Staph

[Chugachjed]

I got a fish spine in my thumb over the summer that got infected with staph. I have taken 2 separate courses of antibiotics and thought it was cured both times. Woke up this morning to a painful swollen thumb, again. WTF.

[neufox47]

Get to the Dr. asap and stop posting on TGR?

[Chugachjed]

Well yea. I've done that, actually just got my thumb X-rayed a minute ago.

[TBS]

X-Ray? Staph attacks bones?

[Chugachjed]

It seems to be hanging out in my joint.

[LightRanger]

X-Ray? Staph attacks bones?

Osteomyelitis?

[Chugachjed]

Osteomyelitis?

Dafuq?? I have an appointment with a hand specialist Monday. Doesn't seem like the right type of dr. to me.

[LightRanger]

I was saying that staph does, in fact, attack bones. When it does, they call it osteomyelitis.

It's more common in severe compound fractures. But since you know you have it, I thought I'd throw it out there.

Interested to hear how it goes.

Hope it doesn't affect the future legal education plans.

[BC13]

You may want to go to an infectious disease specialist if that does not get cleared up quickly. I'm sure you are aware that if an isolated infection hits your blood stream the whole scenario changes very quickly. I would see the hand specialist and the Infectious disease Doc. Dont trust a hand doc to be up to speed on infectious diseases.

Good luck.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using TGR Forums

[Chugachjed]

Goddamn delicious fish trying to kill me.

[huckbucket]

Don't fuck with MRSA. Nuke it from space and behead.

[PB]

Did you get a definitive diagnosis for staph? If not, get checked for mycobacterium, which is the classic hard-to-diagnose aquatic spine (fish, urchin, etc.) puncture wound infection; often gets mis-diagnosed. Relatively slow to develop, but will result in lost limbs/lives if not caught in time. Completely different AB treatment. This is serious.

[spindrift]

What BC13, huckbucket and PB said. My issue was Strep A. But once upon a time (in 2006), within 24 hours I went from planning a Mt Rainier day hike the next day to being in a coma & having 20% of me filleted off - and my blood a toxic stew. The cluster of bacteria that have a habit of causing nec fasc, sepsis, and related afflictions are nothing to screw around with. IMO, if you have been through two courses of antibiotics and this is flaring back up, get thee to a heavy duty infectious disease type ASAP. And if you have any doubt at all about their competence, get another opinion ASAP. Strangely, some of these could cause you to win an instant flight to Seattle's Harborview Medical Center...

Hopefully your thing is readily managed. But if you have a fast moving infection of this class, treat it as life and death. 'cause it is.

Just my .02 - not as a medical professional, but as a survivor. I may be paranoid. But I have good reason.

[Chugachjed]

I'm more freaked out than I was before. I definitely don't want that trip to Seattle.

[DeepHelmet]

What spindrift said. Infectious disease doc ASAP. Wife had a nasty strep infection and went from surfing in Santa cruise in the morning to discussing arm amputation the next day. Do not fuck around with that shit.

[old goat]

There could be a piece of the spine still in there that's the source of the recurring infection. It wouldn't show on xray. The key thing at this point would be to have a gram stain, culture and sensitivity--to identify what the bug is and what antibiotics it's sensitive to. That should include stain and culture for mycobacterium (what we call AFB.) If there's no pus coming out it may require surgery to get material to culture. At this point a hand surgeon is the right person to be seeing. They are very experienced in treating infections of this kind. If the bacteria is unusually resistant to antibiotics or if the bone or joint is involved the antibiotics may have to be given by vein, which can often be done without going in the hospital. An infectious disease specialist won't help at this point--they can't advise until culture results are back, and may not be necessary unless the organism is unusual or unusually resistant.

[splat]

Jed - I had a staph infection a couple years ago and my gf stopped me and took me to a health food store to get some GSE, grapefruit seed extract. Reluctant and somewhat scared because I was not going to the doc, I applied it to the infection and drank 10-20 drops in a glass of water four times a day. It cured it. Magic stuff. Not saying don't get it checked out but offering some insight no docs will likely provide. Try it.

[detrusor]

She this shit daily, go to the hand doc,at need a surgical debridement/cultures. May not be staph or may be drug resistant. ID doc after cultures back or if doesn't grow anything......

[sb]

Hope you are getting help.

[Chugachjed]

Hand specialist told me to wait till November and if it's still bugging me they'll open it up. WTF.

[splat]

Do the GSE!

[Chugachjed]

I'll try it. No open wound though.

[old goat]

So the xray must have shown no bone involvement--good sign. He (I'm presuming he) should be able to tell about the joint on exam. Sounds like the option would be to explore the thumb now--but even if there is a foreign body it can be extremely difficult to find it--or give your immune system a chance to fight the infection on it's own (or with the help of any herbal remedy you care to try) or perhaps for any remaining piece of spine to work it's way out, which sometimes happens. Surgery would likely be pretty traumatic and might not be helpful. So the advice seems reasonable to me (but of course I haven't seen the thumb myself). Certainly if the thumb continues to get worse or pus starts to drain or you're running a fever or having shaking chills or red streaks run up your arm you need to get back to the surgeon asap.

You might want to do some research on your own before you use GSE or any other herbal medicine (or any medication prescribed by a doctor for that matter), and as you are probably aware dietary supplements and herbal medicines are not regulated by the FDA , may or may not contain the substance they are purported to contain, and may contain other ingredients not listed on the label. I would guess that the great majority of supplements and herbal medications are safe (probably safer than most prescription drugs or even over the counter drugs like Tylenol) but whether they do any good is another question.

[spindrift]

... Certainly if the thumb continues to get worse or pus starts to drain or you're running a fever or having shaking chills or red streaks run up your arm you need to get back to the surgeon asap.

Reasonable observations. I'd be somewhat more paranoid, but that's just me. However, you might add being extraordinarily thirsty or feeling like you are getting the flu to the list (not to be confused with actually getting the flu... ).