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"Brown Recluse Spider" didn't mean a thing to me until after I was bitten by one on a hot July night. It was about 2 a.m. and I was on patrol as a police officer in Dallas County Texas when I became involved in a high speed pursuit involving a stolen car. The chase ended, as many do, with the thief plowing the stolen car into a ditch. At that point the chase became a foot race and I followed the felon down and embankment and back under the highway through a 6' diameter concrete pipe. I am about 6'5" and the bad guy was about a foot shorter so his tour of the pipe was much quicker than mine but unfortunately for him a K-9 Unit was waiting for him when he exited the other end.

I booked the "suspect" (I love that term for the presumptive innocence after I chased him over Hell and Half of Georgia while he drove a stolen car) and finished the remainder of my shift without incident. When I got home at about 7:30 a.m. and removed my body armor I had a round, red spot about the size of a dime on my left clavicle, just where the vest stops. It was itchy and I thought it was a mosquito bite so I showered and rubbed Benadryl Cream (Diphenhydramine) on the site and went to bed.

About six hours later I woke up in a sweat and the "mosquito bite" was burning and had formed what looked to me like a bruise around a white center so I switched my self diagnosis to "fire ant bite" because I had many of those in the past and they formed the minute pustules except that fire ants had never made me ill. I called the nurse at my doctor's office and she told me to come right in.

After an examination the doctor asked me what I had done the previous night and I related the story to him and he told me he thought I had a spider bite although I don't believe he said "Brown Recluse" at that point. He gave me antibiotics and pain medicine and a prescription for oral and topical steroids. I found out later why.

The bite site eventually turned black and got deeper, eventually working it's way almost to my clavicle. It would seem to be healing then lose the scab only to be deeper and repeat the cycle. I was lucky that no surgery was ever required as the site remained about the diameter of a dime. Eventually, after the steroids took effect, the wound healed and stayed healed, leaving a deep depression where the bite had occurred.

Even though I did not know it I had performed some vital first aide by showering and using the Benadryl and seeking medical treatment within about 12 hours of the bite.

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