Kate got bit by a spider last night. Not once, Not twice, THREE times!
So there is her foot this morning. The blue mark is where the swelling was last night. Kept her on benedryl both topical and by mouth to keep any histimines from interfereing with the swelling any farther. Now I'm at the place where I'm not sure. The redness and swelling has definatley grown since last night, but not exponentialy. It's not any worse than that picture now, and that was taken 6 hours ago. Do I take her in now? Wait until tomorrow? Get antibiotics profilatically? I guess that is the big worry that bites like this tend to be somewhat nephrotic... skin deadening. I don't want the little puss pockets (which I have opened up twice and need opened again now) to turn all gross and then end up getting a secondary infection that could lead to an abscess or.... yeah - this is where having all that medical stuff stuck in my head is suddenly not so useful. I know what COULD happen, and I know that the antibiotics profilactically may or may not prevent it - but I also know that if I DON'T give her antibiotics and it does happen how incredibly horrible I'd feel. And if nothing comes of it and it goes away on it's own the next few days then I'd feel guilty for giving her the meds. AYE! This isn't supposed to be the types of decisions we mothers make! It should be Ham or turkey, macaroni or potatoes. GAH!
Hi Barb, thanks for the comment over at Pure Florida!
ReplyDeleteI think I would take her in. If it's a spider bite. that's one thing, but my wife (a county nursing director with 25 years nursing experience) has told me before that often what folks think is a spider bite is a MRSA (resistant strep) infection as the indications are similar.
I hope this is useful, but either way, I think I would err on the side of caution.
I hope she feels better soon.