MRSA

[dragonlady7]

No really. So I got back from Pennsic and I had this horrible eczema flare, that had started before I left-- all the dishes, dyeing, laundry, etc. in the prep had broken me out horribly between my fingers, and it was an ongoing drama of horror. It got worse at Pennsic and I had bleeding blisters on multiple occasions. Mostly on my left hand, but a few on my right. On my right ring finger, facing in slightly toward my middle finger, I had a particularly nasty eczema blister, that didn't do the usual itch-weep-turn into inflamed skin- sort of heal-- itch-weep-turn into inflamed skin cycle-- it just kept being a really hideous blister.
I got back from Pennsic, and started moisturizing, started using tea tree oil, started doing the things I normally do for eczema. (I'd been trying to do them at Pennsic but just you try applying ointment liberally over both hands in the Swamp, while managing a really busy bar. That would work for about thirty seconds before I either got it full of dirt or had to do something that washed/rubbed it off.) My left hand kept cracking and bleeding and it was gross. My right hand, it was really just that one blister, and it hurt like the dickens.
Eventually the rest sort of healed; the blisters on my left hand scabbed over into tiny red dots, and retreated under cracked dry gross red skin, which gradually responded to ointment and got less cracked and dry, at least. It's flared again since, but no bleeding.
The right hand, though, that blister just got more and more painful and nasty, over the course of about two weeks. Finally I realized it wasn't a normal eczema blister; instead of being full of clear liquid, like those are, it was much deeper down in my skin, and seemed to be full of something white. Ummm.... That seemed bad.
It was also swelling, and my whole finger was starting to swell, and the back of my hand near that finger. It was obviously infected, and full of pus; the pressure was awful and sometimes my hand would throb. I didn't like that. So I did the gross self-medicating thing, and sterilized a pin and popped the skin.
I got about half a pencil eraser's worth of pus out of it. It was absolutely disgusting. I put a bandage over it and went to work. More and more fluid kept coming out; I kept having to change the Band-Aid. I got super creepy about hygeine and started obsessively sanitizing, which I might mention hurt like the dickens in all of my eczema blisters, including the gross one. I hydrogen peroxided and rubbing alcohol'd everything. And every time I took that Band-Aid off, I could squeeze like another quarter pencil eraser's worth of pus out of that thing. It was like, chartreuse neon green. Disgusting. Horrifying.
Of course I went to the doctor. I'm not an idiot. (Also, just before I self-surgeried, I'd visited a friend who coincidentally was a doctor-- not a GP, so he wasn't going to look at it or anything, and I wouldn't have asked, but he saw it across the room and said WHAT IS THAT GO GET THAT FIXED, pretty much just like that, which I took as a pretty good incentive to hie me to a medical professional.)

My normal doctor, who had dismissed my ezcema with a "well, if it stays bad let me know", wasn't available, so I went to Whoever Ya Got at my practice (a medical group-- handy), who was a very nice young woman. I peeled the Band-Aid off and she, well, wasn't as horrified as I'd secretly hoped for-- everyone likes to impress the doctor-- but immediately said "I'm culturing that for MRSA. Not that I think it is, but I'm putting you on an antibiotic that'll kill it anyway."

Well, it was.
They said don't worry, the stuff you're on already killed it, just let us know if it doesn't respond, or eats your whole hand off or something.
It's gone; there's just a gross scabby crater where the blister was. I lost kind of a lot of epidermis, but it's healing. But I remain pretty darn horrified.

So that's my brush with flesh-eating bacteria. Hopefully it's my last. In other news, I got a new lens, but I'm rather drained by the whole MRSA-recounting thing, and I'm going to go think about something else now. I will tell you the saga of the impulse-purchased (used) Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VR some other time.

Comments

[estela-dufrayse.livejournal.com]

and people wonder why I am squidgy about Pennsic...my excema is mostly on my feet.

I hope you heal well and fast. Think clean thoughts ;-)

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I've never heard of anyone else having a similar thing happen, but then, I never knew eczema was a risk factor for skin infections. So go figure.
Eh, Pennsic is about the same as any other two-week camping event would be-- it's impossible to stay clean!

[eveiya.livejournal.com]

Ewww! Very nasty! Glad it's on the mend, but I appreciate all the gory detail! :-D

After working as a waitress/kitchen assistant for years when I was young, where there was never time to rinse off the dishwater, dry your hands properly or put on/take off gloves, I've been highly allergic to all cleaning products and similar chemicals ever since - almost any exposure triggers eczema on my hands, although luckily no infections so far. But I wear Marigolds or latex gloves before I go near any of that stuff nowadays.

By the way, many people carry MRSA bacteria naturally on their skin; you could therefore pick it up anywhere, handling cash, touching doorhandles or bannisters, shaking hands or whatever.

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

I have always had eczema but it got much worse when I was a waitress too, and has remained bad-- never had it on my hands before that.
I can't wear rings.
I read that about MRSA too-- it's sort of everywhere, so I'm hesitant to entirely blame Pennsic, except that it definitely started there, or shortly thereafter. I work retail, so it's more tempting to blame that. But it's perfectly possible I've been carrying it on my skin for ages-- there are periodic outbreaks in my derby league, for example, and while I've never had an issue before, others with whom I am in physical contact have. So it's perfectly possible I had it on my skin already.
What's funny is how grossed-out everyone is; I mentioned it publicly on my Facebook page, since it seemed worth mentioning, and all sorts of people are squeamish about it. I suppose they must think I have bad hygeine, or something. Well, whatever, I've never been much concerned with that sort of public opinion, and if it inspires people to wash their gear/hands/selves more often, then good. I don't want their germs.

[eveiya.livejournal.com]

The irony there is, MRSA is more likely a product and result of people trying to be super-hygienic and sterilise their homes and themselves, using 'anti-bacterial spray cleaner this' and 'anti-bacterial shower gell that' etc, as well as the over-use of antibiotics in our culture. I mean, if you kill all the general range of bacteria using bactericides, you are in fact removing the competition and leaving the resistant strains such as MRSA free to flourish unchallenged.

[besina-sartor.livejournal.com]

Eww! Glad you got it looked at. Such a fun souvenir!

[dragonlady7.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've heard this before as well. People don't understand that we quite naturally have bacteria all over our bodies. I know to be careful of cuts and things, because the skin is what keeps bacteria from getting into your bloodstream which is a place they shouldn't be, but I hadn't even thought of eczema as a potential route for infection. Especially since the tea tree oil I so often use to soothe it (I don't know why it works, it just does) is antisceptic.

Oh dear, my left hand has gone back to the itchy stage, I'd better go douse it in something. Ugh!

[estela-dufrayse.livejournal.com]

yeah, I don't camp well...