Yes, Bitten in the buttox

by Mark L.
(South Windsor, CT)

My name is Mark, I was actually living at the time in Minnesota. My room-mate had just gotten back from Texas for the Holidays. I was 17 years old and was a very healthy guy. This bite was in 2004. Anyways, truth is, I had woke up one morning and honestly felt a slight "pimple like" bump on my right buttox, After all, i was a 17 year old boy who was going through puberty, it was ignored but always was itchy that first day. Day 2- I woke up and it had looked as if the "pimple" had gotten severely infected, but I had never attempted to pop it or even resisted itching it, by now it was really sore, sore enough that i avoided actually sitting on the city bus that day on my way to work. As I went home for the night to sleep I knew something was wrong, it actually had gotten worse as the day went on. Day-3 WOW I had to lay on my stomach the ENTIRE night and couldnt sleep because of the pain, I actually tried to pop whatever it was. This was so embarrassing because of the location and what was happening, so i resisted getting or asking for help from anyone. By then I actually had to make a lame excuse from work and go to a walk-in clinic up the street, after all can you imagine how much this must have hurt to actually have someone look at it? Well, there I am, bent over a doctors table, you know the ones with the paper sheet, with at least 7 different doctors coming in and out of the room looking and actually poking and proding this "issue". I was in Minnesota, doctors had NEVER seen anything like this. HONEST to god, one doctor actually told me that under law he HAD to report gun-shot wounds!!! IT was the size now of a golf-ball. After two full hours of different people coming in and out and feeling like a zoo animal one doctor came in the room for the first time. "Wow, Mark, How did you get bitten by a Brown Recluse here in Minnesota?!?". a what?? i responded, thankfully, this specific doctor, one that had done Katrina Relief Volunteering at the SuperDome after the tragedy, had actually seen this in person before down south. After a few minutes, he actually rushed me in his own car, to the hospital where they actually had to "de-breed" my Butt. They were actually scooping out dead flesh, about a baseball size worth, from my right butt cheek! And guess what, they could NOT sew it up because it would have left an air pocket! so they stuffed it with cotton and hoped for the best... WEEKS of daily doctor visits, pain meds, 3 more smaller de-breedings... Im left with a nice scar about 3 inches long, well, you know where. Now a days, its just a funny story i share with girlfriends or at a gathering to break the ice, believe it or not I get people ASKING me to moon them now!! All joking aside, the doctors had said if i was bit anywhere else on my body during my sleep it would have taken a limb, or worse, but since there was such fatty portions of your body there I was VERY lucky. Also, luggage from holiday trips or luggage that might have been stored in an attick for months should be checked before use!! DONT WAIT TO SEE THE DOCTOR!!!!!