Megan Linsey is speaking out after an almost deadly spider attack nearly two months ago.
The season 8 runner-up of NBC’s The Voice woke up in the middle of a February night to discover a brown recluse crawling on her head. The poisonous spider, which is found mostly in the midwestern and south central part of the United States, managed to leave a “hole in her face.”
Immediately heading to urgent care following the bite, the singer continued to experience a series of symptoms even with antibiotics. Along with excruciating nerve pain, her eye was completely swollen shut.
“The swelling was the first thing, and then I ended up just having crazy, crazy symptoms,” Linsey shared with PEOPLE. “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.”
As she continues to get treated for the attack, Linsey is slowly healing and documenting her road to recovery on social media.
The surrounding area of where Lindsey was bit rotted away when her skill cells began to die, leaving what the 31-year-old referred to as the hole in her face. Although her daily makeup routine is now extensive to hide the scar, she is lucky that the poisonous, eight-legged arthropod did not leave her dead.
“I’m one of those people that just throws it on and goes, but now I have to put three or more layers on this one area of my face,” she said. “It’s kind of a pain at this point but, after going through everything I went through, I’m just glad to be alive.”
“I think that people appreciate it when you’re real. I’m like, ‘What am I going to do? Be hiding this thing that I’m going through?’” Linsey spoke of her healing process. “And honestly, it’s nice to raise awareness. It’s not talked about a lot and I have a way to get the word out.”