What a scare we had…
Heyyyy!! TGIF TGIF!! Hope everyone has something fun planned in the A/C this weekend. Ha! We are celebrating triple digits here in Arkansas with no rain in sight. Living on a farm, rain is the utmost important thing and it feels a little scary not having anything in forecast. No grass means early hay feeding for cows which means not enough hay to last during those cold winter months.
Today’s post isn’t fun to reminisce but I felt like it was important to talk about. If it can help anyone else out, Google only helped us a little because there wasn’t much information out there for our case.
Late one evening a couple weeks back, Presley, my 8 year old daughter was playing outside in the goat pen and I was on porch watching her. A few minutes went by and she came up to me and said she felt like something was in her shirt. I checked her shirt and scratched her back and didn’t see anything until I was pulling her shirt back down and then saw a large black spider. I flipped out and brushed it off of her and we both yelled and she cried and we tried to stomp it but it got away. I noticed then she had gotten bit on her shoulder blade. I was almost positive what I saw was in fact a black widow, so I googled and researched and decided it was a black widow. If your wondering a classic tell tale sign is a shiny black globe body. Another interesting fact, only the males have the red hourglass on their back, the females have it on their belly AND females are more dangerous. She unfortunately got bit by a female.
I work in the ER of my local hospital and while we don’t see pediatric patients anymore due to having a children's hospital, I wanted to get their opinion. They told me honestly there isn’t a whole lot they would do, just watch her and treat with OTC pain meds if needed. Side note, I completely trust my hospital opinions and I think we had an unfortunate case where she had a severe reaction.
From the time she was bit at 8pm till we decided to get her quickly to the ER around 930 she never stopped crying. We made the choice to take her in due to her complaint of her legs, groin and back hurting. We arrived at ER around 1030 and she was in such intense pain that her blood pressure was thru the roof and she couldn’t bear weight on her legs. The ER immediately started an IV and gave her morphine and Valium combo. We thankfully have never ever had to go to the ER with either girl until this point so we didn’t know what to expect. We got admitted and transferred upstairs and the first night was just horrid. Trying to get her pain under control was seemingly impossible and she cried all night long. It was like a colicky baby times 20. She hated the wires and didn’t understand why she had to wear them.
Once we finally got her pain levels under control she rested. It took a combo of Morphine, Ativan, Valium, toradol and Tylenol. If your asking why they didn’t give her the antivenom, the risks of it are high. It can cause anaphylaxis and serum induced problems. FYI if it was a snake bite the antivenom is much better than it is for spider bites.
We stayed in the hospital for nearly 3 days and it was such a difficult time for us all. Seeing your sweet girl in so much pain, feeling helpless and completely exhausted, being the patient instead of the hospital employee was not something I want to repeat. We had so many family and friends reach out, come see us and check in thru text. It made us feel renewed and loved. My husband was my rock and we both tag teamed this nightmare together and we brought our girl home safe. I feel so thankful because when you Google things, this could have been fatal. I know Jesus had his hand on her the whole time and he gave us the strength to make it.
Needless to say, I have a routine pest control company coming and I have a newfound fear of something so tiny but so dangerous. I hope this information can reach someone who may need it but I hope no one else has to experience this horrible situation. We are back to normal around here and our girl is her vibrant self. Here is some pics that documented our story.
We love our girl! And that smile!!
RW-