Brown recluse spider bite

[EricTheRed]

Best of luck with it Eric.....I'm spending more time looking carefully at spiders when I'm rummaging around in the shed or garden atm thank to the photos you posted up.
Every second spider I see seems to be big brown and hairy and resembles a Brown Recluse.
Just to make me even more careful I watched a Red Belly Black snake slither into my shed a few days ago.
Between your spider and snakes Im walking around with eyes in the back of my head at the moment.

Snakes are another thing. We have beauties that are all venomous but for the most part not deadly. There's a few.
At least if a snake gets you'll know it right away and can get your butt to a clinic

Puff adder
Wrinkals
Boom slang
(Afrikaans names)

[Saltbush Bill]

No short cuts when it comes to snakes around here , mostly as venomous as F#@&.
We get a thing here called the "Sydney Funnel Web Spider" fairly unpleasant critter to get bitten by....just saying .
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK535394/
"Quote" Early symptoms of a funnel-web spider envenomation include facial paresthesias, nausea, vomiting, profuse diaphoresis, drooling, and shortness of breath. Patients may become agitated, confused and ultimately comatose. This is associated with hypertension, metabolic acidosis, dilated pupils, muscle twitching and pulmonary and cerebral edema. Death results from pulmonary edema or progression to hypotension and circulatory collapse.[7]

Like anything ,you grow up with it doesn't worry you that much, people live with all sorts of dangerous things close at hand, volcanoes, earthquake prone areas , lions , polar bears ..list doesn't really end.
Ive manged to get to a fairly reasonable age so far without being bitten by anything but the road when chucked off of a couple of motorbikes......that hurts too.

[EricTheRed]

Ive manged to get to a fairly reasonable age so far without being bitten by anything but the road when chucked off of a couple of motorbikes......that hurts too.

Most of my 'bites' were as a result of being young.

[sadie33]

Hope all went well.

[HDNB]

Wow. Still nasty af, but a big improvement! things certainly look like they are heading the right way now. Awesome you can get around with the walker. best of luck with the graft procedure.

[EricTheRed]

Update.
As a result of spider bit, developed an abscess in right buttock. A bit of a setback.
However i did discover how many muscles you iuse in your butt to make movements unrelated to your butt
Had that dealt yesterday
Skin graft on next tuesday
After 10 plus weeks I'm anxious to get out of this loop.
Ta

[GrumbleStill]

Bloody hell mate. The hits keep coming. Hope you're through this soon.

[Bushman]

Thanks for the update, I am going through some arthritis issues and it pales in comparison to what you are going through. Hope all works out for you.

[sadie33]

wow, will keep praying.

[EricTheRed]

Update ... again

Spent another 8 days in hospital

So i got the graft done and the wound is healing nicely

The butt wound is healing ok.

Went to clinic after a few days for checkup on the monday 2 weeks after the graft. All good. They happy.
Then heavy pain swelling - back to emergency

They check me in and my pain levels are through the roof.

On heavy ab's twice daily.

Turns out i have beginnings of septic gout .
Not good news.
Back for checkup at emergency clinic on monday as I'm currently on heavy ab's orally. Will likely be back in hospital monday.

And ..... my tastebuds have changed. My 3 month that i was ok with is now a little less ok.
Guess I'll have to wait for my 12 month rye blend in a few weeks. Cutting way back on sipping until this is sorted

[The Baker]

Thinking of you, Eric.

Geoff

[NormandieStill]

And ..... my tastebuds have changed. My 3 month that i was ok with is now a little less ok.
Guess I'll have to wait for my 12 month rye blend in a few weeks. Cutting way back on sipping until this is sorted

That's quite possibly the antibiotics. Good luck with all this. A lot of damage from such a small beastie. I'm often very happy to live in temperate Europe. Horsefly bites are about the worse thing we have to deal with.

[juana_b]

And ..... my tastebuds have changed. My 3 month that i was ok with is now a little less ok.
Guess I'll have to wait for my 12 month rye blend in a few weeks. Cutting way back on sipping until this is sorted

That's quite possibly the antibiotics. Good luck with all this. A lot of damage from such a small beastie. I'm often very happy to live in temperate Europe. Horsefly bites are about the worse thing we have to deal with.

Wishing you well Eric. Hang in there.
Years ago, docs put me on antibiotics that stated I would have diarrhea for 6 months AFTER I STOPPED taking them.
Luckily I didn't get that(I practice iron stomach).

[gsugg]

Sorry you've had to go through this. I was bitten 3 times a few years ago and only thing that saved me was they said they were evidently "baby spiders". It was still quite an ordeal. We used oral antibiotics, along with the antibiotic creams they use on the mercer virus.

Greg

[sadie33]

wow, I haven't been on here in months and was curious how you were doing. Hope all goes well from here on, you deserve it after all that!!

[EricTheRed]

Sadie - thanks.
Been a long road. Into month 5

Spider bite sorted. But the gout attacks it spawned have resulted in a knee op to get rid of all the fluid and crystals.

But .... i can move better each day and hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be able to walk again.

Thanks

[Bradster68]

Sadie - thanks.
Been a long road. Into month 5

Spider bite sorted. But the gout attacks it spawned have resulted in a knee op to get rid of all the fluid and crystals.

But .... i can move better each day and hopefully in a couple of weeks I'll be able to walk again.

Thanks

That is definitely a crazy experience ETR.
I'm sure you've tried everything but castor oil is a real miracle worker for things like that. It even helped my wife with an inflamed thyroid gland. Check it out. It may be helpful.
Anywho hope your back on track soon.
Take care and

[The Baker]

wow, I haven't been on here in months and was curious how you were doing. Hope all goes well from here on, you deserve it after all that!!

Missed you, Sadie.

And all the best, Eric.

Geoff

[sadie33]

How is it going EricTheRed? I think it's been about a month since I last checked. Hope all is well.

[EricTheRed]

Sadie
The spider bite has been sorted, but it triggered a massive gout attack. Right knee scoped and mostly cleaned but still painful
Right ankle open wounds which are being treated 2 x weekly

Walking just this morning was able to put some weight with the aid of a walking frame.

Slow going.

Worst part.....can't mash in my next bstch of whisky

[sadie33]

wow, glad to hear you put some weight on it, but that stinks about the whisky!

[harold01]

Very happy you are recovering, have been watching the thread and am amazed at the damage it has caused you

[EricTheRed]

So a quick update.
Went to see 3 doctors and our wound nurse yesterday. Was a very painful day.
So after getting Dr#1 who put some pressure on Dr#2 (orthopedic surgeon) whom we then pushed to get xrays done.
He thought it was just fluid. But once he saw xray......
Knee needs replacing. Now have brace to stabilize the knee which helps with the pain.
Then to doc #3 - specialist surgeon - and wound nurse. They both happy with the progress on the right ankle. They do have a concern with doing the op now since i still have some open wounds.
But they are happy they manage that
So now to order knee and put it in

[EricTheRed]

The knee

[Saltbush Bill]

So the knee problem is also associated with the spider bite , or was it already worn pre bite ?

[EricTheRed]

Part of the gout attack which was triggered by the spider bite.
No issues with knee prior to this, in fact about 3 months sgo i had about a week when i could put full weight on it.
One of the docs is gathering info my case in particular to write a paper on the long term damage of these little phuggers.

[Saltbush Bill]

Wow , who would think all from one spider bite.
Now that I know that the little bastards seem to have spread them selves over most of the world, with the help of us humans , I'll be keeping a much better eye out for them.
Got enough shit around here that bites without getting bitten by a Brown Recluse.

[Deplorable]

Got enough shit around here that bites without getting bitten by a Brown Recluse.

Do you guys have anything down under that's harmless?

[EricTheRed]

Hi all
I am sure that by now you are all aware of what has transpired over the last week or so – but just to get the information consistent …..
So a summary.....

So. My life has taken a new turn.

Back in March ’23 - I was bitten by a violin spider. This escalated quite quickly to several stays in hospital to deal with the massive hole left in my left foot.

Several months later that is about 90% healed, skin graft taken well starting to feel good - but a threatening gout attack quickly took over my right knee and foot.

Many doctor visits, all kings of drugs, but alas nothing was working.

Along the way also an abscess in the right buttock from a voltarin injection - just more to deal with.

Then there was as a scope on the knee – which took some liquid out, but it only lasted about 2 weeks

Finally about 4 weeks back i insisted on some scans, sonar, xray - something.

The scans revealed an ugly infestation of gout and other stuff

This lead to a ctscan which revealed osteomyelitis in the lower right calf.

There is no real cure for osteomyelitis - except amputation.

I am a physical and emotional wreck. Have been for some time.

Margaret was taking serious strain and her physical and mental health was taking a beating as well – this could not continue!

At this point i have been on almost constant antibiotics, tendons on some my fingers are blown, constant pain, taking high doses of painkillers, cannot walk, cannot use my right hand properly with 2 fingers idle – left hand at least has only 1 partially idle.

First it was just me, then it was We, Margaret and I, who came to terms with the fact the leg was coming off long before the doctors did. They wanted to try something else – I declined as the ‘try’ was going to be trying, long, hard and painful. And also had almost 0% chance of working

On Thursday 21st  - off with the leg – just above the knee . Came home Saturday 23rd

No more pain and no more painkillers!

Life is suddenly very different!

6.5+ months. Hospital stays of a month+ over that period. Countless trips to clinics and doctors rooms. Thousands (literally 10K+) of kms travelling to clinics and appointments!

During all that Margaret never wavered – she just soldiered on making sure I was where I needed to be – regardless of the time of day or what it does to her plans

Now for the rehab.

New chapter!

I am now a 63 year old pirate in training.
Arrrrrrrg

[Yummyrum]

Christ Eric , thats bloody awful man .
Hats off to you for keeping so calm . I would have lost it .
All the best for the rehab