Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Arachnophobic, Part 1

I'm so surprised. I've been posting on Facebook about my brown recluse spider bite. Someone suggested I blog about it. I thought, "What a good idea. I really like to whine when I feel bad." Went to Google, typed in free blog sites and up popped Blogger and said "Sign in Dummy, you already have a blog." I'd completely forgotten about having one. Duh!

This blog "thread" if I stick with it this time, will chronicle the adventures I'm sure to have after being bitten by a brown recluse spider. My life is so dull, that I needed this extra bit of excitement! :)

Thursday, July 1, 2010 -- a date that will live forever branded in my brain -- was like any other day in my life. Quilted a while when I got up (I don't work on Thursdays and beginning July 9, I don't work on Fridays either). I'd signed up for a photoshop workshop at Ole Miss, sponsored by the MS Press Association. Great workshop! I love classes of any kind.

Dressed for the workshop a little bit better than I normally do -- instead of raggy t-shirt and jeans, went for the decent regular shirt and "dress" jeans. The minute I got home from the workshop, I headed straight to change clothes. You can only wear decent clothes (and undergarments!) so long. Pulling my shirt off, I thought I scratched my arm, apparently a pretty good scratch, as it was really burning.

I looked at the "scratch" in the mirror and it looked more like a snake (or vampire) bite. Two little holes, on the side of my upper arm, that was already swelling and turning red. Pop, otherwise known as Butch or Doyle -- and my husband of 40 years! -- came in to look at my arm when I called him. First thing he said was "spider bite." I can't repeat the first thing I said.

By bedtime, it was looking a little weird and mildly hurting and itching. Friday morning, it was worse looking and really hurting and itching. By Friday evening, I was in misery. All day Saturday, I itched and scratched and whined and complained and felt horrible. I didn't even go to the fireworks at the civic center. And those are always really good fireworks! And hot dogs, etc. :)

Sunday, the Fourth of July, was another day of the same -- except for the chorus of "Go to the doctor!" that I got from everyone at church. By Monday, after spending the day at work in pain and agony, and listening to everyone say, "GO TO THE DOCTOR!" I went. Tried to go to the Urgent Care in Oxford -- I had called to see if they were open on the Monday after the 4th of July. They had a little recording that said, "Today is Monday, July 5, our hours are 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. and the doctors today are...."

Well, at 5:45 p.m. they were closed! So, feeling slightly foolish for going to a "real" ER for something as dumb as a spider bite, I drove on around to the hospital in Oxford. After a not-very-long wait, the nurse called me to triage. She looked at my arm, said "Come on, let's go in here and see the doctor." In just a few minutes a guy doctor walked in. (I have a girl doctor and a lot of Pop's doctors are girls. I guess I've gotten used to girl doctors. I do like 'em!) Anyway, the guy doctor walks in, introduces himself, looks at my arm and says "That looks awful!"

A short time later, after antibiotics, a tetanus shot and various and assorted heavy-duty antibiotic prescriptions, Meredith my 14-year-old granddaughter, and I headed home. (Did I mention that Mere came along to supervise? She actually wanted to go to Subway -- she said it was a tradition to go out to eat after a trip to the ER. The summer of broken bones will be covered in another blog.)

At Subway, Mere wanted a foot-long sub -- Italian, with olive oil and red vinegar, black olives, etc. Sometimes I'm amazed at food choices. I've have choked to death on that when I was 14. Back then -- give me a Big Mac! Mere ate every single bite of that foot-long sandwich! At almost 5 feet and about 85 pounds soaking wet, the sandwich was almost bigger than she is!

But I digress -- as we say in Sunday School when we get off topic -- which we do frequently -- "Back to Jerusalem!"

Tuesday my arm hurt a lot and I itched a lot and just generally felt like a slug. My arm looked worse than it had, so Wednesday, I went to see my doctor, Cassandra Hawkins. (Great doctor! And my 12-year-old granddaughter Remy adores her!) Anyway, she looked at my arm, along with some of the other staff and they all agreed it looked really disgusting. :) She gave me a Roscefin (can't spell that one) shot -- a very heavy-duty antibiotic and some fantastic itch cream. I'd been clawing at my arms, thighs and the top of my feet since the spider bit me! Whatever this cream is, it's worth it's weight in gold! (mometasone furoate cream). By the afternoon, I wasn't itching and my arm was just a dull ache.

Hah! All the stuff I'd been reading on the Internet was crazy! This wasn't going to be bad at all. I was nearly recovered already. Came home, did some laundry, ate supper and while I was eating the wonderful burger that Pop had cooked (he's a great hamburger cooker!) the muscles under the "bite site" began to spasm and act like they wanted to have charley-horses.

Not long after that, I was laying (lying?) across my desk in agony. Felt just like someone with a burning, blazing hot hand had reached up through my armpit (yes, it's gross, but...) and ripped out all the muscles and stuff. The pain was excruciating. I walked around the house a bit, crying and feeling pretty sorry for myself. This was the worst pain I've ever felt! It was SO horrible. I took one of my heavy-duty ibuprofen that I have for my arthritis and after 30 minutes or so, the pain hadn't diminished at all.

I called my pharmacist (Tim Liddy, a really good guy) and he said I could take one of Pop's Lortabs with my ibuprofen. They were different and did different things and I wouldn't overdose on that.

It's about an hour now after taking the Lortab. I am in no pain. If I am, I don't care. After a couple hours of throbbing, hideous pain and copious tears and a phone call to my friend Jane (she deserves an entire post all to herself!) trying not to cry but to describe my agony carefully, the pain pills have kicked in (and I took Jane's advice about the shower also -- she's a genius!)

For the moment, I am calm, not sobbing and almost upright in my chair. We'll have to see what tomorrow brings.

I had Mere take a picture of my arm the other day. I'll get another one tomorrow and post them here. They are gross though!

One last thought -- the ER doctor said that only about three to five percent of brown recluse spider bite victims get that horrible huge gross hole. I am steadily praying that I am in the 95 percent, who just suffers agony, but not the grossness!

4 comments:

The Quiltwhinny said...

Bumpy, my sympathy to you! I too have been the victim of the Brown Recluse when visiting my brother in Mississippi. Mine was hiding in an old pair of tennis shoes I leave in his closet to wear to the barn. The ER in Starkville helped, but after I returned to my classroom that week I ended up at the doctor's again because I became dehydrated from the steroid I was on. I now can identify and kill the brown recluse upon site! Unfortunately they have also moved to Illinois. Take care.

Anonymous said...

Bumpy,
We are from Caledonia. My son was bitten by a brown recluse years ago and even though he went to doctor, was given antibiotics, and steriods, and other meds... he was in horrible pain with fever for many days. About three weeks after the bite, he had to have the area of the bite and surrounding skin tissue scraped away and it has left a huge scar. So, please... do not hesitate to keep in touch with your doctor about the skin around the bite. Prayers!
DianeL

Jeanne said...

So sorry for you! I was itching as I read your post. You're an excellent writer. Even though the subject matter wasn't good news, I enjoyed reading your account of the bite.

Jenny in MS said...

Bumpy,
I was looking forward to seeing you when you came to Lynette's this afternoon, but, alas..... I have a friend here who was bitten on the foot by one of those notorious spiders; but her bite never got really bad, for which she is most thankful!

Hoping for the easiest route to recovery for you!
Jenny