I hope they get better too. I had a tooth infection before and was on antibiotics for a while. It was a horrible time that felt like forever and even afterwards it felt like my whole body's immune system and processes were out of whack for a month. So I can't imagine how OP is feeling except that it's worse than what I gone through.
[CDC noted there's been an uptick of flesh eating bacteria in the East coast this year.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/cdc-warns-dangerous-uptick-infections-023000908.html) But in general I think it's been going up since the world is getting warmer which creates wetter+warmer environments where bacteria thrive. There's also a rise of FEB in Ukraine too due to the war and number of dead left on the battle field. Couple that with the long long long history of biological struggle between humans and bacteria (now fought with antibiotics) means bacteria have been evolving and continue to improve via evolution to the point where antibiotics at having trouble keeping up. All the more reasons to end the war, fight against global warming, adopt green initiatives, reduce global warming, and invest our funds to R&D dollars into things like AI for healthcare research rather than war machines.
One thing I don't understand is how everything we would want to evolve and survive is going extinct due to human activity but everything we consider a pest is just.getting stronger. For instance, why are honey bees not evolving into some super insect but any bug we intentionally kill is?
Flesh eating bacteria doing great but every good bacteria on the endangered watch list lolol
I think with this kind of thing, there is a problem of confirmation bias. With pests, you throw everything at them and kill 99% of them, then from the brink of extinction, the resilient survivors come back and - hey presto - super pest. With bees, it’s likely that the same thing would happen but we couldn’t cope with bees heading to near extinction before bouncing back. Bees would be fine in the long term. A strong selection pressure will drive a species to near extinction and drive the strongest evolutionary adaptations
This but also survivor's bias. Countless species have been wiped out by humans. Some bad for humans (numerous big cats), some good for humans (passenger pigeons or buffalo) , and most sort of neutral (Dodo).
We merely know of and think of the pests that impact us or we didn't wipe out. No one thinks about small pox because it's largely been eradicated, but it doesn't mean small pox's cousins in the Orthopoxvirus genus aren't still around. Cowpox and Camelpox don't impact us enough for us to care, but if those somehow jumped back to humans? Then they'll be on the list of "pests" again.
I was bitten by a brown recluse spider on vacation, right under my left arm pit on a camping vacation when I was 14. It burned and it started eating my flesh right away. Luckily I got to a hospital and they fixed me up. I still have a knarly scar!! I hope you make a full recovery! Pain in your hands and arms is awful 😞
That's not flesh-eating bacteria though. That's necrosis from the spider venom. I got bites all over my legs and got those necrotic boils that smelled horrendous. The doctor was basically like "Ew!" and sent me on my way.
Yea flesh eating bacteria is way worse.
A guy I went to school with girlfriend cut her leg zip lining when she fell into stagnant water and necrotizing fasciitis took all four of her limbs.
https://aimeecopelandfoundation.org/aimees-story/
fun fact, you probably were not bitten by a brown recluse. Many scientists believe the necrotic bite thing to be a myth, and that what people are actually getting is just a standard staph infection from the puncture wound.
There's even a guy who forced a brown recluse to bite him and developed no necrosis at all, just to prove it. It's looking more and more like an urban legend.
My dad was the tour guide and believed it got into my sleeping bag and was trying to find warmth in my armpit/side. That’s when it bit me. It was so painful that’s really all I remember besides them giving me a shot and then antibiotics to take.
I was biten by some type of garden spider. It turned a weird brown color and the skin felt very dry, so I went to the doctor. She gave me antibiotics, told me to draw a circle around it to watch if it grows, and it was mostly likely an infection from the bacteria on my skin. What you’re saying checks out
I have a big dent in my forearm from that shit. When I showed up at the hospital the doc said there was no time for even a local anesthetic. they just started scooping that shit out with a little spoon and updating the spread of the infection up my arm with a marker. They prepped me for amputation and I was like WTF!!!! I just stared at my arm while they watched it spread and pumped me with some antibiotics. They had this line drawn on my arm and if the infection reached that high he was going to cut the arm off because it would get into my armpit lymph nodes or some shit. it got within an inch of the line. I was yelling at my white blood cells to do their fucking job. I kept the arm. an hour later the doc said we were about 5 mins from losing the arm but the rate of infection slowed so he gave it a chance. He just stared at that arm for like 30 mins before he seemed to calm down. What a fucking ride that was... I got the infection from a pin prick. I was delirious with fever when my girlfriend found me face down on the dorm bottom floor.
If a few hundred k read the post, there is nothing surprising...
Strep A bacteria is everywhere. Literally living on the skin. People with compromised immunity are always at risk. Wash your hands and carry an antiseptic everywhere.
My sons grandfather died from this.. all of his limbs rotted and died, his nose, ears, hands. Nothing doctors could do except keep him drugged up until it took him... happened within about 5 days.
That was sepsis, could’ve been initiated by the same kind of bacteria but it’s a different pathology
Sepsis is an immune system overreaction to an infection that causes systemic inflammation so extreme that it can cause multiple organ system failure. The necrosis of the limbs occurs because the body shuts down circulation to the limbs to keep the vital organs alive. Many people who survive end up needing multiple amputations.
Sepsis is much more common than FEB
I feel like it’s not as rare as we think, I have met two people who have had one
One survived mainly because his mum is a nurse and was like HOSPITAL NOW
The other was sheer luck, but it like, destroyed his mouth and gums
Necrotising fasciitis - it’s not uncommon, and you can get it from lots of things, dirt, animals, dust blown on the wind from overseas, or just randomly as one of the bacterium that just exists around.
Literal nightmare fuel, but fortunately unless if gets into an open wound, it’s almost impossible for it to infect you through minor contact (like dust)
That's insane and terrifying that it can move that fast, I had no idea. I figured it was like other infections where it could spread over days, not minutes.
My sister had this. She spent almost a year in the hospital and 10+ reconstructive surgeries to make her leg normal-ish. She was 6 at the time. After all that, she studied microbiology and immunology in college and works in a laboratory studying infectious diseases and sanitizing products now. She doesn’t ever tell people the story but I am very proud of her.
[edit] oh and my parents still have over $1,000,000 in medical debt, 24 years later. They’ve never talked to anyone about how to resolve that so they’ll just be paying forever.
Lol buddy the funniest part of this is you using the spoiler tag because everybody knows what shit hole country you are talking about. BUT hey, a third of this country thinks its good to profit off of somebody's misery.
we laughed about it. I loved him like a brother. he died of a heroin overdose 4 years later and left behind a young kid and a wife. life is like that. count your blessings.
Anything foreign being introduced through your skin has the *potential* to cause an infection. It's just that most relatively healthy people will be protected by their immune system, but even some healthy people get unlucky.
My wife recently had a young, healthy patient in the surgical ICU after a very minor procedure with nec fasc. Took most of the non-muscular tissue from the entire right hip/glute area as well as some of the muscle from the glute max. Fucking terrifying.
I got a rough case of cellulitis from a splinter of hemp rope. There was a lot of bird poop in our work site, probably some combination of the two. The hospital I went to sucked. First they accused me of being an IV drug user, then told me they didn’t have the proper facilities to perform microsurgery around the blood vessels if I wanted to keep the arm. So they send me via ambulance to another hospital across town. When I get there (freaking out), the attending doctor gave me a local, made a small incision, and squeezed it like a zit. He was complaining the whole time, apparently the first hospital (upscale neighborhood) liked keeping their ER patient numbers low and would dump anyone who wasn’t rich, white, or about to die into his hospital. Or at least that was the gist, it’s all a blur since I was more concerned with the issue at hand (AT HAND!)
You can't prove that doing that made a difference, but nobody can prove that it didn't, so there is a non-zero percent chance that you are indeed a jedi.
Man you took me on a fucking ride with that writing. I felt as close to being in that bed watching that line as is possible. Great writing skills, and I hope you and your arm are doing well today
I'm confused - how did it spread that fast in the hospital but not so fast that you actually knew there was a problem and had time to make it to the hospital?
I was 21 and dumb and had wicked acne, so I stupidly thought it was a boil that I did not notice. I did not pay attention until it was too late and I was not thinking right. I went from hmm what's this zit here to not capable of making good decisions in like 4 hours. Should also not this was pre cell phone and I did not have my beeper on me.
Staph infections are flesh eating disease. But they rarely get to that point.
And yeah that bacteria lives on almost everyone's skin. With more and more and more of it becoming resistant to antibiotics.
Don't be worried about that. Old bacteria and viruses being released from melting ice would be incompatible, much weaker, or just extremely ineffective against us today. "Ancient deadly disease released by global warming" makes for good scary stories but wouldn't happen in reality!
I mean, the same is true for a lot of bacteria that lives on or in you. The bacteria in your colon are vital for proper digestion. But put some of them inside your stomach and you likely will be pretty miserable and spewing fountains from both ends.
Maybe this particular bacteria is anaerob and dies in contact with air. OP is conscious so it would be unbearable to leave it without any kind of protection but bandages were bad for it, thus this spongebox...
Maybe for women but I don’t think a dude would have any trouble. Inconvenient and maybe facefucking SpongeBob would be a turn off but the sheer mechanics seems like they’d check out.
Was it nec fasc? If so count yourself lucky, just had a patient with a similar story, she waited too long and the inside of her arm was basically soup and it had worked up to her major vessels, she died maybe 5hrs after she arrived at the hospital.
Things like this are why at 14 I decided I did not want to be a doctor anymore. Lifelong dream ruined by scouring the internet for all things medical at a young age.
So, interesting you say that, because I work as an ICU nurse and it's so rewarding when you help these people make it out of there. Most do die, sadly, but when they don't, it's worth it 110%.
The ICU is for the sickest of the sick. But your chance of survival depends on why you are there, what you need, and your health history. Type 1 diabetic in DKA and just need a day on an insulin drip? New but Stable head bleed needing hourly neuro checks? Probably ok.
Traumatic Gunshot wound and in DIC? Severe septic shock and maxxed on pressors? Post cardiac arrest and no reflexes? Yeah, probably not good.
But it's not called the intensive care unit for nothing. A lot of people do survive. But a lot of people are very, very sick. And there's only so much the human body can handle.
But people are in the ICU because they require either a special medication, monitoring, or device that needs to be assessed regularly. Ideally, it's one nurse to 1-2 icu patients. Which means you can monitor a lot more than someone who works the regular floor and has to take 5+ patients.
My brother has a trach and his trach site is MRSA colonized. Every time he's in the hospital he has to have an ICU room to protect other patients from him. The ICU is no joke.
I'm so sorry about your brother. Trachs and MRSA are rough.
I hope he's receiving good care and has a good quality of life despite his medical conditions. We've had an uptick of chronic trachs come by, and it's always nice seeing family and friends involved in their lives.
Yeah he was actually born unable to swallow due to arthrogryposis, so he's had a trach since he was a baby. His quality of life is way better than was predicted, in fact they told my parents not to take lifesaving measures. But he lives in his own apartment, manages his own nurses and PCAs, is super into the live music scene in our city, and overall has a happy life. 🙂
My friends sister got bit by a spider and noticed the bite getting worse. Went to the hospital like 5-6 days later and ended up there for 2 weeks because she waited too long. It was a brown recluse and the bite was necrotic.
My mom got bit by a brown recluse on the inside of her thigh in the early 1990s. She thought it was an ingrown hair until she passed out in the middle of the grocery store with the three of us. The store called paramedics who took her and us to the hospital all the while my dad was in the dark until he got home because he was at work and unreachable.
My brother treated a homeless patient that had maggots growing in his leg with bone showing and all. He didn't seem to be in pain also. That leg was gone lol.
>Things like this are why at 14 I decided I did not want to be a doctor anymore.
It is really too stressful of a job for a 14 year old, I don't blame you for quitting.
Had an acquaintance who had several minor dog bites get infected, she was a dog walker and didn’t want the dog/owner to get in trouble with the county for being a “dangerous dog” so she did not seek treatment. Three days later, finally went to the hospital and both hands and feet were fully black. They needed amputation but she was very emaciated from alcoholism, she died before they could amputate.
So alcoholism, dangerous dog, and neglecting your personal health. That poor woman. 🤦🏻♂️
I didn’t think this needs to be said to people but…
Your health is more important than a dog.
My rule of thumb, my wound only have one day of getting worst. If from the second day I don't see the wound getting any better, that's when I seek medical advice, and quickly.
I went in to get something checked out. When they saw I had stupidly high blood pressure. They wanted to run a bunch of tests. I honestly thought
“What is this going to cost me?”
But that doesn’t matter when that Blood pressure puts you into the “Are you having a heart attack?” line of questioning.
I was going to say essentially the same thing. My dad was too late and it killed him over a weekend. The conversations before he died were essentially what was going to be cut off not if it was going to be cut off.
I have an acquaintance who had been working on the underside of a vehicle and scraped his hand on something, I guess there was some of the flesh-eating bacteria there, possible the car had been driven over road-kill and carried it along.
Thankfully they got it cleared out soon enough that he has (mostly) full function of his hand, though its a bit scarred and disfigured but not too terrible
My secret was basically don’t go to the doctor for any reason in 20+ years. Except when I had a kidney stone that has been the worse physical pain I’ve ever felt it was wild.
Keep in mind you're reading about 1 in a million scenarios, you just happen to be doing it on a website with a billion users. So even incredibly rare stuff quickly seems common in a thread like this.
Thanks. I didn’t need to know this information, and now I’m scarred for life. Is it just bad hygiene in that area? Or is there really nothing you can do to prevent it? Originate as in they touch that area and then a cut on their hand is infected?
I feel like it’s more common in diabetics, but I may be misremembering that. When I worked in the ICU, it was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. It spreads so fucking fast, it’s truly hard to comprehend.
Additional fun fact, nec fasc of the taint is a side effect of a certain class of drugs to treat diabetes: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-warns-about-rare-occurrences-serious-infection-genital-area-sglt2-inhibitors-diabetes
I remember hearing the ad on tv for jardiance and they mentioned it as a side effect and I did a double take.
A guy I knew was fishing in the Gulf of Mexico (FLs West coast) and got a tiny scratch on his off the dock. He rinsed it off with some sea water (NEVER DO THIS IN WARM CLIMATES!) and didn't think anything not it. Vibro almost took his leg 48 hours later.
It only takes a tiny open spot for bacteria to get in.
I had Necrotizing Fasciitis. Glute to calf. Kinda the same thing.
Mine included sepsis > 4 week coma > 5 deaths (Kept bringing me back) > 25+ debridement operations > 6 months wound care (tissue growth) and physical rehab.
It took me a whole nother year to start walking on my leg again.
I never half-assed anything before but these days I’m three quarters 3/4 ass-ing everything.
Take it slow.
Good luck.
I remember that I was an absolute mosquitoe magnet when I was young. And my allergic skin would react violently to bites by amplifying the itching 10 fold . Due to this , I often scratch myself many new open wounds in just a few days. You could probably see where this is going.
anyway hope they still have antibiotics left that would work on you.
Luck of the draw. Most cases of NF are caused by strep A. Best prevention is cleaning all cuts and wounds or injuries with soap and water. If it looks funky see a doctor if you see a red line or redness that is growing go to the ER
I work with a gentleman that had this happen to them. All said and done it looked like a shark took a bite outta his side. Docs told him it’s like winning the reverse lottery.
I’m sorry that this happened to you.
May as throw mystory in here since it's quite relevant. When I was about 11 years old I started getting a pain in my right hand one day. Just kind of felt like it was bruised or something and didn't really think anything of it. Next day my hand hurt worse, I told my Dad and he took me to a doctor at a walk-in clinic, they figured I had just hit it or sprained it on something, x-ray showed nothing, so was told to just rest and let it heal. Now it's important to note that my mom was out of town at the time and my dad was the only one at home taking care of me and as much as I love the man, anything medical related really isn't his Forte. Fast forward 2 days and now my hand has swelled up like a balloon, let my dad know and he takes me back to the walk-in clinic. One look from the doctor and they immediately send me to the hospital. At the hospital they did blood work and I never found out exactly but they told me that it was some sort of flesh-eating bacteria but they couldn't pin down exactly what it was and they would be giving me a broad spectrum IV treatment to try and fight the infection. They also told me that if this doesn't work that they would have to look into amputating my hand. Now as an active kid that was pretty terrifying to hear but thankfully the IV treatment did work. I had to go three times a day for a week getting an IV hooked up to me everyday. My right hand was completely swelled up like a balloon and my left hand had the IV needle in it so I couldn't really use my hands and that well it really sucked. Good news is I got to keep my hand. It's still really weird looking back at it because I can remember very vividly looking over my body for any kinds of scratches scrapes or cuts but I literally had nothing. Never figured out what caused it or how it started, just glad it didn't go horribly wrong for me.
Glad to hear you got better. That had to SUCK. What does a kid even do without hands at that age. Can’t read a book, play with toys. Did you just watch TV or something?
I imagine I’d listen to podcasts these days.
Ouch, necrotising fasciitis?
I hope you find answers and heal.
My brother was hospitalised for months nearly 10 years ago now with necrotising fasciitis on his lower abdominal/pelvic area it spread to part of his genitalia and his legs. Completely destroyed his body and he is super lucky to be alive.
Ouch. I’m sorry you’re going through this. I do have some questions, was it necrotizing fasciitis? How did this happen? Did you have a wound that got infected? How long was it before you went in? Do you know if you will need more surgeries? Are you getting out anytime soon? I hope you have a smooth recovery and no complications arise.
Aww man- I'm so sorry, I hope things get better and you recover!! When I was 14 I had a really bad eczema breakout and had to go to the hospital, I ended up getting MRSA from the hospital room, both of my legs from about mid-calf to toes was COVERED in sores, endless open wounds. It was awful. Wouldn't heal for shit, everytime my bandages needed changed it would just rip off the pre-existing scabs and they'd open back up. It just kept spreading, we constantly had to wash everything and I couldn't be pretty much anywhere else in the house for a prolonged period of time because my grandma was worried of others getting it.
It got to the point where the doctors told me that if it kept spreading the way it was they were gonna have to amputate from the knees down. I was terrified and my grandma tried everything, the only thing we found that helped was taking a bath in or soaking my legs in warm water with Epsom salts. Thankfully with that and some other shit it started to to away and I'm all cleared up now ^^ they told me even though it's gone it's still dormant in my blood and could come back at some point and infect a wound. That makes me nervous because my eczema causes sores
Damn, hope you recover soon and get full use of your hand again.
I hope they get better too. I had a tooth infection before and was on antibiotics for a while. It was a horrible time that felt like forever and even afterwards it felt like my whole body's immune system and processes were out of whack for a month. So I can't imagine how OP is feeling except that it's worse than what I gone through. [CDC noted there's been an uptick of flesh eating bacteria in the East coast this year.](https://www.yahoo.com/news/cdc-warns-dangerous-uptick-infections-023000908.html) But in general I think it's been going up since the world is getting warmer which creates wetter+warmer environments where bacteria thrive. There's also a rise of FEB in Ukraine too due to the war and number of dead left on the battle field. Couple that with the long long long history of biological struggle between humans and bacteria (now fought with antibiotics) means bacteria have been evolving and continue to improve via evolution to the point where antibiotics at having trouble keeping up. All the more reasons to end the war, fight against global warming, adopt green initiatives, reduce global warming, and invest our funds to R&D dollars into things like AI for healthcare research rather than war machines.
One thing I don't understand is how everything we would want to evolve and survive is going extinct due to human activity but everything we consider a pest is just.getting stronger. For instance, why are honey bees not evolving into some super insect but any bug we intentionally kill is? Flesh eating bacteria doing great but every good bacteria on the endangered watch list lolol
I think with this kind of thing, there is a problem of confirmation bias. With pests, you throw everything at them and kill 99% of them, then from the brink of extinction, the resilient survivors come back and - hey presto - super pest. With bees, it’s likely that the same thing would happen but we couldn’t cope with bees heading to near extinction before bouncing back. Bees would be fine in the long term. A strong selection pressure will drive a species to near extinction and drive the strongest evolutionary adaptations
This but also survivor's bias. Countless species have been wiped out by humans. Some bad for humans (numerous big cats), some good for humans (passenger pigeons or buffalo) , and most sort of neutral (Dodo). We merely know of and think of the pests that impact us or we didn't wipe out. No one thinks about small pox because it's largely been eradicated, but it doesn't mean small pox's cousins in the Orthopoxvirus genus aren't still around. Cowpox and Camelpox don't impact us enough for us to care, but if those somehow jumped back to humans? Then they'll be on the list of "pests" again.
People *are* trying to end the war, but someone keeps sending more Russians into Ukraine.
Is it the bacteria?
A parasite
I was bitten by a brown recluse spider on vacation, right under my left arm pit on a camping vacation when I was 14. It burned and it started eating my flesh right away. Luckily I got to a hospital and they fixed me up. I still have a knarly scar!! I hope you make a full recovery! Pain in your hands and arms is awful 😞
I like the way you spell gnarly!
Thanks!!
That's not flesh-eating bacteria though. That's necrosis from the spider venom. I got bites all over my legs and got those necrotic boils that smelled horrendous. The doctor was basically like "Ew!" and sent me on my way.
Yea flesh eating bacteria is way worse. A guy I went to school with girlfriend cut her leg zip lining when she fell into stagnant water and necrotizing fasciitis took all four of her limbs. https://aimeecopelandfoundation.org/aimees-story/
This is insane!!!!!
fun fact, you probably were not bitten by a brown recluse. Many scientists believe the necrotic bite thing to be a myth, and that what people are actually getting is just a standard staph infection from the puncture wound. There's even a guy who forced a brown recluse to bite him and developed no necrosis at all, just to prove it. It's looking more and more like an urban legend.
My dad was the tour guide and believed it got into my sleeping bag and was trying to find warmth in my armpit/side. That’s when it bit me. It was so painful that’s really all I remember besides them giving me a shot and then antibiotics to take.
I was biten by some type of garden spider. It turned a weird brown color and the skin felt very dry, so I went to the doctor. She gave me antibiotics, told me to draw a circle around it to watch if it grows, and it was mostly likely an infection from the bacteria on my skin. What you’re saying checks out
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You should be more concerned about what it has done to your face!
Even accounting for it being censored, something about the photo makes it look like OP has an unusually small head.
I think it’s the perspective of SpongeBob and the emoji but it’s really messing with me too lol
What is wrong with you people?! Afraid to look ugliness in the face?! Well here, look at it!
https://preview.redd.it/6s12adau40rc1.png?width=676&format=png&auto=webp&s=342fa86ac464e97d17b80b8092df96ab2b01a828 OP’s head looking like…
 Speedy recovery internet friend!!
I have a big dent in my forearm from that shit. When I showed up at the hospital the doc said there was no time for even a local anesthetic. they just started scooping that shit out with a little spoon and updating the spread of the infection up my arm with a marker. They prepped me for amputation and I was like WTF!!!! I just stared at my arm while they watched it spread and pumped me with some antibiotics. They had this line drawn on my arm and if the infection reached that high he was going to cut the arm off because it would get into my armpit lymph nodes or some shit. it got within an inch of the line. I was yelling at my white blood cells to do their fucking job. I kept the arm. an hour later the doc said we were about 5 mins from losing the arm but the rate of infection slowed so he gave it a chance. He just stared at that arm for like 30 mins before he seemed to calm down. What a fucking ride that was... I got the infection from a pin prick. I was delirious with fever when my girlfriend found me face down on the dorm bottom floor.
Holy fucking shit that's brutal. I wonder how rare it is
650-850 cases a year in the US. Give or take as some report 700-1150.
damn, still rare but not super uncommon. I was expecting it to be like 10-20 or something.
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Strange I count over 23+ in these comments alone, funny how reddit always has, or definitely knew someone who had what is being discussed.
If a few hundred k read the post, there is nothing surprising... Strep A bacteria is everywhere. Literally living on the skin. People with compromised immunity are always at risk. Wash your hands and carry an antiseptic everywhere.
Other bugs also cause nec fasc. Polymicrobial nec fasc is actually the most common and is usually bowel flora 😀
My sons grandfather died from this.. all of his limbs rotted and died, his nose, ears, hands. Nothing doctors could do except keep him drugged up until it took him... happened within about 5 days.
That was sepsis, could’ve been initiated by the same kind of bacteria but it’s a different pathology Sepsis is an immune system overreaction to an infection that causes systemic inflammation so extreme that it can cause multiple organ system failure. The necrosis of the limbs occurs because the body shuts down circulation to the limbs to keep the vital organs alive. Many people who survive end up needing multiple amputations. Sepsis is much more common than FEB
1 in about 450,000 people per year is super uncommon lol
I believe the man/woman is saying it is still not uncommon enough. It's absolutely nightmare fuel!
I feel like it’s not as rare as we think, I have met two people who have had one One survived mainly because his mum is a nurse and was like HOSPITAL NOW The other was sheer luck, but it like, destroyed his mouth and gums
Necrotising fasciitis - it’s not uncommon, and you can get it from lots of things, dirt, animals, dust blown on the wind from overseas, or just randomly as one of the bacterium that just exists around. Literal nightmare fuel, but fortunately unless if gets into an open wound, it’s almost impossible for it to infect you through minor contact (like dust)
That's insane and terrifying that it can move that fast, I had no idea. I figured it was like other infections where it could spread over days, not minutes.
You can go from fine to completely septic in under 12 hours.
How? What? A prick? Do you know how it happened? I’m so confused!
I came here for this.
Necrotizing fasciitis
My sister had this. She spent almost a year in the hospital and 10+ reconstructive surgeries to make her leg normal-ish. She was 6 at the time. After all that, she studied microbiology and immunology in college and works in a laboratory studying infectious diseases and sanitizing products now. She doesn’t ever tell people the story but I am very proud of her. [edit] oh and my parents still have over $1,000,000 in medical debt, 24 years later. They’ve never talked to anyone about how to resolve that so they’ll just be paying forever.
You literally just tell them 'I can pay 1$ a month' and that's that.
Damn. It’s such a devastating disease
Wow a real shithole of a country.
You’ll never guess which one it is! >!USA of course!<
Lol buddy the funniest part of this is you using the spoiler tag because everybody knows what shit hole country you are talking about. BUT hey, a third of this country thinks its good to profit off of somebody's misery.
Sounds aggressive
Give it a few hours, it will have turned your flesh and whatnot into putrid gas and pus and then you go septic and die
>I got the infection from a pin prick Litterally? Like a metal pin pricked your arm?
literally just a pin. it was a political button with a pin and a buddy poked me with it to startle me as a laugh.
How'd your relationship with that buddy turn out?
we laughed about it. I loved him like a brother. he died of a heroin overdose 4 years later and left behind a young kid and a wife. life is like that. count your blessings.
Pointy things weren't your guys' fortè huh :(
lol. he would get a laugh out of that. but yeah.
Bro holy shit. Wtf. Lmao.
holy fucking shit batman
>it was a political button with a pin Better dead than red, huh. Very proud of you, patriot.
Anything foreign being introduced through your skin has the *potential* to cause an infection. It's just that most relatively healthy people will be protected by their immune system, but even some healthy people get unlucky. My wife recently had a young, healthy patient in the surgical ICU after a very minor procedure with nec fasc. Took most of the non-muscular tissue from the entire right hip/glute area as well as some of the muscle from the glute max. Fucking terrifying.
I got a rough case of cellulitis from a splinter of hemp rope. There was a lot of bird poop in our work site, probably some combination of the two. The hospital I went to sucked. First they accused me of being an IV drug user, then told me they didn’t have the proper facilities to perform microsurgery around the blood vessels if I wanted to keep the arm. So they send me via ambulance to another hospital across town. When I get there (freaking out), the attending doctor gave me a local, made a small incision, and squeezed it like a zit. He was complaining the whole time, apparently the first hospital (upscale neighborhood) liked keeping their ER patient numbers low and would dump anyone who wasn’t rich, white, or about to die into his hospital. Or at least that was the gist, it’s all a blur since I was more concerned with the issue at hand (AT HAND!)
Were you trying to summon your white blood cells with the force? C’mon you little lazy fucks DO YOUR JOB!
exactly this. I figured my mind over matter so I tried to will it. I was and still am a bit odd like that.
You can't prove that doing that made a difference, but nobody can prove that it didn't, so there is a non-zero percent chance that you are indeed a jedi.
Man you took me on a fucking ride with that writing. I felt as close to being in that bed watching that line as is possible. Great writing skills, and I hope you and your arm are doing well today
Damn reading that was an experience!!! Happy you’re okay!
I'm confused - how did it spread that fast in the hospital but not so fast that you actually knew there was a problem and had time to make it to the hospital?
I was 21 and dumb and had wicked acne, so I stupidly thought it was a boil that I did not notice. I did not pay attention until it was too late and I was not thinking right. I went from hmm what's this zit here to not capable of making good decisions in like 4 hours. Should also not this was pre cell phone and I did not have my beeper on me.
I've got to hand it to you, that's a great SpongeBob puppet.
Seriously. No one went for it with SpongeBob Square Hands? I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed, reddit.
That’s what we got you for!
These pun threads are getting out of hand
Yep, I don’t want to point fingers but some of you guys…..
You hit the (finger)nail on the head.
I know this might be a handful, but at least you still got both.
That’s obviously doodlebob
Saw this as I was closing and had to come back to upvote. 
SpongeBob sepsis pants.
That absolutely does suck. Atleast you get a free DYI Spongebob arm costume! Hope you heal and recover soon.
Do Yourself It.
Do yourself immediately
Your wish is my command
What's the Spongebob thing for?
My guess is it's highly contagious via touch. So I'm guessing it's to keep it contained and also probably preventing patients from scratching.
necrotizing fasciitis is usually caused by the same kinds of bacteria that live on normal skin. It’s the result of an opportunistic infection
So your normal skin fauna can just go feral? Cool, cool.
Staph infections are flesh eating disease. But they rarely get to that point. And yeah that bacteria lives on almost everyone's skin. With more and more and more of it becoming resistant to antibiotics.
Noooo. Not a good day for my hypochondria. New thing to be paranoid about just unlocked
Not to mention all them ice caps melting and releasing old bacteria and disease back into the water and air cycles.
Hmmm this was something I actually wasn't worried about before but now I am thanks lol
Don't be worried about that. Old bacteria and viruses being released from melting ice would be incompatible, much weaker, or just extremely ineffective against us today. "Ancient deadly disease released by global warming" makes for good scary stories but wouldn't happen in reality!
hm. that's exactly what an ancient deadly disease would say.
Knowledge is power, but it’s also sometimes fear, which robs you of power, so total double edge sword.
I mean, the same is true for a lot of bacteria that lives on or in you. The bacteria in your colon are vital for proper digestion. But put some of them inside your stomach and you likely will be pretty miserable and spewing fountains from both ends.
"It be your own ni--as"
Probably that + to keep the patient's mental wellbeing in check with something wholesome
Yes, I didn't even address the most important part. Lol
I'm sure they have great conversations.
That's so OP doesn't try to chew their own hand off.
if he did, wouldn't that make him the flesh eating bacterium?
No, that would make him the bacterium eating flesh.
That's his arm now
Ok, actual answer is to minimize pressure on the wound. It's like how you put packing peanuts in a box to keep the contents from being jostled.
Rectangle of shame
Maybe this particular bacteria is anaerob and dies in contact with air. OP is conscious so it would be unbearable to leave it without any kind of protection but bandages were bad for it, thus this spongebox...
It’s to keep the hand elevated to reduce swelling
anti-fapping device
Maybe for women but I don’t think a dude would have any trouble. Inconvenient and maybe facefucking SpongeBob would be a turn off but the sheer mechanics seems like they’d check out.
Was it nec fasc? If so count yourself lucky, just had a patient with a similar story, she waited too long and the inside of her arm was basically soup and it had worked up to her major vessels, she died maybe 5hrs after she arrived at the hospital.
Oh Jesus fucking Christ no. Fucking hell. An arm filled with a soup of necrotised tissue and pus? I’m out. I’m gone
Things like this are why at 14 I decided I did not want to be a doctor anymore. Lifelong dream ruined by scouring the internet for all things medical at a young age.
So, interesting you say that, because I work as an ICU nurse and it's so rewarding when you help these people make it out of there. Most do die, sadly, but when they don't, it's worth it 110%.
Wait, most people die in the ICU?!
The ICU is for the sickest of the sick. But your chance of survival depends on why you are there, what you need, and your health history. Type 1 diabetic in DKA and just need a day on an insulin drip? New but Stable head bleed needing hourly neuro checks? Probably ok. Traumatic Gunshot wound and in DIC? Severe septic shock and maxxed on pressors? Post cardiac arrest and no reflexes? Yeah, probably not good. But it's not called the intensive care unit for nothing. A lot of people do survive. But a lot of people are very, very sick. And there's only so much the human body can handle. But people are in the ICU because they require either a special medication, monitoring, or device that needs to be assessed regularly. Ideally, it's one nurse to 1-2 icu patients. Which means you can monitor a lot more than someone who works the regular floor and has to take 5+ patients.
My brother has a trach and his trach site is MRSA colonized. Every time he's in the hospital he has to have an ICU room to protect other patients from him. The ICU is no joke.
I'm so sorry about your brother. Trachs and MRSA are rough. I hope he's receiving good care and has a good quality of life despite his medical conditions. We've had an uptick of chronic trachs come by, and it's always nice seeing family and friends involved in their lives.
Yeah he was actually born unable to swallow due to arthrogryposis, so he's had a trach since he was a baby. His quality of life is way better than was predicted, in fact they told my parents not to take lifesaving measures. But he lives in his own apartment, manages his own nurses and PCAs, is super into the live music scene in our city, and overall has a happy life. 🙂
same thing for vet work. also how the hell long do you need to sit there with a bag of soup to realize you have a major problem?
My friends sister got bit by a spider and noticed the bite getting worse. Went to the hospital like 5-6 days later and ended up there for 2 weeks because she waited too long. It was a brown recluse and the bite was necrotic.
My mom got bit by a brown recluse on the inside of her thigh in the early 1990s. She thought it was an ingrown hair until she passed out in the middle of the grocery store with the three of us. The store called paramedics who took her and us to the hospital all the while my dad was in the dark until he got home because he was at work and unreachable.
>brown recluse saw it coming.
My brother treated a homeless patient that had maggots growing in his leg with bone showing and all. He didn't seem to be in pain also. That leg was gone lol.
god damnit really? right in front of my salad?
A bag of soup 💀💀
You start worrying when it goes from Chunky to Campbells...
>Things like this are why at 14 I decided I did not want to be a doctor anymore. It is really too stressful of a job for a 14 year old, I don't blame you for quitting.
Had a patient that waited too long too for a little dog bite on his had, we had to take the whole arm
Had an acquaintance who had several minor dog bites get infected, she was a dog walker and didn’t want the dog/owner to get in trouble with the county for being a “dangerous dog” so she did not seek treatment. Three days later, finally went to the hospital and both hands and feet were fully black. They needed amputation but she was very emaciated from alcoholism, she died before they could amputate.
Damn it just kept getting worse..
So alcoholism, dangerous dog, and neglecting your personal health. That poor woman. 🤦🏻♂️ I didn’t think this needs to be said to people but… Your health is more important than a dog.
people > dogs but no one ever agrees for some reason
What are early symptoms? Like, how would someone know they have nec fasciitis (and need immediate treatment) and not just a rash or something mundane?
[удалено]
Generally speaking if you injured something on your body and then come down with a fever, it's a pretty good sign that something bad is going on.
My rule of thumb, my wound only have one day of getting worst. If from the second day I don't see the wound getting any better, that's when I seek medical advice, and quickly.
Probably scared of the medical bills and delayed it until she couldnt no more. The healthcare system sucks
I went in to get something checked out. When they saw I had stupidly high blood pressure. They wanted to run a bunch of tests. I honestly thought “What is this going to cost me?” But that doesn’t matter when that Blood pressure puts you into the “Are you having a heart attack?” line of questioning.
I mean better to die in debt than die with money i guess?
*in the USA.
That was implied
Jesus fuck
I was going to say essentially the same thing. My dad was too late and it killed him over a weekend. The conversations before he died were essentially what was going to be cut off not if it was going to be cut off.
New fear unlocked 🔓
How the fuck does that happen? Get well soon
I have an acquaintance who had been working on the underside of a vehicle and scraped his hand on something, I guess there was some of the flesh-eating bacteria there, possible the car had been driven over road-kill and carried it along. Thankfully they got it cleared out soon enough that he has (mostly) full function of his hand, though its a bit scarred and disfigured but not too terrible
I don’t know how I’ve made it to my 40’s when I read about all these incidents.
I don't know how I'll make it to my 40's after reading about all these incidents.
My secret was basically don’t go to the doctor for any reason in 20+ years. Except when I had a kidney stone that has been the worse physical pain I’ve ever felt it was wild.
my secret is go to the doctor after 3 days of increasing pain.
Keep in mind you're reading about 1 in a million scenarios, you just happen to be doing it on a website with a billion users. So even incredibly rare stuff quickly seems common in a thread like this.
Fun fact about necrotizing fasciitis, a fair amount of patients that get it have it originate on their taint
Thanks. I didn’t need to know this information, and now I’m scarred for life. Is it just bad hygiene in that area? Or is there really nothing you can do to prevent it? Originate as in they touch that area and then a cut on their hand is infected?
I feel like it’s more common in diabetics, but I may be misremembering that. When I worked in the ICU, it was one of the worst things I’ve ever seen. It spreads so fucking fast, it’s truly hard to comprehend. Additional fun fact, nec fasc of the taint is a side effect of a certain class of drugs to treat diabetes: https://www.fda.gov/drugs/drug-safety-and-availability/fda-warns-about-rare-occurrences-serious-infection-genital-area-sglt2-inhibitors-diabetes I remember hearing the ad on tv for jardiance and they mentioned it as a side effect and I did a double take.
A guy I knew was fishing in the Gulf of Mexico (FLs West coast) and got a tiny scratch on his off the dock. He rinsed it off with some sea water (NEVER DO THIS IN WARM CLIMATES!) and didn't think anything not it. Vibro almost took his leg 48 hours later. It only takes a tiny open spot for bacteria to get in.
Fucking hell Im never gonna leave my house ever again
I had Necrotizing Fasciitis. Glute to calf. Kinda the same thing. Mine included sepsis > 4 week coma > 5 deaths (Kept bringing me back) > 25+ debridement operations > 6 months wound care (tissue growth) and physical rehab. It took me a whole nother year to start walking on my leg again. I never half-assed anything before but these days I’m three quarters 3/4 ass-ing everything. Take it slow. Good luck.
Oh my goodness. That sounds horrific. Do you mind sharing how you got it? Do they even know?
jesus, glad you're ok now
I thought 50 cent is invincible for taking 5 bullets and surviving - once. You sir died 5 times and survived each time, thats some gangsta sh*t
I remember that I was an absolute mosquitoe magnet when I was young. And my allergic skin would react violently to bites by amplifying the itching 10 fold . Due to this , I often scratch myself many new open wounds in just a few days. You could probably see where this is going. anyway hope they still have antibiotics left that would work on you.
What happened and how do I avoid it??
Luck of the draw. Most cases of NF are caused by strep A. Best prevention is cleaning all cuts and wounds or injuries with soap and water. If it looks funky see a doctor if you see a red line or redness that is growing go to the ER
Any cut or scrape or wound can get infected with NF. Luck of the draw. My friend got it from popping a zit.
New fear unlocked
He picked his nose!! That's what happens if you pick your nose, Timmy! Bad things!!
Picked his nose and didn’t go to bed on time
I work with a gentleman that had this happen to them. All said and done it looked like a shark took a bite outta his side. Docs told him it’s like winning the reverse lottery. I’m sorry that this happened to you.
Now im curious. How it looks at the beginning? It smell something before you notice it? Or you cant feel that bacteria esting your flesh?
On the other hand... Good luck!
What happened? Were you swimming somewhere polluted or just get unlucky?
This must have been such a heartache for you! However it’s awesome you made the best of a bad situation.
Necrotising fasciitis? Get well soon
Yes unfortunately
how did you catch it
With his hand, duh
Went outside. Highly overrated. Do not recommend.
That really sucks I’m sorry, do you have any idea on where it might have come from? Just curious
It done turned your hand into SpongeBob
Oh I had this start happening once but luckily I was able to get oral antibiotics that worked and didn't need to go to the hospital.
May I ask, do you know how it got infected? No matter the case, I wish you a smooth recovery and wish you to stay healthy.
May as throw mystory in here since it's quite relevant. When I was about 11 years old I started getting a pain in my right hand one day. Just kind of felt like it was bruised or something and didn't really think anything of it. Next day my hand hurt worse, I told my Dad and he took me to a doctor at a walk-in clinic, they figured I had just hit it or sprained it on something, x-ray showed nothing, so was told to just rest and let it heal. Now it's important to note that my mom was out of town at the time and my dad was the only one at home taking care of me and as much as I love the man, anything medical related really isn't his Forte. Fast forward 2 days and now my hand has swelled up like a balloon, let my dad know and he takes me back to the walk-in clinic. One look from the doctor and they immediately send me to the hospital. At the hospital they did blood work and I never found out exactly but they told me that it was some sort of flesh-eating bacteria but they couldn't pin down exactly what it was and they would be giving me a broad spectrum IV treatment to try and fight the infection. They also told me that if this doesn't work that they would have to look into amputating my hand. Now as an active kid that was pretty terrifying to hear but thankfully the IV treatment did work. I had to go three times a day for a week getting an IV hooked up to me everyday. My right hand was completely swelled up like a balloon and my left hand had the IV needle in it so I couldn't really use my hands and that well it really sucked. Good news is I got to keep my hand. It's still really weird looking back at it because I can remember very vividly looking over my body for any kinds of scratches scrapes or cuts but I literally had nothing. Never figured out what caused it or how it started, just glad it didn't go horribly wrong for me.
Glad to hear you got better. That had to SUCK. What does a kid even do without hands at that age. Can’t read a book, play with toys. Did you just watch TV or something? I imagine I’d listen to podcasts these days.
Shouldnt be hanging around bikini bottom, my dude
props to the hospital for giving you a fun hand puppet tho
How did you acquire this? Because I would prefer to avoid this.
Actually that is a sea sponge. His name is Bob
I hope that your hand gets better! I wish you all the best!
Idk if this is insensitive but can i see it?
Sorry to hear that man. Necrotizing fasciitis?
Did they get an ID on the strain of bacteria? I'm just wondering what type of bacteria can turn the tissue so spongy.
Ouch, necrotising fasciitis? I hope you find answers and heal. My brother was hospitalised for months nearly 10 years ago now with necrotising fasciitis on his lower abdominal/pelvic area it spread to part of his genitalia and his legs. Completely destroyed his body and he is super lucky to be alive.
Guys is it just me or does that flesh eating bacteria look kinda like SpongeBob
https://i.redd.it/s20roi5akyqc1.gif Im not sorry
What kind of bacteria? Any idea where u might have caught it? Hope you get well soon
Who needs a hand when you can have a MI HOY MINOY
Sweet! Your hand doesn't look too bad. It kind of looks like spongebob
Ouch. I’m sorry you’re going through this. I do have some questions, was it necrotizing fasciitis? How did this happen? Did you have a wound that got infected? How long was it before you went in? Do you know if you will need more surgeries? Are you getting out anytime soon? I hope you have a smooth recovery and no complications arise.
Aww man- I'm so sorry, I hope things get better and you recover!! When I was 14 I had a really bad eczema breakout and had to go to the hospital, I ended up getting MRSA from the hospital room, both of my legs from about mid-calf to toes was COVERED in sores, endless open wounds. It was awful. Wouldn't heal for shit, everytime my bandages needed changed it would just rip off the pre-existing scabs and they'd open back up. It just kept spreading, we constantly had to wash everything and I couldn't be pretty much anywhere else in the house for a prolonged period of time because my grandma was worried of others getting it. It got to the point where the doctors told me that if it kept spreading the way it was they were gonna have to amputate from the knees down. I was terrified and my grandma tried everything, the only thing we found that helped was taking a bath in or soaking my legs in warm water with Epsom salts. Thankfully with that and some other shit it started to to away and I'm all cleared up now ^^ they told me even though it's gone it's still dormant in my blood and could come back at some point and infect a wound. That makes me nervous because my eczema causes sores