This summer has brought on new concerns for me and my family. On August 20th, I (Litsa) woke up at 5 a.m. to poison ivy on my arm itching. I walked to the kitchen to treat the poison ivy with a hydrocortisone cream but noticed a small bite that looked like a mosquito bite that hurt. Since I always douse my mosquito bites with red wine vinegar, I dabbed a paper towel into my vinegar container and treated the bite. The pain continued and the bite area turned purple by 4 p.m. I also had a quarter size ring around the bite.
The next morning the quarter sized bite redness had engulfed my arm so I opted to take myself to the doctor just in case it was a Brown Recluse Spider bite. I had cleaned our entire living room the day before the bite so it was possible that I had been bitten since I move furniture when I deep clean.
I was treated with a steroid shot and an antibiotic shot immediately and placed on both medications (ten days of pills) by the nurse practitioner. The medicine looked effective in treating the bite until the spider bite started growing in redness. The streaks coming into my upper arm concerned me enough to have a recheck. I was then placed on super, duper meds to combat the bacterial infection. Although my body didn’t like the pills, I was faithful in taking them with loads of food, water, and as much inside time as possible so as not to have a sun reaction. The bite healed.
Today is my last day of my medication as I write this post. I did find the culprit, a Brown Recluse Spider in my bed. He opted to get in bed with me. When I rolled over him, he left his mark. I had never been bitten while cleaning before so I investigated my sheets. There he was dead but left me in immense pain and full of medicine. Luckily though, I was able to have the bite treated within 24 hours. I do believe that dousing the bite with the red wine vinegar helped my arm from bubbling open with infection—and rotting out. I had heard stories of….and even had my husband’s own experience with a bite from a few years back (at a cabin) that was horribly infected.
As my arm healed these past few weeks, we’ve sprayed our house for spiders. We have glue traps in hidden, dark areas that Brown Recluse Spiders like to hide, we check our bed for visitors before we crawl in—-and pray that we’re protected from any lurking creepy crawlies.
Since we’ve sprayed, I’ve seen one Brown Recluse in the basement staircase (my husband killed him for me) and another one in my truck (of all places—and my husband killed him for me too)! I’m sure there are others and that we’ll have to spray again—and again……and again but hopefully, we won’t be bitten again.
Do Brown Recluse Spiders reside with you? If in doubt as to what kind of bite it is, I’d suggest red wine vinegar—watching it closely and documenting all changes—and more importantly getting a medical opinion as soon as possible.
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