| "Don't make the same mistake I did! One spider bite | | | | and now had red streaks about 6 inches long. |
| can turn into a life threatening staph infection!" | | | | Less than 24 hours from the initial bite I was laying in |
| I had just moved from California to Colorado. My | | | | Porter Adventist Hospital, where the surgeon on call |
| daughter and I were busy unpacking, but took our time | | | | quickly arrived. Immediately I was put on an IV to |
| to enjoy the first real colorful days of fall. | | | | administer antibiotics, and I was told the bite resembled |
| Just before we left for a barbeque at a friend's house, | | | | a brown recluse spider. However, this was secondary |
| I felt what appeared to be a sting or bite on my back. I | | | | to what was now a life threatening staph infection. |
| washed it off and applied calamine lotion. Later that | | | | Several hours later, I was released from the hospital |
| evening my back really started to itch and became | | | | with two incisions 4 inches deep and 7 inches wide left |
| painful. So, I applied cortisone cream to the bite and | | | | open and packed with gauze. For the next month, I |
| took some Benadryl then drove home. | | | | would endure the most excruciating pain 3 times per |
| The next morning I woke up with flu like symptoms, | | | | day, while the surgical incisions were packed with |
| and immediately noticed the pain and itching had | | | | gauze and dressed. It is unclear what the direct cause |
| worsened. I looked in the mirror and noticed it was | | | | of the Staph infection. After speaking with the doctor, I |
| substantially larger and there was now a red ring | | | | learned that they see numerous patients a year that |
| around the bite with a pus pocket under the skin. I | | | | think they have a brown recluse spider bite not |
| called my sister since she is in the medical field, and | | | | realizing they have a staph infection. According to the |
| drove over for her to take a look at it. When I arrived, | | | | Center for Disease Control (CDC) Staphylococcus |
| she looked at it, her jaw dropped and she said: "You | | | | aureus, caused more than 94,000 life-threatening |
| need to go to the emergency room now!" The bite | | | | infections and nearly 19,000 deaths in the United States |
| and area around it had grown to 2 inches diameter | | | | in 2005. |