Itsy Bitsy Spider Had a Big Bite

We've had a spider problem for a little while. Nothing terrible, just annoying because I'm afraid of them and Evan's had a few bites, which are really irritating. I let our landlord know several weeks ago, they got back to me the middle of last week and said they won't take care of it. I thought we'd let it go because it's mostly just a nuisance.

Until this weekend.

Kyle was very upset all Saturday and wasn't eating, which if you've seen Kyle eat is definitely different. I picked him up from Mom & Dad's and he was still fussy and refusing to nurse. We drove about a half an hour away and he just cried the whole time. His leg looked pretty red so I thought he had a sunburn. I took off his shoe to see if there was a distinctive line and his whole foot was bright red and swollen, his forth toe was twisted, sticking straight up, and purple. It looked broken.

We took him to Evan's mom because she is a pediatric nurse and said they won't do anything for a broken toe. I cried hysterically all the way back into town. Luckily, Kyle fell asleep. Evan drove like a mad man.

By the time we got back, the toe was back in place. The swelling and constriction of the shoe had forced it out of place. The foot was obviously causing Kyle a lot of pain as he wouldn't put any pressure on it. We took him home, as we all thought it was an allergic reaction. By the time we got home, most of the redness was gone and it just looked like this...



We gave him Tylenol and Benadryl and he went to bed like usual. The next morning there was a huge blister covering most of the toe and it looked like this...


The blister continued to grow and eventually split along the side from the pressure. I've covered it with neosporin and it has a huge gauze bandage around it to protect it from infection (a band aid would not have stayed on with these kicky feet). He's eating and using the foot again.

We got some weird looks yesterday at church with that blister. Now with the bandage, I'm sure we'll get more. We've concluded that it was definitely a spider bite. Evan has one too that has become the size of a quarter and swelled. Unfortunately, they don't do anything for spider bites unless they are very bad and then all they can do is give steroids.

I've entered into talks with the management about spraying for the spiders. They should be very grateful we don't have any medical bills for them to pay.

That was our crazy weekend. At least, the spider bite wasn't on Kyle's torso because the swelling could have caused breathing problems. For such a little body, spiders can be very harmful. Lesson learned. I'm just sorry Kyle was in such pain all day and we didn't know.