Hotel manager, 46, feared spider eggs were HATCHING inside her after being bitten and left with a golf ball-sized sac which kept swelling up leaving her bedridden and in agony
- Emmeline Botfield, 46, was bitten by a spider in 2018 and has suffered ever since
- She said she feared spiders were ‘hatching’ from inside her and was seriously ill
- She added it was an ‘ugly acid alien spot’ and the ‘circumference of a golf ball’
A hotel manager feared spider eggs were hatching from inside her after a huge bite left her with a golf ball-sized sac that repeatedly swells up on her back.
Emmeline Botfield, 46, from Kingswinford in the West Midlands, from was in a beer garden in July 2018 when she was bitten by a spider, leaving her with a ferocious scar that has caused her years of pain.
She said that the vicious bite blistered and left her bedridden for days with a fever and ‘excruciating’ pins and needles down her arm, before it eventually healed and disappeared.
But a year later a bubbly blister popped up with a vengeance making her feel like she’d been ‘hit by a car’, and she’s experienced a further six nasty ‘flare ups’ since then.
Ms Botfield said that the bite has caused nerve damage and left her with the shingles, an infection that causes a painful rash, which surfaces each time her immune system is low.
Emmeline Botfield, 46, was bitten by a spider in 2018, leaving her with horrible symptoms for years after
She said the bite mark causes her severe pain and has left her bedridden for days
She’s now keen to raise awareness of the importance of getting bites checked out, treated and properly investigated to prevent long-term effects.
Ms Botfield said: ‘Things go through your head – I thought that the spider had laid eggs in my body.
‘I was petrified. I thought that they’d laid dormant and it really did frighten me [during first flare up].
‘I’ve had seven flare ups over the last couple of years and this most recent one was the worst it’s ever been.
‘It felt like acid being poured onto my back and burning constantly, that’s the only way I can describe it.
‘And the pins and needles – the shock pain going through my arms was terrible.’
Ms Botfield was bitten on the right side of her back near her shoulder blade which was initially the size of a ten pence piece.
Ms Botfield said: ‘I was out in a beer garden and I just felt something fall on me and a sting on my back.
‘I saw this spider scurry around and I didn’t think anything of it until that night when it blistered and – it was a rather unusual blister on my back.
The huge bite regularly flares up and causes Ms Botfield agony, more than four years after she was bitten
The hotel manager urged anyone else with a bite to get it checked out as soon as possible
‘Within 24 hours it literally flared up and there were several bubbles and black spikes in the pockets of the bite.
‘I was feverish, went very poorly and had pins and needles down my arm.
‘I had my family bathe it with TCP and they were having to pull these almost water bubble pockets with spikes in out of my back.
‘The pain was excruciating.
‘I had four days off work, I was totally and utterly bedridden.
‘I was delirious and had pyjama bottoms and a top that I could pull up the front and have down [at the back] and I couldn’t have any covers on me or touch me, my skin was red raw.’
The following day, her symptoms worsened to the point she nearly passed out so she dashed to the hospital where she claims it was confirmed that she’d been bitten by a spider.
She took antibiotics for two months and regularly bathed the area before it left a hole in her back that eventually closed up.
Ms Botfield said: ‘It healed and everything was fine and in 2019 the same area blistered again and I thought that was very unusual.
The mark left by the spider bite has not gone away and regularly flares up, causing her pain and making her seriously ill
‘Again, the whole area of my muscle was red, raging hot and it had blistered and bubbled.
‘I also had pins and needles down my arm.
‘It’s literally like you’ve been hit by a car, you’ve got no energy, you feel dizzy and disorientated and have pains.
‘The longest a flare up has left me bedridden is a week.
‘I get an achy shoulder first of all and then I check my back and it starts to go red and then comes out like a blister and then it just completely flares and goes huge.
‘It’s like an ugly acid alien spot and this time I’d say it’s the circumference of a golf ball.’
When the wound resurfaces, she can’t wear a bra because of how large and painful the area is.
Each time they happen it takes a couple of weeks for her to bounce back.
A pea-sized spot then lies dormant underneath her skin which isn’t visible.
The 46-year-old claims she was told last week that the bite has caused nerve damage and has left her with the shingles virus.
She’s been prescribed medication for nerve damage which she’ll be taking twice daily for the next four weeks.
Ms Botfield said: ‘I didn’t expect to have a long term reaction from the bite.
‘I thought it had healed and covered over and thought “ok, it’s a little bit of a scar, it’s delicate” and then it kept coming back up.
‘If anybody does get bitten, by a spider or any type of bite, get it checked over – don’t be passed off by it because I’ve been left with something that now flares up.
‘If I could have had some other treatment or something initially to begin with and had it investigated more, I don’t think I probably would be in the situation that I’m in now.
‘Now I need to get them to investigate it so I’ve got to force them to do something more for me rather than just pass me off.’
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