My friend has been diagnosed with cellulitis. He’s been off work for a month now, and a recent MRI revealed the infection has moved to his bones :eek: .
This sounds very bad to me. Currently, his girlfriend is taking him to the doctor 3 times a day for IV antibiotic treatment. Each bag takes an hour to administer, and sometimes they do two bags of medicine.
The doctor said something about being able to test the levels of the infection in the bone at the end of the week, and if they aren’t at the proper levels, he’ll have to go into the hospital. I think there is also a possibilty of amputation if this thing doesn’t clear up in a hurry.
Does this sound bad to you? Any other experiences with severe cellulitis? Any other implications? I’m very worried. Thanks, all.
Nor a doctor, but DeHusband spent a week in the hospital last year with acute cellulitis. He was on the IV antibiotics the entire time (every 6 hours) and the infection never spread. The leg still swells and he has to wear support hose (old man socks) but he’s doing well.
It might just be that your friend needs to have the intense long treatment that they can only do in the hospital. (I’m kinda surprized that they’ve been handling this outpatient. DeHusband was admitted within an hour of showing up at the emergency room.) Amputation is the last resort. My aunt had severe cellulitis as a result of diabetes and lupus, and had several fingers/toes amputated but that was a worst case scenario.
I was a bit surprised that he wasn’t admitted as well, but since they can do the intensive therapy as an outpatient, it’s keeping the costs down and he’s still getting “pumped up.”
I too am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice, just my experiences with a similar situation.
The above pretty much echoes my rather frightening time with cellulitis earlier this year, I too was hospitalised with 6-hourly IV antibiotics (two different types). My leg is not the same as it was before the infection, but the damage appears to be cosmetic rather than anything more serious. Unfortunately I’ll have to relate that my specialist spoke rather un-nervingly of the consequences of the infection reaching the bone, but in my case at least the IV anti-biotics started working quickly and, followed by another week of oral antibiotics and complete bed rest I was able to resume work. I would note that it’s a fairly common ailment as these things go and the medical profession seems to have a very good handle on how to treat it, so as long as the doctor is working on it I wouldn’t be too worried.
I’ll join DeVena in hoping your friend recovers fully.
I’m not a doctor, but I’ve had several bouts of cellulitis. I’ve been hospitalized a few times because of it. Not fun, not fun at all. The last time, I was sent home from the hospital and had a home health care nurse come out to my house once a day to give me an IV treatment.
I wish I could tell you that it’s nothing. However, in my experience, it’s a fairly nasty ailment to have. Fortunately, there are some pretty strong antibiotics out these days which generally will clear this stuff up.
I’m not sure if he’s been tested, Lynn. I would think that it would have been considered after a month of near-constant visits to the doctor. Or should I say “I hope” it would have been considered. Friend’s girlfriend was asking questions of the ER doctor, and his smart-ass reply was, “What, are you his lawyer or something?”. I’ll mention it to them and see if it’s been covered.
My sister had this a couple years ago, and she was admitted to the hospital, too. It seems to be very difficult to get rid of. The bone thing is the scariest part.
The Cub Husband was in the hospital with cellulitis in his leg a few years back. He had been sick with fever and chills all day but when I saw his leg with a freaky looking rash, I grabbed the car keys and hustled him to the ER. When the doctor said it was cellulitis, we’d never heard of that so he said “Well the old folks called it blood poisoning.” Now that we understood! They treated him outpatient for a couple of days, but when he didn’t improve he was admitted. Nurses came from other floors to look at his leg because it was a pretty spectacular case, apparently. I think he was in for a week. Now he is much more careful of breaks in his skin, as this incident started as a briar scratch.
Lynn, Cub Husband thinks he has some blood sugar issues, but testing has so far not borne out his suspicion. It was one of the questions they asked in the ER (“Are you diabetic?” Have you ever been tested for diabetes?")