Brown Recluse Spider Bite, Birdeye

Brown Recluse Spider...I hate spiders

1 hour after the bite, what I texted
to our doctors

12 hours after, you can see her
whole body in a rash and that
venom pocket

36 hours later

Day 3

Day 4

Can you tell how happy we are
that it looks that small? Day 5

The reason we are on the way home now from summer
vacation...Biscuit loves to have his head hanging out the car
door....Chloe's missed her babies Biscuit and Gumball!

Chloe at Ajax Bike and Sports in Carbondale,
Colorado...we bought her padded shorts and a
helmet that fit....she rode a total of 48 miles from
Glennwood Springs to Aspen with us

Tuesday, July 10, 2012

I saw recently that someone googled "brown recluse spider bites on butt" and "brown recluse spider bites day 4" and was sent to my blog.  I thought I'd take a moment and give you my day-by-day experience with this nasty spider that got Chloe after a bath.  She was bitten right out of the shower when she grabbed her hanging bath towel.  She felt it, saw it run to the corner and came screaming down the hall.  Chloe is extremely allergic to anything that bites her.  So you'll be able to see how our 11 year old's body reacted.  A ginormous shout out to Stan and Beth, Jackie's cousin Stan is my doctor and Beth, from Lepanto and fellow Kappa, is her pediatrician.  Chloe was freaking out so bad about dying from the bite that I had more trouble just trying to calm her down than anything at first.  I took her on over to Beth and Stan, who also wanted to see the actual spider. I had already had given her benadryl because of the reaction.  They called in some Dapsone, which is a medicine to treat leprosy in hopes the venom wouldn't spread but I got to the pharmacy after they closed.  And they wanted her to be on an antibiotic just in case of infection.

Night one (she got bit at 8 pm): she had benadyrl and was up 2-6 am with pain because she couldn't sleep, she had no fever so I gave her tylenol for the pain

Day 1, 12 hours after the bite: Stan wanted to see it and measure it, it was about a quarter in size and darkened in the middle and her entire body broke out in a rash.  Day 1 of 5 of Dapsone and Cephalexin three times a day and benadryl for the body rash.  Memaw built a sling to keep her arm off the bite area, it was extremely tender.  Her swimming and riding lessons were all canceled that week too.

Day 2-5: more of the same; you can see on the last photo what it looked like.  Today she still has a scar under there but it's not longer tender.

What an experience.  And by the way, I had our house sprayed for ants and spiders over Mother's Day weekend when we were outta town.  I'll have it sprayed again just to be sure.  I hope this reassures others about what to expect.  Just get to the doctor and do what they say, that's what we did.