Help!!! Brown Recluse or What???

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Two Sundays ago, I went walking through weeds and got a few scratches on my legs. I barely even noticed them. When I got out of the shower the next morning, I noticed a real dark black spot on the inside of my right calf. At first, I thought it was a tick. I even got some tweezers hot and was trying to get it out. It was then that I noticed it wasn't a tick after all, but still had no clue what it was, since it was actually in my skin. I started scraping it with my fingernail and got the black stuff out, but there was still a little hole left. It was as if it was a giant blackhead. I wore jeans that day and didn't pay any attention to it until the next morning. I got out of the shower again and the black thing was back! But not only that, the skin around the hole was red and puffed up... almost like a little volcano.

I then figured it may be a spider bite. I went to the doctor and he agreed and stated it was probably a brown recluse. What was kind of puzzling, however, is that by the time I got to the doctor, a faint red line was running down my calf (approx. 6") to the top of my ankle. He thought it might be the venom, but didn't know why it would be going down my leg, instead of up towards my heart. He prescribed me with Keflex (500mg. - 3 times per day). I began taking the Keflex Tuesday night. By 1:30 am Thursday morning, I awoke to the line now being a line of blisters. I then noticed I had a few on the back of my other calf, and some at the hairline on the back of my neck. Now I was really worried. I'm thinking this had gotten into my system and was spreading throughout my body.

On Thursday I went to the doctor again. The physician I saw on Tuesday wasn't in that day, so I saw another one in the practice. He indeed confirmed that the bite was brown recluse, but the blisters were poison ivy! He stated what must have happened is that the recluse had been in poison ivy before climbing up my leg and biting me. That's why the line was so defined. The blisters on my other leg and back of my neck were probably transferred by me touching the bite area and then those other places before taking a shower the next morning and washing the sap off. He did not want to put me on the steroids for poison ivy, as they lower your immune levels. He simply prescribed me with a topical ointment to put on and said it would probably be at least a week before it was gone.

It's now been a week and a day since I first noticed the "black hole", almost a week of Keflex and five days using the ointment. The blisters are starting to dry up, but now I'm very concerned about the bite area. There's now an area about two inches in diameter (almost a perfect circle) around the bite that looks like a rash. It's solid, textured, and slightly raised. It's also very warm to the touch. I will be calling my doctor later on this morning, but am starting to worry that this in going to continue to progress and maybe isn't a bite after all.

Anyone wishing to see photos, please pm me.

Someone please help!!!

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Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

While this is not a medical advice forum, I have no problem with advising you to have your doctor test your wounds for community-acquired MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial infection). Frequently these infections are mistaken for brown recluse spider bites, and it's very hard to eradicate them without proper antibiotic therapy. Please go back to your doctor and ask for a culture.......this is a generally painless, quick procedure in which a portion of the exudate (goop) in the wound bed is obtained using a long Q-tip and sent to a lab for analysis. In the meantime, keep your hands away from the sores/blisters as much as possible to avoid transmitting infection to your mucous membranes (especially around the eyes, nose, and mouth), and wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least 30 seconds if you do touch them, also before eating, and before and after going to the bathroom.

Please let us know how you're doing. :)

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Specializes in AGNP.
While this is not a medical advice forum, I have no problem with advising you to have your doctor test your wounds for community-acquired MRSA (methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, a bacterial infection). Frequently these infections are mistaken for brown recluse spider bites, and it's very hard to eradicate them without proper antibiotic therapy. Please go back to your doctor and ask for a culture.......this is a generally painless, quick procedure in which a portion of the exudate (goop) in the wound bed is obtained using a long Q-tip and sent to a lab for analysis. In the meantime, keep your hands away from the sores/blisters as much as possible to avoid transmitting infection to your mucous membranes (especially around the eyes, nose, and mouth), and wash your hands with soap and warm water for at least 30 seconds if you do touch them, also before eating, and before and after going to the bathroom.

Please let us know how you're doing. :)

I definately agree with this from first hand experience. Back in November I got what I thought was a spider bite. I felt something prick me when I had on my lab coat at work and when I took my lab coat off I had what looked like a tiny bug bite on my arm. I thought nothing of it but over the next few days that bite got extremely large, painful and very hot. When I went to the doctor they put me on a general antibiotic, squeezed a little of the goop out of it and sent it to the lab. It came back positive for MRSA so they had to put me on vanco. Even after putting me on vanco it took a good week for it to start to heal after it was done draining and almost a year later I still have a nice scar on my arm. So definately have a lab culture done otherwise MRSA can cause a multitude of systemic problems if left to run rampant in your body.

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Specializes in cardiac/critical care/ informatics.

Brown recluse spider bite tend to get bad very quickly within 48 hours, if they are going to be bad. They can cause alot of damage to your skin and go deep also. So being that it has taken that long, i would tend to think that it isn't brown reculse. But either way it needs immediate attention, to avoid further tissue damage.

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I did some research on Loxosceles reclusa a while back. It turns out that nitroglycerine patches over the wound facilitate healing by countering the vasoconstrictive properties of the venom and, interestingly enough, electrical current may completely neutralize the toxin. Apparently, for some time now, South American shaman types have been using electrical current from the spark plugs of their outboard motors to neutralize snake bites from some of the deadlier snakes on earth located along the Amazon. Dr. Stan Abrams is the man to contact regarding this treatment in America. Here's a link: http://www.spiderbitetreatment.com/brstestimonials.htm

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