My experiences with the brown recluse

I have been bitten by brown recluse spiders twice: the first time in July 2006, and the second time in July 2007.

I have lived in Arkansas since 1998. My first four years here, I lived in a motorhome. In 2002, my husband and I bought our home in the woods near the town of Beaver. For four years, we were unaware of the existence of brown recluse spiders. We had not seen any in our house. The people we bought the house from had sprayed insecticides in the house.

In 2006, I got my first bite while napping. I rolled onto the spider, and my forearm crushed it. At the time I didn't feel the bite and didn't know I had been bitten until my arm started getting red and sore. My arm began to swell up and get hot. Then I had a fever and chills.

As I do for any rash or skin problem, I put plantain salve on the bite, which looked like a mosquito bite. The salve is made from plantain (the weed, not the banana-like fruit), olive oil and beeswax. I also alternated that with desert clay.

But the venom was already in my arm, and red streaks started moving toward my wrist and up toward my elbow. I also ran a very high fever. After talking with a friend, who said she had had similar symptoms and was told she had a staph infection, I went to the doctor.

The doctor did not think I had a spider bite because the bite did not have necrosis (the flesh turns black and rots). I told him about the plantain salve, but Western doctors are not often open to herbal remedies or believe they work.

The doctor gave me a shot of the antibiotic Rocephin and prescribed an oral antibiotic, cefuroxime. These antibiotics worked for me, and I continued to put plantain salve on the bite. The bite never went to necrosis, and I believe the plantain is the reason.

I was also taking colloidal silver and grapefruit seed extract internally (natural antibiotics), along with Vitamin C. As a normal course I also take magnesium and CoQ10 every day.

While the bite was painful, it was not unbearable. I had one sleepless night, but other than that, I healed up in several days and didn't miss much work.

Last year, with a second brown recluse bite, it was an entirely different story.

The first symptom occurred in the morning, when one of my feet began itching on the ball of my foot. It was hot and red. Soon the itching spread to the whole sole of my foot. Within a few hours, both feet were itching and I began to have chills. I didn't realize I was feverish; I just thought I felt cold. In actuality I was running a fever five degrees higher than my normal temperature.

With the itching and fever, I knew something was majorly wrong, so I went to the doctor. I did not realize I had been bitten again. The doctor could not find a bite. I was given a prescription for Bactrim, a sulfa drug. I should mention I don't do well with many prescription medications. The side effects are too much my system. I went home and took the medication and some ibuprofen and my fever began to drop, but the redness began to spread. My back on my left side near my armpit began to hurt. I looked and saw a couple bites back there. A friend came over and put black salve (an herbal preparation) on them.

I had a terrible night and couldn't sleep. My feet were as red as lobsters. At half past midnight I took another Bactrim and more ibuprofen. I felt weak and dizzy and couldn't sleep at all.

The next day the redness spread until nearly every bit of my skin was red and hot, except for my arms. I was itching in some places. Another friend came by and put grapefruit seed oil, clay and colloidal silver on my bites. I called the doctor, who did not return my call. By this time my whole body had turned red and hot. I finally got the doctor on the phone and he said to come in. I was there for three hours while they tried to draw blood (I have collapsing veins). They wanted to test for Lyme Disease, Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, lupus and leukemia. They did not think I had a brown recluse bite because again, the bites did not necrose. They were ready to hospitalize me. I agreed to a couple shots, one antibiotic and one Prednisone. I do not like steroids. They called my rash a "sunburn rash."

The shots seemed to help; I did feel better. My appetite had returned and I ate a big meal (which was probably a mistake, in retrospect). The redness started to recede from my torso and remained mostly in my feet. I was able to get to sleep at 1 a.m. after taking a cup of herbal tea for sleep. I woke up several times during the night to urinate, and couldn't get back to sleep after 5 a.m. I decided I would go in to work. The bite was still really hurting, but not enough to keep me from functioning.

The next day it got even more interesting. This was now four days after the bite occurred. The bite really hurt, and by that evening, redness was spreading down my arm and back from the bite site, which had a white, crusty center. It was hot and swollen. Because the redness was spreading, I decided to go to the emergency room. I told the doctor about the bite the past year and what drugs I had been given. He was convinced I had a brown recluse bite. This doctor gave me a shot of Rocephin and two shots of steroids, along with another prescription for cefuroxime at my request, since these had worked for me before. I was up until 6 a.m. I slept most of the day. The redness on my arm and back seemed to spread. Later I noticed that while there were a couple hot spots, other areas started clearing up.

The fifth day, I awoke with palms itching violently. The redness from the bite was no worse and even seemed a little better, but sheets of peeling skin came off my toes.

Day 6, I broke out in a major rash on the insides of my thighs. The bite was hurting again. I felt like I was losing my mind. My ankles were swollen and I was constipated and couldn't sleep.

By Day 9, I was improving, but it was very difficult. I still had traces of rash, my bite still hurt, and I still itched. There were unconnected red splotches on my back, arm and midriff.

Day 10, my ankles were no longer swollen, but my skin was peeling off in various places: fingers, legs and feet. The bite had a scab on it. During this whole ordeal I kept plantain salve on the bite. I fully believe this prevented necrosis, but it could not stop the effects of the venom that was already in my system.

By Day 23, the bite still hurt to touch and I was still peeling somewhat but I was pretty much healed.

I don't know whether the rashes were from the venom, the steroids or the sulfa drugs. I do know if this happens again, I will ask the doctor to give me the Rocephin shot and the oral cefuroxime and skip the steroids and the sulfa drugs, as I have read my rashes could have been because of them.

I know from reading Dr. Stan Abrams website (spiderbitetreatment.com) that venom can stay in your body and cause lesions to pop out months and years later. I did buy a stun gun from him and used it on my arm, but am nervous about using it on my back so close to my heart. The stun gun he sold me is too strong and I could not handle it. I will look for a lesser strength one. The one Betty Boggus has felt okay to me. (See her story here.)

One note: the print edition of our newspaper used a shortened cutline for the photo of Betty Boggus shocking her arm with her stun gun. The cutline notes that the shock is done in one-second bursts. It should not be done longer than that.