this post was submitted on 10 Oct 2023
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Last night I woke up in the middle of the night with my thumb hurting. (Not asking for medical advice, just sharing my misery). Swollen and bright pink, with a hole in the skin. Couldn’t get a doctor’s appointment until today. Throbbing all day yesterday, and now I can’t sleep from the pain. Anxiety about flesh eating bacteria and having it amputated.
Go to doctor stat. You really really don't want this puncture wound to go septic and develop gangrene. Easily done when pruning roses. Happened to me once and I had to have the classic penicillin injection in my butt - with what felt like a sharpened hosepipe. Could not sit down for a week. Don't recommend.
PS I now wear gloves to do the garden - strong recommend for this practice going forward.
Just in the last few months I've read two stories about horrific infections from browsing around in soil gloveless - first the worm in the woman's brain from foraging, then the recently published report of the Sydney woman who got blackleg disease from gardening soil - a bacteria normally found in livestock which was eating her bowels up and nearly killed her last year but for a new mode of treatment.
I don't care what people say about getting a bit o' dirt in your bowels, I'd rather not have the other stuff as well thanks.
Unless you went swimming somewhere you should have zero worries. Maybe a bug bite ?
I was thinking maybe a spider bite, I had been gardening. Oh well, I’ve got a thumb on the other hand, she’ll be right mate.
Whitetails and necrosis is something that worries the hell out of me. I don't care that they're not deadly - I don't want no flesh-eating spidey bite to remind me some little fucker was able to invade me like that!
I know you're not looking for medical advice so I'll just say, hopefully you've managed to use antiseptic on the area and given it a good clean (or three). That and ibuprofen might help with the swelling.
I've been bitten to hell by whitetails: they take ages to heal but the whole necrosis thing is wildly overblown. It's been found in most cases the "necrosis" was actually caused by something else - diabetes, staph, etc etc. If you have diabetes, mild concern (as always) but don't get paranoid to hell over a whitetail bite.
Huh, the more you know! I worked with a guy who got necrosis from a white tail - but he was definitely a candidate for pre-diabetes so that could explain it. And look, it wasn't that bad, maybe like a pinky nail-sized hole? But still, I can deal with a lot of things. Spiders, nope. Not a fan of something so small being able to damage me like that.
Perfectly reasonable for random things to give you The Ick, but don't let it drive you unreasonably nuts - get it checked, then it's sorted and all happy makings.
DetachableProtein 👀
flesh eating: unlikely. Puncture with a bit of an infection: sorted with penicillin. Spider bite: possible, also treatable.