Woman thought she had water in her ear - then doctors found a venomous spider

A Missouri woman who went to the doctor thinking she had water in her ear was shocked to learn it was actually a venomous spider, according to KSHB.

Susie Torres visited her doctor on Tuesday, complaining of discomfort in her left ear.

"I woke up on Tuesday hearing a bunch of swooshing and water in my left ear," Torres told WDAF-TV. "It was like when you went swimming and you have all of that water in your ear."

After a medical assistant gave her an initial check-up, she quickly learned something else was going on.

"[The assistant] ran out and said, 'I'm going to get a couple more people,'" Torres said in a separate interview with KSHB. "She then said, 'I think you have an insect in there.'"

Torres, who is deeply afraid of spiders, tried not to panic as medical assistant managed to remove the arachnid, which doctors later determined was a brown recluse.

"I never thought they would crawl in your ear or any part of your body," Torres told KSHB.

The brown recluse is a species of venomous spider found throughout the US South and Midwest. It's considered to be one of the most poisonous spiders found in America, with bite symptoms that include fever, convulsions, itching, nausea and muscle pain.

Brown recluse venom is not considered deadly. However, since people generally don't feel the bites when they occur, they often go untreated, which can lead to more serious complications.

Doctors told Torres that, despite however long it had been in her ear, the spider had not bitten her. Still, Torres said she's taking some extra measures to make sure this doesn't happen again.

"I went and put some cotton balls in my ears last night. I'm shaking off my clothes, and I don't put my purse on the floor," she told WDAF. "I'm a little more cautious."

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