Ooooouchies! That looks nasty and 'orrible! Hope you recover quickly from it.

Yes I did bust it. Did no good at all. As for the size of the spider the Brown Recluse is quite tiny and you don't feel it bite you but it is just about the worst one to get bitten by and the progress after that is rapid.

The treatment is excision of necrotic and gangrenous tissue daily with scalpel, tweezers, scissors and needles and NO anaesthetic as it will interfere with what's going on.

The damage done by a brown recluse spider bite is done by chemical reactions (involving enzymes). The venom literally liquefies human issue. Thus, the most damage is usually not done by bacteria or virus.

When you go to a doctor, they will give you antibiotics. While this is recommended because infection will almost always be present in the spider bite, the treatment is worthless at stopping the spreading of the chemical reaction and it will not stop any possible gangrene.

I am now out of what they call the 'danger period' and will hopefully start on what they call the 'healing period' which can take up to 8 weeks.

Mummy bandaging is off replaced by clean dressings daily - it has to heal 'open' and new necrotic tissue was cut away every day.

The single most painful thing I've ever had in my life and those pics are just the start of it. It got HUGE and affected all fingers, thumb and my whole arm at its worst.

I developed an allergic reaction to it too which resulted in voilent vomitting, dizziness and ultra swelling. I've slept 2 nights out of the last 6.

I am hundreds of pounds worse off but still have my hand and all my fingers and not everyone is so lucky after a bite from one of these.

Won't put you off your food with the 'bad side' but here's a pic of how swollen it was on just day 3. After that it was swathed in thick gauze so no pics of the worst days.

Just realised I hadn't updated since the first visit to A&E.
I spent the next night in there too - hooked up to a drip and getting Morphine jabs in the belly (and they didn't even take the EDGE off the pain!) Doc says this is because it was 'nerve pain'.

OMG it is horrendous you poor thing. All that from a small spider. No wonder I can't stand them I hope the pain is subsiding although looking like that I can't imagine it is. (((hugs))).

I've always fancied Cyprus, maybe not

That looks awful, poor you
Evil little boogers aint they?
Keep us posted.

lol Nippy - I now hate SPIDERS so much that I don't even like reading your name 'nippy'

That sounds horrendous, I'll give Cyprus a miss too!

Bloomin' 'eck Pat - I hope there are none of those boogers here.

(((hugs)))

Funny you should say that Malka! There was a report written on the subject ..... in Israel!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1681653

You have to be VERY unlucky to get bitten by one and I think I know exactly how this happened. Will type it up when I can type properly.