Spider or Vampire?

or maybe just a mystery disease? I've felt pretty crappy since last weekend, but especially since Tuesday morning. I've been waking up dizzy. Not just one of those "I stood up too quickly" moments, but more of a "I haven't had my V8 juice" sideways walks to the bathroom in the morning. The dizziness returns if I lean over to pick something up. First thought, inner ear infection?! Second thought, I do not have a cold, no drainage, nothing going on in my sinuses, zippo. However, the dizziness has been followed by migraine type headaches best described as having a knife stuck in my left eye and fatigue. I've been in bed by 8:00 the last two nights, which is very unusual for the non-sleeper that I am.

Add in the latest (which is keeping me up tonight!) mystery red spot, surrounded by a white ring, and then blue bruising, an inch or so in diameter on the outside of my right calf. I didn't notice the thing until I was in the shower this morning. I was surprised because I don't remember running into anything to get a bruise. Trust me there are bruises up and down the outsides of my thighs from running into the desks at school, but on my calf? Strange. Not one to want to wait it out and see if my flesh might rot off, I went to the school nurse today, showed the wound and explained my symptoms. Her diagnosis? Spider bite. Gross, yuck, sick...I hate spiders! Where the heck would it have come from, when did it bite me, is my flesh going to rot away like all of the pictures I've been googling????

Of course, I looked this stuff up right before going to bed and now I don't want to get in my bed! Since I teach an entire Spider Unit at school I know that Brown Recluse spiders usually only come out at night and stay in dark areas like closets, shoes, etc. Comforting, huh? I've come to two conclusions after my investigations, yes that's what scientists do. Either there was a spider in my Uggs which have been hiding in my closet all winter until I broke them out on Sunday OR there was a spider in the fresh sheets I put on the bed this week. I'm going to go with option two for now, as I just ripped the covers off and found one big blood spot and several small ones where my calf would just happen to be positioned, again gross! I searched for a carcass of the spider that probably got crushed by my cankles, but could not find the sucker. I'm hoping he is long gone and dead by now.

So, I'm off to try to sleep in the bed that bit me without any nightmares or further bites. I took a picture of the bite wound today and we'll see if it changes tomorrow. IF it does anything like the progressive deterioration on all of the websites I've looked at I will truly freak out. For now, fingers crossed the venon has stopped spreading, the spider is gone, and I won't lose my leg!

Sweet dreams!