When doctors told this woman why her lip was swelling up and weren’t sure if she was going to make it, she prayed for one thing!

This brave woman, Sheri, never thought that her life would flash before her eyes because of ‘one small bite’. But that’s exactly what happened to this amazing woman. Just one day after the incident, the pain had gotten worse. That’s when she decided to seek care from a healthcare provider and was prescribed antibiotics. However, the medicine did not work as quickly as she had hoped, and the area around her lip continued to swell. Before long, it was clear to the woman and those near her that her problem was much more severe than they had originally thought. The doctors told her that they weren’t sure if she was going to make it, and the woman said in an interview: “I thought I wasn’t going to live through the night when they first told me. It looked like a big ol’ balloon on my face.”

Sheri was reportedly bit on the lip by a venomous spider and soon found herself fighting for dear life as she battled through hallucinations and hospitalization to cope with the venom that was coursing through her body and making her lip swell up to multiple times its original size. The spider bite occurred while the woman was in the middle of a kayaking trip. She was taking a course, which was a ten-hour kayaking trip when the spider bit her. At first, she didn’t even realize that she was bitten by a spider, and she tried to ignore the pain. But as it would turn out, she had a lot to worry about because the spider that bit her lip was a brown recluse spider, which is highly venomous and dangerous.

“I’m almost 50, and I’ve been floating in this river since I could swim, six years old,” she told Fox News. “I was just praying I wasn’t going to die because I hear horror stories, and you look on the internet and see all this stuff.” She added, “They told me they weren’t sure if I was going to make it, and I thought I wasn’t going to live through the night when they first told me. It looked like a big ol’ balloon on my face.” She was finally admitted into the hospital, and doctors quickly diagnosed her with a brown recluse spider bite. They treated it as such by giving her a dose of antibiotics to help kill off any remaining bacteria from the spider’s venomous fangs. The woman also underwent surgery on her lip so that they could remove all of the dead tissue from the area.

Luckily, the brave woman did pull through and survived. Now, she feels extremely lucky to be alive today. She encourages others who find themselves in a similar situation as hers to seek help immediately so they can hopefully prevent something like this from happening again. “If you think there’s anything wrong with your body, go see somebody,” said Sheri on her advice to others. “Because if I didn’t go see somebody, anything could have happened.”