OT - Wow! Now that was educational. . .kinda long

Few wks back when preparing field for spuds I hacked down some old blackberry canes. As anyone knows you can get "stuck" sometimes by the tiny thorns.

Well after I got done I had sore spot on RH thumb. I thought I got a small thorn (like a thistle sticker) jambed into skin at first knuckle on RH thumb. Looked just like a little black dot like a spider bite.

Tried digging it out and nothing came out. Let thumb sit a few days, thumb swelled then started festering up so I thought "Good, now I can just pop it and extract the thorn". Would not pop and could not seem to find the sliver or source of black spot.

Skip ahead to last week and forearm started aching like I slept on it wrong. Ached all week long and swollen.

Fast fwd. to this week - now upper arm, especially under bicep muscle starts aching. Took nice hot shower went outside in bright sun to check it out. Found a red line running from blistered thumb, across forearm, under bicep and about 1" from armpit. Showed the Mrs. and she gets all panicky and says infected and need to get it checked.

No work yet thus no insurance so I went to local CVS Minit-Clinic to get something to knock it back, across the counter anti-biotics? Nurse gal looks at the arm and immediatly calls URGENT CARE place. Tells me to get over there ASAP.

Drive an hr. to URGENT CARE place and female doctor looks at it and says worst case of cellulitis infection she has seen in LONG, LONG TIME. Tells me to drop britches for a big shot of rocephin.

Now I have to administer this rocephin injection 1x / day for 14 days + take oral antibiotics; Doxycycline 2x/day for next 10 days and SMZ-TMP 2x/day for 10 days.

Urgent care doc said if I had waited another 24 hrs infection would have gotten to brachial artery and I would be down hard in hospital with sepsis. Said the infection could have taken me down, attack heart muscle lining, lungs etc.

Just got done "sticking" myself and sitting here reflecting on how something so simple as an assumed sliver could lead to an infection; and how what I thought was a simple infection could in fact be that deadly.

Never really felt bad, just achy arm and thumb; was thinking my body just not as tough as it once was, taking longer to fight off things, longer to heal etc.

Still don't know source of the black dot and thumb is so tore up from digging I guess I never will know - doc says common staph infection.

Y'all be careful out there and don't be bull-headed like me and wait nearly 4 wks. before getting it checked. If it ain't working right after a week might want to get it checked out. Sure was an eye-opener for me.

I wouldn't tell that story to your customers if ya buy that butcher shop :roll:

Good thing ya caught it... If you didn't learn anything else, it should be not to screw around when something isn't right.....

Same thing happened to a woman we bowl with. She let it go to the point the doctor mentioned the amputation word if it didn't respond to treatment.
She is one tough old bird, though. She just turned 91. She did not quit playing softball until she was 70. Hurt her leg sliding into second and had to miss a couple weeks of bowling, and liked bowling more than softball.

had same infection in my knee last year this time.Dont know when the skin got broken but must have swelled like a balloon . they wanted me on iv . got it under control but still does not look like other knee.Paul

Now dave2 -
I was thinking that could be the special sauce

BTW, still working on that deal. Hold up way prior book keeping was done. Sorting out a jumbled up mess - got personal and biz mixed together. When asked why, "Wll, we always done it thisa way"

I had it three times last year.
Ron

About four years ago I got it in my right leg. Got an injection and two weeks on oral antibiotics.

A month later it returned and I spent four days in the hospital with IV antibiotics and then two more weeks on oral antibiotics, in bed with my leg elevated.

Six weeks later it returned again but by this time I knew to go to the doctor at the first indication of trouble. Another injection and two more weeks with leg elevated and oral antibiotics.

It's not something to be taken lightly. While I was in the hospital there was another guy there that was soon getting out after spending nearly two weeks on IV antibiotics.

I had it a year ago in my right leg. I laid in the hospital for a week with antibiotics. Darn leg still bothers me.

You are lucky, you gave one heck of head start ! I saw this several times when working at the lumber yard, one of my favorite customers and contractors, got a sliver from somewhere on a roof they were working on, he was in the hospital for a week, arm in a sling and elevated, he could have lost it. Another got a piece of pressure treated stuck in his thumb, just a sliver, same thing, both swelled incredibly, something like that starts, you need to get after it immediately, the body is rejecting whatever it is and can't get rid of it, a lot of the fluid is dead white blood cells that have fought the foreign material, the body is something else when you think about it, it wastes no time reacting, which a person needs to follow just the same.


I rarely get any infections from cuts and lacerations, and usually when its hot and humid in the summer.

Glad to hear you got it turned around, just reread your post, man you're lucky, get well soon !!!!

A bread and milk poltis over night would have sucked the infection out. When I was a kid my mom would use bread and milk when we would have an ifection with a red line going up the arm. She would catch it before it got to far. Jim

The same happened to me, as some of you other
guys are saying,...and.. a few days in the
hospital, on introvenus antibiotics...shot in
the butt for a week...doxisomething pills, AND
it killed all of my intestinal bacteria..had
diaarhea for 5 weeks...it was awful!
finally got it fixed with "Florajen3,which adds
"good" bacteria, and VANCOCIN. Pharmicest said
Vancocin,(Vancomycin Hydrachloride 250Mg) listed
for $3000 for 40 tablets, but through my wifes
prescription drug insurance, I only paid $150 .
My problem cellulitus started from a scratch on
the leg while cutting wood.

ShepFL,
Good thing you got it taken care of.

Relative was feeling tired last year. Couldn't get off the couch. Took her in to ER on a Sat AM , said she had an infection (sepsis), with < 10% chance of living through the weekend. Organs shut down, in a coma, pumped her full of antibiotics, IVs, managed to save her life, was touch-and-go for a week or so, had a stroke, heart attack, went blind in one eye, amputated her feet, a real tragedy for someone healthy one day, sick the next; but she's alive. All from an infection that they're not sure where it came from. And they said they got lucky with the antibiotic cocktails they were mixing up.

Wife is an RN specializing in infection diseases and says there are some nasty bugs out there that are resistant to drugs. MRSA is one that she cringes every time she hears someone's got it. Says prognosis is not good for a serious MRSA infection, meaning "call the funeral home"

One of the guys I used to work with got it from a stick on his finger while picking crabs. Three days later he had a blue streak going up his arm. He spent a week in the hospital.

And a horseman friend died from sepsis about five years ago- got a splinter in his hand while working on a board fence. Nasty infection---

I get splinters (wood & metal) all the time. Wife gets all nervous every time she sees me digging into my hands with a pocket knife or needle. One of the problems today is that we live in such a clean environment our immune systems can't handle some of these things. Used to be that tetanus was the main worry. (I've stepped on my share of nails, keep my tetanus shot up to date). Now, it's any of a number of bugs that'll get you.

Things like that thorn can move I think. My oldest brother is a barber and he used to get hair slivers if you can believe it. Small hairs that would penetrate his hands,then he would get an abcess somewhere else and the hair would come out there.

My dad has been in the hopsital for 3 months due to getting a staff infection while at the hospital. Ceptis and MRSA. He is in another hospital that specializes in wound healing. Too late for the for toes he has lost and his heels are opened at the time waiting to be healed.