PSA: Don't mess around with infections

[LinvilleGorge]

Seems obvious, but sometimes not blatantly so. I've always been fairly prone to developing boils, cysts, etc. They almost always go away on their own and whatever. I've only had to have one ever addressed medically.

Anyway, last week my thigh started getting sore. Weirdly sore. It started getting red and puffy. Then a small sore broke out. Okay, this is odd. Then I woke up yesterday morning and it hurt. Like HURT hurt. There were some red streaks radiating out and the soreness was extending up my thigh toward my groin. My FIL is a retired pediatrician so I gave him a call and describe it to him. He says to get it checked out. I say, cool I'll call and get an appointment. He says, no, no, no. I mean get it checked out TODAY. You don't wanna play with this. You almost certainly have a staph or MRSA infection that's starting to spread. You don't want this to turn into sepsis. This needs to be seen TODAY. 

Sure enough, I go to be seen and hey put me on oral clindamycin but told me had I waited until next week I'd probably be in the hospital on an IV drip antibiotic and to keep an eye on it over the weekend because if it gets any worse or isn't responding to the oral antibiotics by Monday that still may need to happen. It was sore as hell and looking worse today and I felt like poo, but this evening I'm feeling a lot better and a lot of the peripheral soreness is fading. Still, it's pretty eye opening how something I knew was different but wasn't all that concerned about turned out to be something that could've gotten really ugly without prompt medical attention.

 

[SBBlue]

6 hours ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Seems obvious, but sometimes not blatantly so. I've always been fairly prone to developing boils, cysts, etc. They almost always go away on their own and whatever. I've only had to have one ever addressed medically.

Anyway, last week my thigh started getting sore. Weirdly sore. It started getting red and puffy. Then a small sore broke out. Okay, this is odd. Then I woke up yesterday morning and it hurt. Like HURT hurt. There were some red streaks radiating out and the soreness was extending up my thigh toward my groin. My FIL is a retired pediatrician so I gave him a call and describe it to him. He says to get it checked out. I say, cool I'll call and get an appointment. He says, no, no, no. I mean get it checked out TODAY. You don't wanna play with this. You almost certainly have a staph or MRSA infection that's starting to spread. You don't want this to turn into sepsis. This needs to be seen TODAY. 

Sure enough, I go to be seen and hey put me on oral clindamycin but told me had I waited until next week I'd probably be in the hospital on an IV drip antibiotic and to keep an eye on it over the weekend because if it gets any worse or isn't responding to the oral antibiotics by Monday that still may need to happen. It was sore as hell and looking worse today and I felt like poo, but this evening I'm feeling a lot better and a lot of the peripheral soreness is fading. Still, it's pretty eye opening how something I knew was different but wasn't all that concerned about turned out to be something that could've gotten really ugly without prompt medical attention.

 

Thank God you went in LinvilleGorge.  Keep us posted.  Take care of yourself.

[toldozer]

That happened to my hand first week of July,  my dog clipped my hand on accident enough to draw blood on a Saturday.  Put stuff on it immediately to clean it out and wrapped it up.  It kept getting progressively more red and bruised feeling. So Thursday I went to urgent care, their service was a joke so I said ok ill just go home and call my doctor in the morning.  Driving home my forearm started getting really tight. Turned back around and dealt with the jerk at the front desk. It was Super infected.  Doctor pretty much said the same thing,  you'd be in the hospital if you waited another couple days.  Got my tdap vaccine updated that day for my upcoming child and antibiotics the next morning. It started feeling better almost immediately after the shot which was cool and then cleared up over a few days.

[Paa Langfart]

Yeah. The red streaks are a dead give away to get on antibiotics immediately.

[Zod]

Yikes, thanks for posting this 

[KSpan]

Some things can be toughed out but signs like that should never be ignored - good on you for calling and then actually following that advice.

To join you in this point, when I was a kid me left foot started hurting and swelled up like a black balloon in the span of only a couple of hours. My parents opted to immediately take me to the hospital, which was good because I had necrotizing fasciitis (internal flesh-eating bacteria) and we were told that any further delay would almost certainly have resulted in my foot being amputated. As it was, some major antibiotics got it back under control and I kept my foot. 

[Brister2Mills4TD]

Long time lurker, I mean long time. I jumped on to drop some knowledge on the guy who said H1N1 is worse than COVID but now see that thread closed.

I had H1N1, kids brought it home from school. Sickest I’ve ever been in my life. 2 weeks down, no food, no water, you just kind of writhe in bed. You can’t sleep. Fever came in and out. It’d break for 12 hours then right back. You’d think you were getting better but you weren’t. Then secondary infection came, very common.

My point is, H1N1 is baby poo compared to COVID. I was at my breaking point with H1N1, lost 20 pounds. Took days to get strength back to walk I do NOT want COVID. I got my ass vaxxed about as soon as I could.

But to the point of this thread, yes that’s very dangerous. My brother is in ICU now for a handful of reasons and blood infection one. It’s serious business. Glad you sought medical advice/attention as fast as you did. 

 

 

 

 

[Shocker]

Wow, scary stuff.  Hope you get well soon.

[LinvilleGorge]

4 minutes ago, Shocker said:

Wow, scary stuff.  Hope you get well soon.

All good. Quick round of antibiotics took care of it. Thanks!

[Khyber53]

On 7/31/2021 at 10:20 PM, LinvilleGorge said:

Seems obvious, but sometimes not blatantly so. I've always been fairly prone to developing boils, cysts, etc. They almost always go away on their own and whatever. I've only had to have one ever addressed medically.

Anyway, last week my thigh started getting sore. Weirdly sore. It started getting red and puffy. Then a small sore broke out. Okay, this is odd. Then I woke up yesterday morning and it hurt. Like HURT hurt. There were some red streaks radiating out and the soreness was extending up my thigh toward my groin. My FIL is a retired pediatrician so I gave him a call and describe it to him. He says to get it checked out. I say, cool I'll call and get an appointment. He says, no, no, no. I mean get it checked out TODAY. You don't wanna play with this. You almost certainly have a staph or MRSA infection that's starting to spread. You don't want this to turn into sepsis. This needs to be seen TODAY. 

Sure enough, I go to be seen and hey put me on oral clindamycin but told me had I waited until next week I'd probably be in the hospital on an IV drip antibiotic and to keep an eye on it over the weekend because if it gets any worse or isn't responding to the oral antibiotics by Monday that still may need to happen. It was sore as hell and looking worse today and I felt like poo, but this evening I'm feeling a lot better and a lot of the peripheral soreness is fading. Still, it's pretty eye opening how something I knew was different but wasn't all that concerned about turned out to be something that could've gotten really ugly without prompt medical attention.

 

I feel for ya man. I get boils time and again. They are no fun. A few years ago, I didn't think much of them until I got one on my abdomen that ended me up in the hospital for three days on an IV drip. MRSA and to this day there's still a scab that won't go away. 

People die from those things, had no idea until then. 

[LinvilleGorge]

12 minutes ago, Khyber53 said:

I feel for ya man. I get boils time and again. They are no fun. A few years ago, I didn't think much of them until I got one on my abdomen that ended me up in the hospital for three days on an IV drip. MRSA and to this day there's still a scab that won't go away. 

People die from those things, had no idea until then. 

Yeah, this was definitely different from anything I've ever had before. It didn't start out like any boil I've ever had. It started out almost like rug burn or something. Just generalized soreness and redness on my thigh but really sore and sore deep. From there almost like blister formed and that became a small open wound. Then the red streaks and groin soreness. When I called my father in law (it's awesome to have a doctor in the immediate family to run things by) he heard my description and had me send him a pic. He called back and said, yeah you need to have that seen. No not an appointment, drive your ass to the local urgent care and be seen TODAY. This isn't an ER visit but it's not far away from one and it will be if you let this go any further. What really concerned him was the streaking and groin soreness. The streaking is localized spread. The groin soreness is the beginning of lymph node involvement. Next comes sepsis and that's hospital stay and a potentially legit touch and go situation. He's an old school doctor. Kind of a "rub some dirt on it" type. He's thorough and covers his bases but he doesn't overreact to stuff. Generally when I call him his response is something along the lines of "keep and eye on it and if it gets worse make an appointment", so when he says get your ass to the doctor and do it now that perks my ears up.

[Khyber53]

1 minute ago, LinvilleGorge said:

Yeah, this was definitely different from anything I've ever had before. It didn't start out like any boil I've ever had. It started out almost like rug burn or something. Just generalized soreness and redness on my thigh but really sore and sore deep. From there almost like blister formed and that became a small open wound. Then the red streaks and groin soreness. When I called my father in law (it's awesome to have a doctor in the immediate family to run things by) he heard my description and had me send him a pic. He called back and said, yeah you need to have that seen. No not an appointment, drive your ass to the local urgent care and be seen TODAY. This isn't an ER visit but it's not far away from one and it will be if you let this go any further. What really concerned him was the streaking and groin soreness. The streaking is localized spread. The groin soreness is the beginning of lymph node involvement. Next comes sepsis and that's hospital stay and a potentially legit touch and go situation. He's an old school doctor. Kind of a "rub some dirt on it" type. He's thorough and covers his bases but he doesn't overreact to stuff. Generally when I call him his response is something along the lines of "keep and eye on it and if it gets worse make an appointment", so when he says get your ass to the doctor and do it now that perks my ears up.

I got an immediate appointment with my doctor who on seeing it immediately sent me off to the emergency room. Within an hour I was in a mini surgery room with a doctor and a nurse digging away at it. That was, unpleasant.