Tag Archives: Antibiotics

Strange and Painful Days

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This is my legacy: broken bones, shingles, split-open legs, crazy fevers, and now I have a new one to add to the list: MRSA or staph infection in my finger.

I’m not exactly sure how I cut my finger or how it got infected, which is strange since I have high standards of hygiene, so I guess I’ll never know.

It’s already morphed into cellulitis, and while I don’t have the telltale red streaks of blood poisoning traveling up my arm YET, it’s SERIOUS.

AND EXTREMELY PAINFUL.

My finger is swollen to twice its normal size and is filled with really disgusting purulence and suppuration (look it up).

At first I followed all of the home treatment methods: soak in warm epsom salts, elevate to relieve the throbbing discomfort, and bandage with over-the-counter topical antibiotics, but at some point, I realized this wasn’t helping and I needed a medical professional, so I went to urgent care.

The doc told me I got there before I needed IV antibiotics and before it damaged the tendons in my finger, which is definitely where it was headed.

Cellulitis in a finger is a serious bacterial infection that can rapidly worsen and damage the tight compartments of the hand, requiring prompt medical treatment with antibiotics.

Why Finger Cellulitis is Dangerous:

  • Fast Spreading: The hand and fingers contain tight spaces. Infections can spread quickly through these areas compared to looser tissue on other parts of the body.
  • Permanent Damage Risk: Severe or untreated infections can harm tendons, nerves, and joints, which may permanently affect finger movement and hand function.
  • Deep Tissue and Systemic Spread: The bacteria can move up the hand and arm, or enter the bloodstream, potentially leading to deep bone infections (osteomyelitis) or life-threatening sepsis.

Now I’m taking a hefty dose of Keflex for the bacterial infection, along with Mupirocin ointment directly on the open wound which is now repulsively draining.

Oral antibiotics and I do not agree with each other, but I’m willing to overlook the headaches and digestive issues because I don’t want to lose a finger or a hand, or have the infection travel to my heart or brain. I need all of my brain cells; I don’t have many to spare.

I have another appointment with the doc tomorrow to see if it’s improved and whether or not it’ll need to be excised and drained. ICK.

Weather update: Still hot, but there’s a bit of cloud cover. and that helps.

PS What’s up with WordPress tags? I’m not sure I like the changes, do you?

Downward Spiral

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If you read about my non-conversation with a haughty school secretary, you might remember I had a bit of a mild cold, but NOT Covid.

Well…on Saturday night the landscape changed. I started to run a low grade fever, went to bed, woke up wracked with chills and my temp had climbed to 102. I was nauseous and developed a very ugly, very productive cough (TMI, I know.)

With my asthma and history of viral lung infections, I had an idea that I now had a secondary bacterial infection.

All day Sunday I tried to lower my temp with acetominophen since I can’t take ibuprofen but my chest wasn’t feeling particularly great.

Early Monday morning I was able to schedule a video appointment with the doc who ordered a chest x-ray.

And just like that, the diagnosis was bilateral pneumonia!

Doc said I was very lucky. My proactive attention to the symptoms stopped me from having to be hospitalized, that’s how bad it was becoming.

That is my WORST nightmare, for sure. With a mom for a nurse, I’ve heard too many horror stories to want to end up at the mercy of strangers, no matter how talented or dedicated they may be to the craft of nursing.

Being hospitalized also triggers memories of my son’s near death experience and I literally can’t stand the smell or the bright lights or the constant sounds.

So now I’m taking two kinds of antibiotics which I also hate because I don’t tolerate them well, but no steroids because I have even worse reactions to them. I’m also taking probiotics because I definitely don’t want to contract C-difficile, which is what my son suffered from AFTER his surgery. We almost lost my precious boy twice.

How it went so quickly from a slight sore throat and congestion to full blown pneumonia in two days, I’ll never know.

There’s always a silver lining though, right? At least the x-rays showed no pleural effusion or pneumothorax and the cardiomediastinal silhouette is stable. (You medical professionals will know this is good news.)

But the real life lesson here is to never stop being your own best medical advocate. I’m only giving myself permission to have one more day of feeling poorly (and slightly sorry for myself.)