From Spider Bites to Support Groups

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My name is Serena Rose. At the time I am writing this I am 23-years-old, married, and have one son. My story begins in October 2012, the day my path of pain began.

My family and I decided to go to our favorite campground and have a campfire while my husband went hunting.

My mother, myself, and my son were happily roasting marshmallows next to a shallow river when I noticed we needed firewood.

Icrossed the shallow water and retrieved some small pieces that we could easily put out when we wanted to leave.

I returned to the camp and added the wood, a short time later my husband returned from hunting and we all went home.

I don't know at what part of that day I was bitten by the spider but I noticed the bite when I got home that evening.

I thought nothing of it as it didn't seem to be reacting like a poisonous spider bit me. I went to work the following day and

noticed the redness and pain of infection, by midnight I wasn't able to put any weight on my leg at all.

My husband, who worked at the same place I did, rushed me to the hospital where they informed me I had celulitis.

I was sent to my primary the next day and she admitted me to the hospital as the infection had gotten worse since the emergency room doctor had sent me home.

They discovered it was a brown recluse bite that had gotten infected with MRSA.

I spent the next 3 days in the hospital where the infection continued to spread until the doctors had reserved an OR for my

leg to be amputated.

After sending to the CDC for antibiotics the infection receeded and I not only kept my leg but I was sent home.

Over the next month and a half my leg remained numb, which I spoke to my primary about and she said it was possibly nerve damage.

By the second month the feeling in my leg began to return, but as it did I noticed a pain that never seemed to go away and got worse every day.

I spent 6 months begging my primary to send me to a pain specialist, but I was told the pain was all in my head and I needed to see a shrink.

After speaking with the head of the clinic, who had seen me during my stay in the hospital, I received my referral and preceeded to see the pain clinic.

There I was told that I had RSD/CRPS and that the pain I was feeling was normal for that disease.

My initial injury was in October of 2012 and I was not seen or diagnosed until 10 months later

(An unimaginably short time to be diagnosed for CRPS) in June of 2013. 

Now, 3 years later, I have lost my job because of this disease, but I try my best not to give up.

I currently run 2 support groups on facebook.

1 for RSD Warriors (Like me) and 1 for the Caregivers of RSD Warriors.

RSD Warriors please join this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/TheBurningEdge/ 

RSD Caregivers please join this group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/CaretakersofRSD/ 

Thanks,
Serena Rose
The Burning Edge