Catwmn's Cranium

Sunday, August 06, 2006

My good friend Tina was in her yard on monday moving around some bricks and debris, and apparently she was bitten by a Brown Recluse Spider. She didn't know she had been bitten until Wednesday when her leg began to swell and get really sore. She noticed that there was a small hole with some black stuff in the center. So she called and made a doctor's appointment. Unfortunately the appointment wasn't until Friday.

When she went into the doctor her leg was so infected and swollen that the doctor said she couldn't touch her until she had taken antibiotics. So she was sent home on Antibiotics and told to come back on Saturday to see if the doctor could open the wound and drain it. (Yuck)

Here is what her leg looked like on Friday..

So Tina stayed with me on Friday night so I could care for her and I took her back to the doctor on Saturday morning. It was a VERY hard morning for us all. The doctor shot her leg with some numbing stuff,(Lidocaine I think) and then opened the hole with an X shaped incision and pushed and pressed until a LOT of nasty stuff came out....then she cleaned it out and packed it with this stringy yellow gauze stuff...and then she told me....that I would have to take the gauze out every 7 hours, irrigate the wound, and repack it....And seriously I didn't know if I would be able to do it but guess what?? I have done it now TWICE!! And yes it is hard, because I love my girl and don't want to hurt her, but if this infection continues to spread she would end up in the hospital and I don't want that...so I do this for her to keep that from happening...

Here is what her leg looked like on Saturday when we were waiting for the doctor to Lance the bite...

Below are pictures of what her leg looked like at 2pm on Saturday when we cleaned and repacked her wound the first time after it had been lanced...

Below are pictures of what the leg looked like today when I cleaned and repacked it this morning. MUCH BETTER!! Apparently we are doing SOMETHING right!!


See how the redness has gone down?? The packing from the night before is still in..

Bart took some pictures of me while I was packing the area back up...Enjoy!!

See? This is what REAL FRIENDS are for!!!




See?? Now wasn't that fun??
I have to clean and repack it again tonight so I will update with new pictures then...
Peace Out!
Cat

Technorati : Brown Recluse, First Aid, Spider, Wound

Posted by Catwmn :: 7:34 PM :: 2 Comments:

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