Back in February, singer Meghan Linsey woke up to discover she’d been bitten by a spider in her sleep.
Linsey, a runner-up on The Voice in 2015, was half-asleep so she really didn’t notice the spider at first.
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Turns out, the spider that bit her was a brown recluse, and they are known to be one the most dangerous spiders in North America because, as Linsey eventually found out, the venom in their bite is so toxic that it can rot your skin.
Speaking to reporters Linsey recalled, “The swelling was the first thing, and then I ended up just having crazy, crazy symptoms. I had muscle spasms, then I had a body rash all over. They tell people to not look up things on WebMD, and I had looked up everything on WebMD and I had every symptom. Every day was another thing.”
Scroll down to see Linsey’s spider bite journey from start to (mostly) healed, but be aware that some of the images are tough to look at.
[H/T: People]
31-year-old Linsey is originally from a New Orleans suburb in Louisianna.
Eventually moving to Nashville, Tn, Linsey took a job as a karaoke host at a popular Nashville karaoke bar, Lonnie’s Western Room.
This is where she met Joshua Scott Jones, who would become her boyfriend and musical partner.
She got her musical career started by creating a band called Steel Magnolias with Jones.
When Linsey and Jones auditioned for CMT reality competition show Can You Duet? their careers took a huge leap forward.
They ended up being the top winners of the competition, which awarded them a recording contract with Big Machine Records.
BMR is notable for working with artists such as Tim McGraw, Reba McEntire, and Rascal Flatts.
In 2009, they released their debut single, “Keep On Lovin’ You.” That song became a Top 10 hit on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs chart.
In 2014, Linsey and Jones announced that they were splitting up and pursuing separate solo careers.
Linsey kicked off her solo career by putting out a cover of OneRepublic’s “Counting Stars.”
After that is when she auditioned for on the eighth season of The Voice, and ended up getting three of the four judges to turn their chairs around.
Ultimately she chose to go with hip-hop star and music producer extraordinaire Pharrel as her coach. After losing in the “battle rounds,” country hitmaker Blake Shelton stole her for his team.
Linsey spent the remainder of her time on The Voice on Shelton’s team.
Ultimately, she came in second place, or first runner-up, to Sawyer Fredericks, who, ironically, was from Pharrell’s team.
Afterwards, she returned home to Nashville and recorded a six-song EP titled, “Believer.”
As of late, she’s been busy working on her music, as well as her beauty product line, which is also called Believer.
Surprisingly, brown recluse spiders are actually not defined as being aggressive spiders and compared to how much they get talked about, it’s pretty rare that they bite people.
If you have a spider bite, some signs that may clue you in to it being a brown recluse bite are if you display any of the following symptoms: fever,
nausea, intense itching at site of the bite, rash, chills, general discomfort, and sweating.
Even though brown recluse bites aren’t always as bad as what Linsey had t ogo through, you should still always have a doctor look at it just to be safe.
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