My Aunt Patsy--prayers needed. (2 Viewers)

[Jenn]

Hi All,

I'm writing to ask for prayers from the group for my Aunt Pat. She was bitten by a brown recluse spider and is now suffering with necrosis (cell death) and gangrene infection.

The bite is on her chest and stomach area and as of this evening, she's had four rounds of debridement to remove flesh and infection from the wound. The wound, which started as something that looked like an ingrown hair, has turned into something about the size of 1 1/2 "spread out" hands of a full grown man. It's now a deep wound and they may need to graft skin to cover it or pull skin from her belly up (like a tummy tuck) to cover the area.

At this point, covering the wound is out of the question as there is too much infection. So it's an open wound with some of her muscles exposed. They are scheduling her for another surgery to scrape the necrosis out and open the wound more. The biggest fear is the infection going into her blood stream. She was in ICU for two days and is now in a regular room. They may transfer her back to the ICU after tomorrows debridement.

She's on morphine and heavy antibiotics now. I just got off the phone with my cousin and she said that she's not eating much and that's another concern.

The spider that bit her is very dangerous and has cost a lot of people limbs. If Auntie Pat's bite had been on a limb, they'd have already amputated. As it is, that's not an option. Debridement and scraping are the only option.

One of the problems with Aunt Pat's bite is that she made the mistake of putting HEAT on it a few days after. You NEVER put heat on a bite, as it not only helped the vemon spread faster, but it burned the skin that was already in necrosis.

I ask that you keep her in your prayers. She's 62 and only one of her daughters can be at her bedside, as my other cousins either cannot make it there or are 'infectious carriers' (like myself) who pose more of risk to her being there than away.

My uncle (Tio Tino) has to learn how to clean and dress the open wound, so pray for him too!

I found a site that shows some pictures of various brown recluse bites, don't look at them if you are squimish. My mom says that my aunt's bite is worse than all of them but this one looks the closest after it's been cleaned.

Brown Recluse Spider Bites - Bite Report

 

[Kelly]

Oh, my goodness! You, her family and her friends are all in my thoughts and prayers!

 

[sharkman]

I am sorry to hear this, I will keep her in my prayers, I check my shoes every morning for anything that might crawl into them, I was bitten on the shoulder about eight years ago by a black widow and that was a very painful experiance, around here we have them all, brown recluse, black widow's, killer bees, rattle snakes, copper heads and scorpions. You must be careful at all times.

 

[Jenn]

She never saw the spider and had absolutely no idea it was a spider bite and had let it go a few days because she thought it was an ingrown hair or boil.

 

[FC Girl]

Really sorry to here this Jenn, all the best for a full recovery!!!!

Kind regards,
Nancy

 

[willy]

Awww Jenn..

Prayers coming from here..keep us up to date please.

 

[Jenn]

Well, my mom just rushed up to the hospital to raise a stink about my Aunt's treatment. Apparently she really needed to get up to use the bathroom and no nurse would answer her calls. She tried getting up herself and hurt herself.

 

[Mike]

Get well soon Aunt Patty.................

 

[Rollout96]

Jenn:

I am very sorry she has to go through this. I will keep her, you and your entire family in my thoughts and prayers.

 

[Jenn]

My aunt had a good day after my mom went and talked to the nursing staff.

They cleaned the wound and did minor debridement. They basically use a combination of a chemical enzyme that attaches to the dead cells and 'sloughs' them off and a very sharp object that cuts. She's in a lot of pain and the cleaning and changing of the bandage is the worse. They did get her out of bed and take her around the floor in a wheelchair for a bit.

Keep the prayers up! Mom told her that we had lots of people praying for her and Moma said her spirits lifted.


On a slightly funny note, she has been so drugged up that my cousins have put flowers into her room, moved them from table to table and Aunt Pat thinks she's gotten about twenty bunches. She told the nurse that she was so special that she was getting so many flowers. In reality it's the same bunch. She was at least thoughtful enough to want to donate some of the flowers to somebody who didn't have as many as she.

 

[Toejam]

Jenn, sorry to hear about your Aunt. A Buddy of my younger brother was bitten by a BR, and his whole lower leg started turning all Purple and Red! They ended up having to cut out some of the dead tissue, now it looks like half of his Calf muscle is gone!

 

[Jenn]

When I googled the spider, I found that they really aren't 'common' here in NM. It's more Mid-east US of A that they are common. I asked Moma if the doctor was sure it was a brown recluse and she said the doc gave her a dirty look and said he was sure.

 

[Mr. Jean]

Jenn,I'm sorry to hear this. Hope she gets better real soon. You are all in our prayers.

 

[BlueStangGT]

Dang Jenn, that's just terrible. Here's hoping for a speedy recovery.

 

[Joker]

Hate to hear that Jenn, I hope she gets better.

 

[Jenn]

Update

Surgury is scheduled for tomorrow at 10:00, they'll use something called a sponge pack that my understanding is that it will be inserted into the wound and something in it will pull the infection out. Whatever that pulls out the injection is attached to a machine or something that pulls the infection. I had assumed it was like a flushing system but when I googled it, it said something about a vacuum.

It's got more gangrene than it should have for it being changed so often as they've been changing the bandages every couple hours. A couple days ago they said it was a good thing that there was blood on the bandages, now they say there isn't as much blood.

I dropped mom off at the hospital today and they were able to get her out of bed for a shower which is a good think because they may not be able to get her out of bed for a couple days since this machine will be hooked up for three days.

Please keep praying for her. She's not out of the woods yet as there is still the chance of more gangrene and blood infections.

 

[Toejam]

Jenn Keep us posted, Hope your Aunt gets through this!

 

[murf]

I am praying for her. I also was bitten by one a few years back. The bite was on the back of my thigh. It was like being injected with acid, no fun. The problem with their bite is the closer to bone the worse it can be. Some people have a lot more problems with their bite than others. I truly hope she recovers OK.

 

[Jenn]

Update

The surgery scraped another 1/2 inch all the way around of necrosis and gangrene. They've attached this sponge pack device to her and figure she'll be in there a few more days. The wound is still open and they don't plan on covering it before they send her home. That'll come later, I guess.

My cousin has volunteered to let my Aunt stay at her home for a few days since Diana's house is 5 minutes from the hospital as opposed to 50.

Moma said they've kept up the morphone and percoct routine and Aunt Pat has asked me to make her my cornbread for her birthday which is St. Patrick's day (kind of explains the name Patricia)

Thanks for all the prayers. I've showed this page and all the e-mails to my mom and tells Aunt Pat about it.

 

[Suzanne]

We will certainly keep her and hers in our prayers. Thank you for updating her condition here, and I hope St.Paddies day will bring Patty a little bit of luck and start the healing process she needs so much.