There are things we can do in life to avoid possible harm
or injury,
but we may not because we just don't think it can happen
to us, right?
WRONG! It can happen.
The purpose of this article is to let you know what
happened to
me Easter weekend to educate you and make you more
aware
of the dangers of spiders. PLUS, to bring up another
issue
of harm that my mentor and I chatted about. My
incident triggered
our discussion when I returned home from the
hospital.
I had a nice discussion with one of my mentors with a
company
I am working with. The discussion has brought a lot
of thought
to our minds about preventing injury or harm by making
some
changes in your home. Read my story and then read
what him
and I discussed.
Over Easter weekend, I was bitten by a spider. I had
contact
with a spider on Saturday night, 04-10-04.
I didn't know I was bitten.
I actually thought it was a burn when I went to the
emergency
room on 04-12-04.
When I woke up on Monday, 04-12-04, I noticed a bump on
the
side of my hand that had a slit in
the middle. The bump was kind
of hard, and the slit was
strange. I also woke up
with what I think
was a migraine
headache.
I spent the entire Monday laying down with a
horrible headache.
It also made me nauseas. I
tried different things to get rid of it,
and nothing was working. Later in the evening, my
husband ran out
and purchased aspirin for migraines. It actually
helped make me
feel better. I was then able to do what I needed to
do on Monday.
As the day was moved on, I started noticing pain in my
right
arm pit. It even hurt to touch it.
Also, the bump on the side of my
right hand appeared bigger with a lot of
redness
around it. I put some antibiotic ointment on it and
covered
it.
My husband went to work at 11pm and my kids were in
bed.
I went on the computer to do some work.
About 1:30am, I started getting a throbbing pain in my
right
leg and tingling in my right toes. I called my
husband at work.
He said he was going to come home so I could go to
the
emergency room.
He got home about 2:30am, and I went to ER with our only
car. He wanted to drive me, but I didn't want to
wake the kids.
I should have just called 911 and you will see why
shortly.
I went to the ER with the assumption I had an infected
burn.
I seriously thought I burned
myself from the oven rack. The
nurse and doctor were shocked by
the appearance of the
wound. They were more
surprised that I thought it was a burn.
In fact, the nurse thought it was
a second degree burn. The doctor
came in and said he needed to
remove the blister so it will heal better.
Of course, I was not thrilled about that idea of taking
off my
skin. He began removing it and asked me if he was
hurting
me. I said, "no, I don't feel a thing." He
said, "really, you don't feel
anything?" I said, "no." He said, "this can't
be a burn, it has to
be a bite." He asked me if I was exposed to a spider
and I
said yes. I explained that I was exposed to a spider
Saturday
night, and I also explained how the wound first
looked when
I woke up on Monday morning. He said it really
looked like
a spider bite. They took a lot of blood for
tests.
They decided to admit me to the hospital because my
white
blood cell count was high, and I needed to go
through
antibiotic IV treatments. I had our only car and of
course
I was thinking how in the world will my husband get
it.
I ended up being in the hospital for 3 LONG
days. Can you
believe that over a spider
bite? During that time, I have seen
my regular doctor, a plastic
surgeon, and an infectious disease
doctor.
The day before I went home, the IV nurse suggested to
my
doctor to send me home with a "pick line". Now, you
are
probably wondering what a pick line is. A pick line
is a
catheter that is inserted through a vein so that instead
of
being picked for an IV or
for drawing blood, all they have
to do is hook the IV to a plug
that is exposed. The catheter
was put through a vein near my
elbow but on the side of my
arm. It is put through
my vein and stops at my heart. So, I
have these plugs hanging off my
arm. You can see what
I am talking about at the end of this
article.
I got to go home on Thursday, but I have to make a
trip to the hospital every single morning for the
antibiotic
IV treatments that last about an hour. Because the
infection
is pretty bad, antibiotic IV is needed. I ended up
contracting
Strep A from the infection.
I still have no idea what the future holds.. I have
no idea how
long I will have to go through those treatments,
and I have no
idea if surgery or anything will be needed.
The ER doctor, the plastic surgeon and my doctor
all
feel I was bit by a brown recluse spider which is
one
of two spider types that are poisonous. I never
even
heard of it prior to this incident. In fact, I do
not think
they are even common where I live in
Illinois.
It is amazing because once you get bit by a spider,
you start hearing all the horror stories of other
people
that were bit by one. I have heard stories of the
wound
coming back years later. I have heard of people
loosing
sections of their body parts, etc. Not pleasant, I
am sure.
Now, this is the conversation I had with my mentor.
He
said and people want to have toxic cleaning
products
in their homes, when they can help prevent injury or
harm
if they would just get it and start using products that
don't have
the toxins and chemicals in them. Simple
huh?
The point of what he said is... here we know the
toxins
and chemicals in products maybe harmful
especially
if they are ingested. But people probably think oh
nothing
can happen to me and my family, right? Well, I
thought
the same thing with spiders. I never worried about
being
bit by one and look I was bit by one. It will
probably cost
me over $10,000 in medical bills - which I will have to
pay
a nice chunk of that out of my pocket, I spent 3 days in
the
hospital - no working obviously, I have to go to the hospital
every single day for IV
antibiotics, with the possibility of
surgery. All over a spider. Maybe if I would have used
precautions it would never have
happened. But because
I never thought a spider bite
could cause harm, I never
did a thing about it. Now
look at me, I have to pay the price.
I have a friend that I have been educating about the
toxins
and chemicals for about a year. She just didn't get
it like
most of you don't. Well, one day she called me and
told me
she was helping her boyfriend
clean his apartment with Windex.
As soon as she said that, I knew it was going to be a
good
story. She said she was cleaning with the
Windex and the
Windex took off one of my acrylic nails. She lost
her
nail and ended up going to the emergency room.
She
asked me how she to get the toxins and chemicals
out
of her home. Now, she is a loyal and happy
customer
and at peace knowing that she doesn't have harmful
products in her home.
It took something bad to happen to my friend before
she
opened her eyes. She personally has ADD, and her
son
is 4.5 years old and was just diagnosed with SDI which
is where all of his senses are off. Now, I asked her
if she
thinks the toxins and chemicals in the products
while
pregnant and while he has been born may have
contributed
to him getting SDI and she said she read in a book
that
it may be a possible cause. If you think about all
the
cases of allergies, asthma, ADD, ADHD, and
cancer
and think about why is that number so high.. think
about
how much fancier they are making products and
how
much the products are loaded with harmful junk.
Don't
take my word for it... take the ingredient on the
backs
of every product and type it in a search engine
like
you that you will find that ingesting, absorbing or
inhaling
most of the chemicals are either immediately
harmful
or harmful after long term exposure.
My point here is if accidents can be avoided, why
aren't
they? Simply switching stores and buying the
products
you are already buying and saving money just
makes
sense. Doesn't it? Doesn't it even make more
sense
when you can actually earn money too?
If you are interested in learning about switching
stores
to purchase products that do not have all the
chemicals
in them, save money, with the opportunity to make
money
then email me with "Switch Stores - I'm
interested" on
the subject line and include your name, phone #
and
best time to call in the body of the email.
Email to:
Here are my pictures taken on 04-16-04.....
The first 3 pictures were taken the day after I
returned from the hospital on 04-16-04. The wound is on my
right hand. The 4th picture is a "pick
line" that is on my left arm. It is a catheter that was put up
through my vein
to my heart.
This is where they can hook up the IV for the antibiotics every day without
sticking me with a needle.
Plus, they can draw blood from it. These
pictures look so much better then the wound looked in the hospital.
The top of my hand was swollen and red, along with
the area around the wound was swollen and red. I also
had streaks of red going down to my
elbow.
Best Wishes and keep safe.
Stacy Perez
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Copyright 2000-2008, Stacy Perez, successful work from home mother who has inspired and helped many parents work from home. Visit:
www.DotComMommies.com