Jenn
Nitro Member
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
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
