An Irish woman has spoken out as she recovers from a false widow spider bite.
Sinead told RTÉ's Liveline that she woke up recently with a mark on her arm which was like a cigarette burn or blister, but she then realised that was impossible as she had a cover on her hot water bottle.
She thought it would fade within a day or two, however, the blister on the inside of her lower forearm had flared up into a very ugly scabby blister with pus inside and was not fading at all.
A pharmacist informed her that it was a spider bite. She wanted to avoid an expensive doctor's fee, so she went to a health shop, and they gave her something to fight the bacteria. The mark was not painful but very ugly in appearance.
She eventually went to the doctor after Christmas as it had not faded in over 3 weeks and ended up at a dermatologist at a private hospital who informed her that it was indeed a spider bite.
Her dermatologist wants to perform a skin biopsy on the bite, which will cost around €900.
Apparently, there has been a high level of spider bites in Dublin recently from false widow spiders.
Sinead was looking for advice from other listeners who had suffered false widow bites.
