'I'll have a pretty nasty scar': Teen deals with spider bite aftermath

ANTRIM COUNTY, Mich., (WPBN/WGTU) – Something just wasn’t right, Clayton knew it and then things got worse.

A wound, a trip to his doctor and then the emergency room.

Now, 19-year-old Clayton has a warning and a bit of advice for all of us about something most of us are afraid of, but few of us know much about.

"So, I noticed something as wrong with my leg, I was at a bonfire, I noticed two kinds of bite marks, and they just kind of looked like scabs, superficial kind of thing. I thought it would heal up in just a couple of days,” said Clayton.

At first, Clayton Friend didn’t worry too much about what he assumed was a bug bite, but as time passed, the observation turned into a concern.

"Initially it wasn't the bite that concerned me, I actually started getting a fever and I was just freezing for a couple of days."

And those two tiny scabs turned into a big old mess.

"Monday evening within like 8 hours, it looked a lot worse,” said Clayton. "Blistering, necrotic skin, two little pinpoint right next to each other."

That is when Clayton knew it was time to get the doctor.

"My blood tests came back a little funky, I went to the emergency room the next day and they were looking at it some more and the doctor said, "yeah, it's definitely a recluse bite."

He has a prescription and a treatment plan for the wound.

It’s going to heal with time, but that bite threw a little bit of a wrinkle in what he wanted to do this week.

"On Tuesday morning I was supposed to ship out to Coast Guard Basic Training in Cape May, New Jersey, but they took my temperature that morning and I was around a fever of 102, and they took one look at the wound and they said you have to wait."

So, wait he will, for his body to heal and probably leave behind a reminder of the summer of 2019.

"I'll have a pretty nasty scar of course but nothing too horrible."

Without the actual spider, it-s impossible to know if this was a brown recluse.

He was laying sod over the weekend that came from a place where they are more common.

Regardless of what type of spider it was, Clayton wants to remind all of us, if we have a bite or wound and concerns, go get it checked out as soon as possible.

Quick treatment can make a world of difference.