Almost healed!

It's going so well with Boeboe's spider bite. It's almost healed! This photo was taken last night. Approximately 10 days after being bitten, and 7 days of antibiotic treatment. Absolutely amazing, the whole healing process. Isn't the skin and body wonderful?

7 Days of 3 types of antibiotic (1 topical and 2 oral)

Boeboe was a real trooper. Sometimes, she's a little crybaby. If she has a papercut, she'd cry and complain like it's the worst thing ever. And then something like this happens where I can imagine how painful it must be. She couldn't sit on that leg, she had to keep the leg stiff at times when walking, because movement caused pain, bathing was painful, putting the ointment on burned, etc. But she never cried or fought me on anything. She allowed me to treat her, she drank her medicine without complaint and even helped to remind me when I almost forgot. I think she was still scared of the whole thing, and knew that she needed the treatments. Anyway, I'm just very very thankful that she's okay. Both me and her daddy has this huge fear of spiders. My biggest one is sac spiders, and of course, that's probably the one that bit her! When she was 2 years old, she once woke up from a nap. She was still sleeping in her cot. I went to her and bent over the railing to pick her up. As I bent, I saw movement in the corner of my eye. When I looked down, there was a yellow sacspider on the inside of the railing, about 3cm from my face. I yelled, jumped back, then darted forward again grabbing my daughter from an angle away from the spider. By which time her daddy came running in. We killed the spider, but I had this awful awful feeling that she's going to be bitten. So it's almost as if I've waited for this day. I'm so very very grateful that it only happened when she was 9, and could tell me, and fight the infection off.

You might think I felt she's going to be bitten because of the huge fright I had at that point. But I don't believe so. One day, I sat on my bed reading to Mr N. He was also something like 2 or 3 at the time. I picked up a pillow that I've thrown off the bed earlier the evening, and put it behind my back. The open end of the pillow case was at the bottom, pressing against the matress. Unbeknownst to me, a yellow sacspider must've climbed into the pillow case. My movements must've disturbed him, because next moment, he came running out right between my leg and Mr N's leg. I screamed my head off, grabbed Mr N and held him as high as I could, all the while trying to get away from the spider myself. Fortunately, he just ran in a straight line away from us. I was able to kill it, and from that day I always check pillows that laid on the floor when I pick them up. Especially on the inside. Anyway, this happened years before the cot-spider incident with Boeboe. But I never had this feeling that Mr N's going to be bitten. And even a month ago, when we found the yellow sac spider in the clean washing, and it dissapeared from my bed, with Peanut's bed pushed right against mine, I never felt like Peanut's going to be bitten. So it's not just a fear of spiders that caused me to feel like Boeboe's going to be bitten. I think somehow I'm really intuned with Boeboe. It started when she was still in my tummy, and I always knew she's not fairing well, but that she WILL live through her birth and whatever happens thereafter. Same with her backoperation. I had this conviction that it MUST be done.

Anyway, that aside. You'd think like we live in the bushveld with the amount of close encounters with spiders we've had! Especially yellow sac spiders. So you can understand why I hate them so much! Though, it really isn't as bad as it sounds. These incidents happened over a 10 year span. But ya, we do live in a country with some crazy bugs, insects, snakes and animals! Like they say, Africa isn't for "sissies"! (Sissies in my hometongue means timid, fearfull, scaredy-cats!). The school where Monkeyman goes to, is on a smallholding. And a few weeks ago, the teacher killed a rinkhals in her house!!!!! And it's NOT the first snake they've found on the smallholding. So yeah, this is Africa for you!

Spider bite!!!! Eeeekkk...

WHY does everything have to happen to Boeboe?! I don't get it. :-( Well, as you can gather from the title, Boeboe has (probably) been bitten by a spider. We're not 100% sure, because we only took her to the dr about 3-4 days after it must've happened! (Mommy of the year award, I know. *embarressed face-palm*) The dr said that if we brought her in immediately, he could've maybe seen the tell-tale teethmarks (2 tiny bites). But by this stage, the evidence has been destroyed by the infection in the wound. He guesses that it was most likely a spider bite, but it could even be another type of insect, or (unlikely) ringworm, or something like a mosquito bite that she scratched and then it got infected by bacteria. Personally, I think it's a spider bite. We're having way too many of them in the house. I kill them when I see them (sorry, I do). I have an extreme fear of spiders. My sister believes it's because as children we've been traumatised by a mother who found them the most beautiful creatures in the world, so not only did she not kill them, but she actively encouraged them to live in the house with us. She called one particular one in her pantry, her little "pet"! So yeah, I fear them like nothing else. I refused to go into that pantry. Anyway, about a month ago I found a big yellow sac spider amongst the clean washing when I folded it. Unfortunately, it fell down right on to my bed (where I was folding the washing) and it dashed off. I tried to find it. We looked for hours (me, husband and the elder kids). Because baby Peanut's bed is pushed right against ours (like one big family bed) so I was terrified that it would bite her in the night. Well, we never found the spider. Boeboe prayed very hard that evening that God must please help Peanut that the spider does not bite her, or mommy and daddy. Then, on Tuesday, a month later, I found it (I think it's the same one) in my bath! Alive, but stuck, unable to get out. I flushed it. But now I wonder, maybe it was hiding in Boeboe's room all this time, and it bit her, then got into our bathroom overnight, and I killed it.

In any case, it must've happened around Monday I think. Tuesday evening, she asked me to look at this little "bump" she has on her upper back leg, because it hurts. I was busy with Peanut, so I had a quick, hurried look. It was raised, reddish, about 5mm in diametre, and had a scab on the top. It almost looked like a scratched mosquito bite. So I told her I think that's what it is. She told me, "but mommy, I never scratched it". So I said, you probably did it in your sleep without knowing about it. She accepted the answer and darted away. I forgot about the incident! Two days later, on Thursday, she told me "Mommy, my skin is falling off"!! I had a look, and this is what I found:

Day 4 - Starting antibiotics and a topical cream

 

I took her to the dr, at that time of night, and I'm so grateful I did. We got a combination of antibiotics, as well as an ointment to put on. It burns the crap out of her when I put it on, poor thing. The dr says the "rings" (red and white) makes him believe it's a spider bite. The rings apparently grows bigger and going more outward as the infection/poison spread. I heard that spider teeth is full of bacteria, so even if it didn't inject any poison, it could still cause a bad infection. Well, within 1 day of giving antibiotics, the reddish inflammation around the wound is MUCH better, and by 2 days it was gone. This is how it looks now:

Day 6 - Two days after starting antibiotics

Definitely a huge improvement. The poor thing complains that it's still very sore. That middle, yellowish part is very hard, like a crust. I'm wondering if it'll leave a scar. :-( Anyway, what's done is done. I feel awful though, for not having a look on Wednesday how the "mosquito bite" looked. I'm just very grateful that the a/b's seemed to have halt the progress, started to clear the infection, and fascilitated the healing process.

Something else came out during this process. When I saw it, I told her I believe that she might've been bitten by a spider. She was immediately very scared, asking if she's going to die now. (sniff sniff). I told her no, if it would've killed her, she would've been dead already. Because she was bitten at least 3-4 days prior, and she's still fine. So she's going to be just fine. She accepted the answer, but asked what will happen then? I told her most likely we'll need medicine, and in the very, very worst case scenario, they usually operate. She told me "so I'll have 2 operations". I asked why? And she replied that she still needs another back operation. I was astonished, and wanted to know what made her think that? She said the dr said that when she grows bigger, the filum will reconnect/retether, and she'll have to have another operation to cut it. I told her no, she misunderstood the dr. He said in very rare cases, that it is a possibility. But it's so rare, it's not something she should think or worry about. She was very relieved! So I'm kinda grateful this came out. I never knew she was worried about having to go through one of the worst times in her life again. Poor thing!