Bites

On Friday afternoon I put JT down for his nap like usual. He took one of his typical 2.5-3 hour naps- love my little sleeper! JT woke up and I brought him down and changed his diaper. While talking and singing to him I rubbed his leg. All of a sudden I was surprised to feel a rough warm area around JT's lower leg. So I stop and look at what feels odd- this is what I found....

 Apparently JT had been bitten several times while napping!! Looking at this picture now, it might not look too bad. Let me assure you it looked worse in person. His entire lower leg/ankle area was swollen, tender, warm and the bluish-gray area was very rough.

  

I assumed that it was more than likely a spider bite(s), but here in Tennessee there is a very dangerous spider called the brown recluse. I've never seen one or what a bite looks like, but that was one of my immediate concerns. Thankfully John happened to get off work right as I was discovering this, so I told him JT needed to go to the after hours Dr at our pediatrician.

To make this story  a little more quick, JT was seen by the Dr who assured John is wasn't a black widow bite, but it was indeed 2-3 spider bites. He was pretty sure it wasn't the brown recluse, but the next 24 hours we would watch for any worsening of the area as well as JT's overall health. The treatment for all other spider bites was same, so he left with a Rx for short term steroids and Benadryl . Also the Dr mentioned that if John or I had been bitten by the same spider, it would have been quite small or barely noticeable. It's because JT is a little guy that the reaction was so much more significant.

Here are some pictures I took over the weekend showing the life of JT's spider bites...

 This was about 16 hours after the bite, on Saturday morning. There was more redness, but the swelling had decreased a bit and you can see on the far left bite the source of the bite was now forming a blister. JT was pretty itchy at this point- he would sit on the carpet and rub his leg back and forth for relief.

 Just a few hours later, the bites (3 of them it looked like), have blistered and popped. So there are open wounds where the bites occurred.

 Sunday morning about 36 hours after the bites. You can easily see where the bites were once sores and have now scabbed over. Still tender in the area. JT would often say "Boo Boo  and Ouch".

Sunday evening 48 hours after the bites. Still some redness around the bite areas, but overall looking better. Swelling has gone down some more.

I'm hopeful when JT gets up in just a bit, his leg will look better. I pray that these will be the only spider bites JT has this summer.