I'm sorry, Sherree! Brown Recluse bites are BAD! Yes, if we'd known it was a bite immediately and you'd used charcoal in the first 24 hours, it would be a distant memory by now. But, seriously...,if you hadn't started the charcoal when you did, it's very likely you would have had at least a couple surgeries by now... doctors just don't know what else to do.
Hubby came in last evening complaining about a spot on his back being "on fire". He had what looked like a raised welt just below the shoulder blade... a couple inches long and maybe 1/2" wide. Bright red, with mini pinpoint red spots in an area about the size of my hand around it. I thought I could see two spots on the welt that looked slightly indented, but couldn't tell for sure.
I put a charcoal poultice on, under a large bandaid, and by bedtime, he said it had stopped burning and itching. This morning, all swelling and redness is gone, and there are two obvious bite marks... barely visible, but clearly bites.
We have a LOT of spiders here... not in the apartment so much (since Dixie hunts and kills the big black ones, whatever they are), but the shop is spider heaven... heated all winter, shares a wall with the barn, and enough grain and pet food to attract insects. I'm guessing one (not a brown recluse, I don't think... those respond well to charcoal, but usually take longer to resolve completely) got down his shirt, maybe while he was stacking wood for the stove, and then got "pinched" with his movements, and bit him twice.
Since the burning and itchingbare clearly due to inflamed nerves, I'm wondering what my Ouch! Liniment might do... I once tried it on an elderly Amish lady with trigeminal neuralgia... an inflamed nerve on the side of the face that hurts like fire. Her family had tried multiple things without success... she refused to go to the doctor, and just kept telling everyone to "let her die". It was heartbreaking. I didn't have a lot to offer...my mom had suffered with it over the years, but there wasn't much her doctors could do at that time. So, I gave her a bottle of Ouch!, told them to give her Ibuprofen PLUS LICORICE root every 4-6 hours, and left. I was thrilled when our hired man (one of her 93 grandchildren!) told me two days later that the pain had resolved completely after about 3 applications of the Ouch!
It also ended up helping her arthritic knees enough that she stopped using a wheelchair in the house, and went back to making quilts for sale! She died last spring, at 93. It felt good to know I'd helped make her last years better...
Summerthyme (just musing here... have you tried cool compresses on it now? Heat I the beginning is important, to help keep circulation going, but cool, or even ice, might be worth a try. I'd also suggest rubbing a little lavender essential oil in, or even better, turmeric essential oil or rose geranium. All of them have anti inflammatory properties)
