Thursday, August 25, 2022

ITSY BITSY SPIDER

As I worked outside in my yard in early January, I got bit by "something" on my left outer ankle.  I never thought much about it until months later when it didn't heal and started to get worse. The bite was located so I couldn't get a good look at it straight on so I started taking pictures of it periodically to compare to see what it was actually doing. I'm no expert, but to me it looked like a spider bite. It would appear like it would start to heal and then it would break open again and that process kept happening repeatedly. 

Around July, I decided it was time to have my primary care doctor look at it because I'm diabetic and although wounds do heal slower for diabetics, I figured six months was more than enough time for anything to heal. She immediately told me she was sending me to a vascular surgeon to have him evaluate it. I got all the particulars on why she thought that was necessary and it made sense so off I went to wait to hear from the vascular surgeons office.

It took about two weeks to get a call to set up an appointment. Yesterday I had my appoinment with that doctor. With much trepidation, I envisioned him poking and prodding my wound, but none of that happened. When he and his PA entered the room they both asked me questions, examined the wound and they both felt the pulse in my foot. I showed them the pictures I had taken of the wound and they agreed that it was a spider bite. The doctor stood back and told me I have no pulse in my left foot. He said I was going to first need an ultrasound done which they did of both legs and blood drawn to prepare me for having an angiogram done that would be scheduled for Friday morning. Hopefully, the angiogram will restore the blood flow to my foot so the wound will finally heal.

The moral of the story is: Don't delay getting wounds looked at assuming they will heal on their own without any assistance (BUT I had it looked at in the ER in June and they said it looked fine! I guess because my foot wasn't falling off it looked fine to them! IDIOTS!) And this goes with double or triple caution if you're a diabetic because you can end up losing a limb. I am in no way completely out of the woods yet and that scares me.  The reality of the situation really is a slap in the face and an eye opener. I need to be more careful. The wound still needs to heal. I'm just thankful it was caught in time to restore the blood flow to my foot to give it a chance to heal.

16 comments:

  1. Oh, that's scary! Wishing you all the best! Will be thinking of you tomorrow morning.

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    1. Thank you! I'll try to let everyone know how I am but it probably won't be tomorrow.

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  2. I am both sorry it happened - and very glad that you are finally getting the treatment you need. Good luck.

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    1. Thank you and I'll be glad to get it over with so the healing process can begin.

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  3. I don't know if I would have done anything different than you have done so far. Were you losing any feeling in your foot? If not, it would seem like it was not a big deal.

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    1. I have diabetic neuropathy in my feet so I have decreased sensation in both feet. The only spot that's tender is on the wound itself and trust me if I bump it I notice it and sometimes at night it throbs so bad that just the sheet on it bothers it so I have to hang my foot off the bed. I figured after the ER telling me it looked okay that it was okay but that just goes to show you that they didn't look hard enough. But to be honest with you that's not why I was in the ER...I just figured since I was there anyway I'd have them look at it while I was there.

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  4. This sounds so scary! Good luck to you and your foot!

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  5. Spiders don't bite us often (most species' mouth parts are too small to bite a person), but when they do, it's serious. Hope they've caught this in time.

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    1. I hope so too! It's really worrisome that it doesn't just heal like a normal wound would heal.

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  6. I'm really sorry about this, how awful.

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  7. my daughter was about 10 or so and got bit on her foot by a brown recluse and he's 50 and still has a hole in her foot from the bite...about the size of a walnut..hope you get that taken care of.

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  8. I read these in reverse; I too hope you the best.

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