Day Three: 6/8/11

I can feel the poison working it's way into the muscle. I find myself breathing through the shooting pains and the tightness that comes with the muscle cramps in my hamstring. Focusing on my breath in and out. Because I know that just like a labor pain, it will pass.

The wound has easily doubled in diameter and today I can see darkening spots that just look like bruising. However, I know that is the insides of my leg slowly being liquefied or digested and it scares the heck out of me. The dark spot is where it bit me. I read that the venom that the BRS injects is the same hemotoxin enzyme that you would find with the bite of an eastern diamondback rattlesnake or a pit viper. Yikes!! I'd rather be bitten by none of the above, but I guess that I lucked out by only getting such a small amount from the little spider.

Okay, so pictures...here is my leg on the afternoon of the 3rd day.



What am I doing for treatment? I'm taking the prescribed antibiotics, my probiotics twice a day, aloe vera juice topical application and taken internally (It's gross alone, but palatable when mixed with fruit juice.), and a friend of mine suggested using lavender oil (thanks a million Kelli!) so I've been adding that topically as well. After one application of the therapeutic grade Young Living essential oil, my leg went from an angry, swollen, enflamed red (pictured above), to the much calmer pink (pictured below). Randy (Mr. anti-homeopathic) was amazed at the drastic physical change that the lavender demonstrated within an hour after the first application.



Here is a picture of the lavender oil that is working wonders...



I know that tomorrow is going to be better because lots of my friends and family are praying and sending their positive thoughts and energy my way. Thanks everyone for taking the time to do what you do. :-)

Day Two: 6/7/11

Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 is day 2.

Pain is moderate. Severe at times. Shooting sensations accompanied by muscle cramps and spasms are frequent and followed by a seemingly constant throbbing pain. These new symptoms are making walking difficult.

I never take Lortab, because I hate the way it makes me feel, but I am well into the itchy phase of this first pill and can still clearly feel the locked down cramps in my hamstring.

The red, swollen bullseye is rather hot to the touch. The bite site is nowhere near as itchy as it was yesterday. It is too painful to touch, so I dare not itch it. The redness and swelling has spread out a great deal, from a quarter size yesterday morning to what appears to be larger that a slice of bread.

I have developed some sort of rash on my right leg also and it spreads out from the bite site diminishing towards my foot. When I sit down or inadvertently apply pressure to site, it feels like there's a bouncy ball under my skin. But to the touch, it is soft and squishy. I'm guessing white blood cells? I don't want to know what's happening under there and I hope that the skin does not become gangrenous and necrotic.


Picture follows....

Day One: 6/6/11

I was bitten by a brown recluse spider on Monday, June 6th, 2011, at about 8:00am.

Day one pain level was a zero. I didn't take a picture of the bite site, but after about an hour it was very itchy. It was uncomfortable, irritable, but not painful.

Diameter of bite was approximately the size of a quarter after about 6 hours. It looked (but didn't feel) like that of a wasp sting. It was pink and raised.

Here is a picture of the fiddleback that bit me and in the process was killed! Notice the darkened violin/fiddle shape on it's head that narrows towards the direction of it's abdomen. It has long, spindly legs. As the other part of it's name indicates, it is reclusive and not an aggressive arachnid. They prefer to hide in dark, warm, dry places. Such as in my case, clothes in your closet. It will only bite if it feels threatened.