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It was a quite morning at 5:00 am on May 6th,
2002 and I was lying in the bed with my fiancée. I felt a slight
tickle on my upper thigh of my left leg under the covers and
proceeded to brush it away. As my hand struck the blanket I felt a
slight stinging sensation on my leg. Little did I know that moment
was going to change my life forever, I lifted the covers to see the
outline of a small, brown quarter size spider on my bed. My fiancée
woke up startled and asked me “What is it?” I said, “It looks like
a spider. Hold on”. I ran to the bathroom, grabbed some tissue and
quickly grabbed the spider and threw it in the toilet. My fiancée
came into the bathroom to look at the spider and all we said at that
moment was “Wow, that is a big spider”. I flushed the toilet with a
feeling of personal victory. Almost within the hour the bite area
swelled to a quarter size area. That afternoon I went to the doctor
and he asked me if it was a brown recluse. I have never seen a
brown recluse before but both my fiancée and me agreed that it quite
possibly was after hearing the description of one but I had always
thought those spiders were in southern Illinois. The doctor gave me
some antibiotics and circled the area with a marker and sent me on
my way. Later that evening a white infected area formed in the bite
site. I am told this is called the “bulls eye” and is a definite
tell tale sign of a brown recluse bite. The area around the bite
site turned blue, dark red and had gone outside of the circled
area. My fiancée took me to OSF Emergency room where they rushed me
to surgery. I spent eight days with an open cut at the bite area to
drain the spiders toxins from it and almost 24 hours a day on IV
antibiotics and pain medication. It the end I had a 5 inch in
diameter area of dead tissue, a result from the toxins, cut out of
my upper leg. My next step in 8 days is skin grafting, which I am
told is skin taken from another part of my body and place on the cut
away area. But that area will never look the same. I am a resident
of Pekin in a suburb type area. Never would I have thought this type
of spider was right here in Pekin or central Illinois. Please let
your readers know about brown recluse and its consequences. It
seems most people know little about this spider. If I had waited a
day longer I might have lost my leg to this spider.
Dale Losher |
