#2024 I think it will help to journal my experience and that way I can keep my own facts straight. I am starting this on July 7th, which is about 1 week after the actual bite. I'm not sure yet if it was a BRS, but they are so plentiful here, it would be unusual if it was anything else.
June 28th is the approximate date I think I got bit. The previous weekend I did some yard work and thought I had some mosquito bites. The first bump showed up on my left breast around the 28th and it itched like crazy, so that's why I used it as my "base" day. By the morning of the 29th I was itching on my back also. I was just annoyed because I didn't use mosquito repellent when I did my yard work. But, I got up on the 30th and my back was hurting really bad. All the "bites" had gotten really sore and burned to touch them, but they kept on itching too. I noticed that when I touched the bite on my breast, it made my back hurt, so I assumed the one on my breast was causing everything. I went to work, but I started to have muscle spasms and it hurt to breathe. My daughter is a doctor, (but in upstate New York), so I called her and she said to get to the doctor as soon as possible because the bite was over my heart and she was concerned about that.
I called my family doctor and got an appointment for 1 that afternoon. I left work and went to the doc's. He said it was either shingles or a bug bite. There were two itchy bumps on my back, but the breast had crusted over and it seemed to be the major problem. The doc gave me a dosepack of steroids, Cephalexin and Etodolac. The Etodolac is to reduce inflamation of the muscle.. he thought that would help with the pain. It did.
I started my 4th of July vacation the next day July 1st. And I started the medications. The Etodolac did help with the muscle pain and everything seemed to be moving along. Except, that the bumps on my back wouldn't quit itching or hurting.
I finished the Dosepack on Tuesday July 6th, and even though the bumps still hurt, they seemed to be under control. The bump on my breast had just about healed all the way... no problems with it at all. My younger daughter came over that night and she said that the 2 bumps on my back had turned dark. She put some tincture of benzoin on it. But there were a couple of small pimply, rashy bumps between the two big bumps. I still didn't worry too much about it.
This morning, July 7th, my daughter stopped in before I went to work and she looked at my back. She got worried and told me that the bumps had turned darker. Also, there were more rashy pimples in between the bumps. She tried to check one of the pimples and a hard white ball came out of it. I still don't know what that was, unless it was hard pus. This got me really worried, but I had to go to work. I called my doc and made an appointment for 5 PM. He looked at the bumps and said they looked worse and there was now the rash. He seems to still want to say it's shingles, but had conceded it may just be a spider bite. He says we will watch it for a few days and if it gets worse, he will send me to a dermatologist. He also changed my medication to Dapsone, which is actually for leprosy and Cleocin which is a strong antibiotic.
When I got home, my daughter checked out the dark bumps and said that where the dark skin was, there were holes in the bumps, so there is no doubt in my mind that the skin is dead there. I am going to take tomorrow off and see a different doctor. I just had some plastic surgery done not too long ago, and I'm going to see if he will do something with this. My friends daughter also just had a spider bite, and a doctor here in town debrided it and it has almost healed up. It only took her about a week and a half to heal. If my PS can't see me, I will go to the one my friend's daughter went to. Even though I know this won't kill me (I hope), after looking at some of the photos, it sure scares the bejezzus out of me.
THE FIRST THREE PHOTOS WERE TAKEN ON JULY 7,2005-The bites are really red around the black area and the rash is raised and red, with white pustules.
THE THIRD PHOTO WAS TAKEN ON JULY 9,2005-The redness has really calmed down and the rash is flatter and not as red. There doesn't appear to be anything in the pustules anymore.
JULY 8,2005- Well today the rash looks better and the bites have not increased in size. Alot of the muscle pain has disappeared. I actually felt pretty more normal after how terrible I felt last night. There was an itchy spot on my shoulder and now it is black and blue. Just a little scary.. it may be just a bruise, but I'm jumpy about every new mark on my body. I also made an appointment with my plastic surgeon. I see him on Monday and if the bites are still small, I'll have him remove the dead tissue. I started the new meds today, so I don't know yet if they will do anything. My daughter tried to look under the black skin and said there was a hole in the bite, so I know the skin there is dead.
Oh and there are 4 bites in one of the places and 1 bite in the other.
I got to thinking and I take Benadryl every day, for allergies. I wonder if this has helped any to keep things to a minimum. I am not resting easy yet. Well, let's see what tomorrow brings. I've included pictures of today. As you can see, the rash in between the bites has calmed down a whole bunch. There are two photos of the bite on my front. As you can see they are now just red blotches that are fading.
JULY 10,2005 There has been no new developments in the bite areas. They are still itchy and they make my back hurt. At times, they seem to just start burning or itching. The itching seems to radiate from the bites areas to my left arm. If the bite itches, then my whole left side of my back is itchy. The bite on my breast, even though it has totally healed, still hurts when the back hurts. I think that has something to do with the nervous system connection.
I have been really jumpy, everytime I feel a tickle anywhere. I keep thinking of an old Steepenwolf song, "Don't Step On The Grass Sam", where they sang "it's evil, wicked, mean and nasty"... and that's what I think of spiders.
A friend of mine's daughter was bit on the leg about 3 weeks ago. She showed me her "bite". It is now just a dime size red and white scar. She went to the doctor originally and he gave her a shot of steroid and a dose pack and antibiotics. He told her to take them for 5 days and then come back in. When she did, he numbed her leg and removed the necrotic skin. He did not stitch it closed and he had her keep an antibiotic ointment on it and keep it covered with a gauze pad. She did and it healed very nicely, so this gives me great hope.
JULY 11,2005 I went to the plastic surgeon today. He confirmed the BRS.. no test, but he said he has done surgery on tons of them. He did not want debride mine. He said they had contained themselves and were in the process of healing. That they would heal better if left alone. I need to continue taking the dapsone and cleocin. They have formed scabs and there is some peeling around the scabs. There are no new developements, so I can agree with him that they are probably on the mend. My PS is from Poland.. I imagine he has seen some things we in the US haven't. My grandfather was also from Poland and I know he had some incredible experiences we would almost never have here. The bites still itch (not nearly as intense) and my back still hurts, but not quite as much. I want to follow this through to the end so that it might help someone else to get a timeline for their own bite.
JULY 12,2005 The back pain is just a tad less than yesterday. There is flaky skin around the bite areas. The bites themselves have scabbed over. They still hurt to mess with them. I thought maybe they would slough off, so I tried to take off the scab and I think the scab is the entire dead skin area, which is about 1/4 inch into the skin. So that would be why it hurts and why the scabs don't just fall off. The black area has gotten just a teensy tiny bit smaller.
JULY 13,2005 Well 2 weeks since the initial bite. They look exactly the same as the did yesterday. They still itch, but not nearly as intensly as last week. My back still hurts. There is no comfortable position to sit. The only way my back doesn't hurt is if I'm laying down. I went back to work on the 12th, so laying down is not an option. I just have a constant nagging pain in my back. No new developements, so that is always good news.
JULY 14,2005 No change in the bites.
JULY 15,2005 The difference is very subtle, but there is not as much nagging pain, as just occasional pains in the muscles. The bite areas still itch.
JULY 16,2005 My daughter said the bites have scabs. She scraped one off (I was worried that the skin underneath would be black). It was very difficult to get the scab off, I think it was connected to deeper tissue. But, when it came off there is pink skin underneath.
JULY 17,2005 The scab has reformed over the bite, so I guess it was still healing. Still itching. The pain is really mild now and only sporadic.
JULY 18,2005 The front of my office has alot of house spiders, so I have to sweep away the webs at least once a week. It used to not bother me at all, but now I cringe with each sweep. I'm constantly watching for spiders. I sure hope this is not something that becomes habit. Also, this is really weird, but as I was sweeping cobwebs, my bite areas started to twitch and crawl, like there were spiders trying to get out. I think it's just muscle spasms. But it gave me a creepy feeling like the bites could sense the spiders.... icky.
JULY 19,2005 I think the creepy sensation came from me tensing as I was sweeping, because I noticed it happens whenever I'm working those muscles now. Still have spells of intense itching. Occasional pinchiness at the bite areas.
JULY 20,2005 This is almost one month after the bites and they are still there. Although there is flaky skin and eveything is more normal. I invested in a 98 cent back scratcher at Walmart. Also a nice bath brush. I use the scratcher when I want to zero in on one bite and the brush works wonderful on the whole area.
Oh, all the antibiotics have made my mouth sore and raw. I'm eating alot of yogurt. It really helps. I took the last dose of meds on Saturday.
