Living Life Livingston Style

Thursday, November 05, 2009

Spider Bite

I wanted to share what's been going on with me the past few days. I got bit by something Monday night around 6:30pm. I was heading out the door so I took my sweatshirt off and took a look, there was what looked like a mosquito bite about the size of a penny, I put some cortizone cream on it and left for church. The next morning the area had spread, was very red and very itchy. I thought it was a spider bite and went on with my day. When Jody got home that evening, he asked to see the bite and this is what he saw (the 1st picture below-24 hours later). He was shocked, so I talked with my cousin who is a RN to see what I should look for in case I was bitten by a poisonous spider. I didn't have any of the symptoms she mentioned, but she told me if it got bigger I should probably get it checked out. The next morning I woke up and it had spread again (2nd picture). I called the doctor and got in late yesterday afternoon. When I got there I was running a fever, which I didn't know about. The doctor said it was cellulitis, a bad bacterial infection, bacteria got into the bite and it was spreading like crazy. He put me on antibiotics 3 times a day for the next 10 days. I did not realize the severity of the cellulitis, but he warned if we don't get under control it could require iv antibiotics. The bite is very close to my lymph nodes which also makes it worse. The 3rd picture is what it looks like this morning, the red swelled area is now down past my elbow.

I'm telling you all this to be aware, I thought it was just a weird bite! My warning to you is that if you have a bite that is abnormal, just go to the doctor, pay the copay and have it checked out!