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I was recently bitten by a spider. Not the first time and not the last. All of us have probably been bitten a few times, but we just don't know it.
This bite however came at an extremely inopportune time and place, both where I was working and where on my body. Right boob, just under the lacy edge of my bra. Because of what I was doing at the time, I had to tolerate it with no more than a quick brush, so I couldn't find the crushed beast. However, it looked brown and small, no more than a dime size. Right location for a brown recluse... In a dusty room with old boxes and moldering books.
The bite site festered and showed signs of incipient sepsis. I went for emergency treatment at a walk in a couple of days after the bite... The pain at that time was significant. Hospitalization was out. Wound culture was out. My educated self wound treatments at home were now out. The doc brought in other docs for wow purposes and all the staff now recognizes me as the girl with the festering tit. I suppose they are a bit more restrained about it, but the glowing purple corona around a black and necrotic bite wound is probably high on their lists of Gross Things Seen at Work. Subsequent entrenched staph infection, scar tissue, multiple antibiotics and topicals and special dressings. All out of pocket, I'd say this spider bite cost me between $600 and $800. Only, I'm no longer employed by the service that sent me to that god-forsaken armpit of humanity. So really thousands more. And uncounted more because of the lack of insurance and other bennies.
We think now that this was not a brown recluse. We don't know what it was exactly, but a brown recluse bite should have been more painful immediately.
I like spiders. I rarely kill them.
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