most of the day. Cried all the way home. Better now that I have them back in my blood stream. Found this website tonight and it's wonderful. It's wierd though. I have all the same symptoms, but my skin hasn't begun to peal yet. It has been turning purplish and is looking like it's going to erupt any time. But I'm going on 6 days when other's started opening much sooner. Maybe it's because mine is on my back??
5/7/04 Right before I went to bed last night, I felt something wet on my back and on my night gown. I called my hubby in and he said that some puss had started to leak out of the bite. He cleaned it and taped gauze over it. Thank God I slept on my side-stomach most of the night, because when I woke up I was soaked with puss.I called my hubby to check the guaze and it was totally saturated with green puss...not much blood. He cleaned it and dressed it. The hard bump around it doesn't feel quite as large as it was. It has been draining relentlessly all day. My hubby says at least a half cup of pus has drained from the large hard area. It saturates thick guaze every hour and when we change it I push on the hard area and it just pours out. Have had to change my clothes several times today because the gauze can't contain it all. Still lots of pain, but have been better about taking my pain meds regularly to stay on top of the pain and so I can sleep. I have never seen anything like this in my life!
I have submitted daily pictures to the gentleman who runs this site, but they haven't been posted yet. I am so greatful he created it for those of us who never expected to be victims of a BRS.
5/9/04 Mark, thanks for getting my pics up.
I'm sorry if this update sounds gross, but I'm just telling it like it is.
I've been feeling better physically the last couple of days since the volcano "erupted". I have never seen so much green/yellow/white puss in my life!! My husband is also in awe. I feel sorry for him having to take care of this for me, but it's on my back so I can't see or reach it very well.
In the last two days, more than a cup of puss has drained from my wound. Now it's gone from the size of a hard softball, to the size of a golf ball. We have to change the gauze almost every hour or two. Before he puts on the new dressing, I push on the hard area around the wound and puss oozes out in what seems like buckets (sorry to exaggerate). The good news is it's starting to itch and the skin is starting the slough off a bit. It's been 8 days...amazing the damage these little buggers can do.
It's scary to think how hard my body must be working to kill off the poisons that nasty spider left in my system...and I just had major surgery not even a month ago!
Has anyone else have this much puss??
5/15/04 Haven't submitted a picture lately. The major bite site is shrinking slowly but surely. It has begun itching around the perimeter. It has closed up but the skin surrounding the bite is shedding and feels scaley (like snake skin). It is still tender and red and the hardened area has shrunk to the size of a golf ball. There is still a lot of puss inside. I occasionally peel off a piece of skin and it opens up enough where I can squeeze a little more puss and blood out of it. It's obvious it's going to take awhile for this to totally disappear. The smaller bites surrounding the big bite are still small read knots and itch a lot. They too are peeling skin.
5/24/04 Well...FINALLY I GOT A REAL AND CORRECT DIAGNOSIS!!! I DIDN'T HAVE A BR BITE! I had a severe case of cellulitis!! Finally my primary doctor saw me and she knew what it was even before testing. No one else (the ER doc or the surgeon) did any blood work or took samples of the puss, etc. It is caused by strep or staph bacteria entering your body through an open wound, puncture, etc. in the skin.
My skin never ulcerated ...just ran pus for a long time. I should, however have been hospitalized with antibiotic IV and it should have been lanced and drained.
I did so much research about this over the last month and learned a lot. I even corresponded with the head of entomology for CA State University of Riverside..Dr. Rick Vetter. Anyone interested in his info,his website is spiders.ucr.edu/myth. Especially anyone living in California who thinks they have been bitten. He as challenged people who live in CA to send him a brown recluse (dead of course)and no one has. He is a little eclectic, but most scientists who are experts in their field tend to be a little "adament".
I'm not saying I agree with everything he says, but he has been doing research in this field for many years. I do live in California where there aren't supposed to be any brown recluses (which I still question due to modern transport). I'm sure a few slip into the state now and then.
And I do agree that many docs misdiagnose BR bites. It was he that suggested I get another doc's opinion. The only two docs I saw was the one in the ER and the surgeon I was referred to and they never did any tests or anything but look and prescribe antibiotics. Also, I had just gotten out of the hospital after having major surgery and was the perfect candidate for cellulitis. My primary care doc recognized it immediately and tests comfirmed it. Because I was misdiagnosed at first, I was given the wrong antibiotics and the wrong treatment (which was none) when it should have been lanced.
Because of this I still have a solid golf ball-sized hard lump under my skin that is still sore. It is probably residual puss that I can't get to so I just hope I don't get another flare up.
