The Day the Brown Recluse Bit My Son

originally posted 26 OCT 2014 

I recently shared about my black widow bite.

Now, let me share the story of my son's brown recluse bite last year.

My son, fourteen then, had just returned from backpacking almost a week on the Appalachian Trail. They had driven all day and arrived home in the later evening.
He had had a great time but said, "Mom, I got some sort of bug bite." I didn't think too much of it but went to take a look. Oh my goodness, it was a huge knot looking thing and weeping. It was on his leg and it has been apparent, that some bug snuck into his sock and gotten him.

Now, let me also tell you this about my son, his threshold for pain is incredibly high. He really doesn't feel pain. He once had two broken bones for four days before we realized there was something serious going on.

He seemed more bothered about the weepy sore than anything else so, poor kid, had been in the car all day but got right back in because we were going to Urgent Care. The doctor said it looked like a spider bite but it was too early to know how serious. She gave us antibiotics and told us how to keep it clean.

Within a couple days, it appeared to be spreading and even turning black. Took him to our Ped. She said it really looked like a recluse bite because of the ulceration and she would have to cut out the skin that was dying. As she went to numb his leg, the bite opened and it was foul. She said she couldn't numb his leg now (still fuzzy on why) and cut out the dead tissue with no anesthesia. Even my son looked incredibly pale during it but he didn't utter a word. It was awful to see.
I could turn this into a really long post but I'll try and condense it. He ended up back and forth in the doctor's office with this bite for months. It would start to get better and then become an ulcerated mess again. They were worried about MRSA. They were worried about staph infections. He was on and off antibiotics. He was missing school (yes, we homeschool, but he was taking classes with other homeschoolers).

Finally, I was desperate and searching and searching online. I did not like all the antibiotics and everything he was going through. We started treating the bite with apple cider vinegar. Took a few weeks but we never had to see the doctor again. It cleared up.

Now, he has some small scars. We're really pretty impressed with how small they are. He is just going to tell his kids that he took shrapnel in the war :)