In November 2004 I was bitten on the ankle by brown recluse. I spent 3 months in hospital. I had three operations with one being a skin graft. I nearly lost my leg the infection was so bad. I lost the ability to walk and had to learn to do this again. I cannot describe the pain it was so bad. Here it is 2010 and I still have trouble with my leg. The skin is so damaged that the least nick or scrape creates a wound that is still hard to heal. There is lots of swelling on this leg also and the circulation is very poor.

I have been bitten by a Brown Recluse spider and I would also not wish this on my worst enemy. I also have rheumatoid arthritis. I cannot tell if the medication is making me feel this odd or the bite itself is, but I do NOT feel right and the bite is getting larger and very smelly although I am taking very good care of it. I was bitten twice on my right breast. I have been through quite a few problems in my life but never have I been this weak nor this afraid. Take care of yourselves.

I noticed a small bite on my forehead a few weeks ago. I had no idea what bit me, but I put a topical cream on the space to stop the itching. It wound started getting bigger and swelling. I would clean the wound daily, but then I started getting a fever and chills, with tenderness, which was very painful and started to move down one side of my face. My wife called the family doctor and told her that I might have been bitten by a brown recluse. The doctor calling in a sulfur-based antibiotic, which I was instructed to use twice daily. Swelling, redness and tenderness started going away but the hole and black skin increased. The doctor asked that I come in and agreed that it was a BRS. She had to remove the black dead skin, packed the hole with Mupirocin ointment that kills infection. I was told to keep covered 24/7 treat with Mupirocin ointment three times daily. I returned a week later with fresh pink skin smaller hole and no black skin. My doctor said to keep covered, and that the new tissue will continue to grow and cover the hole and there will be no scar. Within two weeks of antibiotics and ointment when I go back in 10 days, don't think there will be much left to heal. She said the secret to avoiding a scar is to keep wet and covered until healed.

The initial bite on my leg did not hurt and the next day thought I'd been bitten by a mosquito. Coincidentally I went to the dentist that same day and the hygienist asked why I was limping, I rolled up my pant leg and showed her the swollen wound on my leg. She gasped and said it was a Brown recluse bite and that a former patient had the same thing but no doctor would diagnose the bite accurately since Brown Recluses are not supposed to be in our area. The former patient ended up with 15 skin grafts and her arm looked like it had been mangled in a farming accident. The hygienist told me to go to the emergency room and no matter what the doctor said and DEMAND they listen to me and tell them I have a Brown recluse bite. She told me to demand they put me on this specific antibiotic. I caught the infection so early I barely have a scar but she was right no one in the emergency room believed me and wanted to send me home with pain meds. I pitched such a fit they prescribed this antibiotic. Brown recluses may not be indigenous to this area but they can certainly hitchhike their way up here in wood and other products. It's very hot and to their liking in the summers here so Emergency Rooms need to change their protocols and realize Brown Recluses can survive outside their typical range and habitat. Most painful thing I've ever gone through but I was one of the lucky ones! Early diagnosis and treatment is vital.

I live in Minnesota where there are supposedly "no brown recluse spiders". I have had a necrotic skin lesion, about the size of a quarter, on my thigh for about 2 months. I have seen multiple doctors, had many wound cultures, blood tests, etc, and no one has been able to come up with a diagnosis that makes sense, so a couple of my doctors have finally determined that it has to be a BRS bite.(for which there seems to be no proven treatment. I have been on 3 rounds of antibiotics, which may have prevented a secondary bacterial infection. I have been a nurse in an urgent care clinic, and have to see I have never before seen an insect bite like this. These spiders have incredibly destructive venom. I assume I came in contact with this bug while laying wood chips that were shipped to my area from down south. I have been told, that eventually my wound will heal, but that it will take a very long time, and will leave a nasty scar. In the meantime, my doctor is watching the wound closely, and does periodic blood tests to make sure that this does not become a systemic infection. Good luck to all!! (By the way, the pain from this type of bite is very severe!!)

I was bitten at an unknown time. I never felt a thing. I woke the next AM with a 1 cm. swelling on my back between my shoulders. Not much pain, about 2 on a scale of 10. I went to the ER mid-morning with more swelling and redness. I was diagnosed with an infected blackhead. They tried to drain it with no success but with an increase in pain 5 out of 10. Before I left, I looked at the area. I had a black spot in the middle of the red swelling which was now 5 cm, red, raised and tender. I checked it again that afternoon and it was now over 10 cm. and the black area was the size of a quarter. The next morning, it was the size, shape and color of half a large apple with a center black area 4cm. It was treated topically with drawing agents and triple antibiotic agents for a week without much change. I had a Lyme disease titer done and it was double positive! I had been tested shortly before and it was negative. After that, I developed a rash that covered my entire back from my hairline to waist while waiting for the test results. I took doxycycline and immediately got rid of the rash and began to heal. Two months later, the sore had closed, leaving me with a large scar. The tick infection was coincidental to the spider bite.