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Compromised immune system?

9K views 25 replies 14 participants last post by  Strawberry 
#1 ·
My take on this has been that since my diabetes is well-controlled, my immune system is as strong as anything, but an odd thing is going on that I prob'ly shoulda asked Doc about today, but I didn't think of it in time.

Some sort of "eruption" appeared on my finger Friday night - during my sleep. I awakened in the night with a sore finger & no idea how I came by it. I rather favored a notion that it was a sting or bug bite of some sort, since I hadn't injured it, burned myself or done anything to get a splinter or anything. And to me it seemed more strange than serious.

So days went by & I even lanced the thing, but it didn't drain, so today I showed it to my doc when we were finished with everything else, and holy macaroni, Batman . . . I got sent home with a week's worth of cephalexin & orders for hot compresses! Doc & OWC seem to agree that infections of the hands are scary & shouldn't be ignored. So is this due to my "compromised immune system" or is it a concern that applies to the general populace as well? It's an ugly thing, granted, but does it look dangerous to you?
 

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#2 ·
It would to me if only judging by the red circle around the 'bite'. Ya can't mess around with stuff like that. My first experience with cellulitis was on my hand. I was told that you shouldn't ignore sores on the hand because it is lots closer to the heart than a foot would be. Best follow Doc's orders and the OWC orders too. Don't forget to wear gloves whilst washing dishes or better yet, let OWC wash the dishes for a few days.
 
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#6 ·
No culture - he just went straight to cephalosporin. I've just finished hot compresses for about 20 minutes, so I guess I'll do the compresses every time I take the antibiotic.

My first notice of it was in the middle of the night - prob'ly early hours of Saturday morning. So it's been a little over 3½ days. If I'd had a razor, I might have done the same, Marty, cuz my brain went straight to 'lance it!' It doesn't seem to have increased in size, and there's no swelling in the rest of the finger. So far, so good . . .
 
#4 · (Edited)
I've seen that before on my finger tip. Of course I work in a lab testing wastewater (sewage that is), so picking up a strange infection like that goes with the territory. Your a better person than me, I would have taken a razor blade to thing. I watched a kid in college whos father was a doctor said he would lance this giant boil onhis friends knee. He got nervous, swung the razor really fast, he missed the boil entirely and layed open the kids knee cap. Boys and beer, who would have guessed something like that could happen.

How long have you had that. The lesion on the top was that you trying to lance it. If the center starts to turn black need to start to think spider (brown recluse)

One other thing from my scouting days and first aid, if the swelling migrates beyond that knuckle or a red streak develops, its back to the doc with ya.
 
#7 ·
Ouch! Keep an eye on it. & as Marty said if red streaks appears or it increases in size get back to Doc
Nice nails by the way

Sent from my iPhone using Diabetes
 
#10 ·
Okay, I definitely should not have looked at the pictures from the link in Marty's post....I'm totally grossed out now and I think my stomach just did a flip flop :puke::yuck:

I would certainly watch that Shanny. It does look like a bug bite, but this can still be dangerous. I had a spider bite on my pinky once that almost sent me to the hospital because it was so painful and swollen.

Take your medicine and do your compresses, and for goodness sakes keep an eye on it! I hate when things like this happen, like we don't deal with enough in our lives. And yes, sometimes the immune system isn't as strong as we'd like.

Hugs to you and your sore finger ;)
 
G
#11 ·
Looks like a pretty good infection to me, so wouldn't take it at all lightly. And before I read Marty's reply, I already thought it was a spider bite. Do you have some spiders coming out of their winter hibernation?
 
#12 ·
I was thinking spider bite myself, the same night it happened. I just wasn't thinking brown recluse! We did find a small spider in our room at the bed & breakfast lodge last weekend, but it wasn't a recluse, unless they're a lot smaller than I thought.

And no again on the nails . . . they never get "done". They just grow & I cut 'em off and they grow some more! :p
 
#14 ·
I think your doc, and most others are overreacting. But then, I REGULARLY get chigger bites that react like that! Docs hear horror stories of diabetics with infections, do not even stop to think your BG is good!

And my husband almost died from erysepilas ... wth. He only had a tiny, measles-like rash before his leg suddenly swelled to 3x its size.

I think the antibiotics are a good idea but I would not be freakin out either.
 
#16 ·
We do a lot of hiking in the woods and I get bit by all sorts of things. I do seem to heal more slowly since Diabetes. I guess your doctor is being proactive which is probably good. I am like Marty and tend to take care of it myself. The one thing that scares me is Tic bites. So I do always look for that red ring around any bite that may indicate Lyme Disease.
 
#18 ·
It's no worse today, and surely that's a good sign. It's a darn nuisance is what it is! :rolleyes2:

I am very slow to heal from bug bites also, and it's the tick/chigger ones that are worst. But since we choose to literally live in the woods, that's part of the package. Not usually spiders though - although we have a lot of them here at home. Just dunno if they're the same ones who live over on the Mississippi where I got this thing.

I did ask OWC why hand infections are such a worry, and his response is that if it starts spreading, there's no place for it to go - getting into bone tissue is a concern, because that's all that's there - pieces of bone with some skin wrapped around it. And the hand is such an incredible mechanism that when something starts messing with this amazing contraption of bone/muscle/tendons/ligaments/sheaths . . . a lot of possibly irreparable damage can be done.
 
#19 ·
Here in the low country some of the construction workers who work outdoors in tick infested areas wear flea and tick collars around their ankles, odd I know. I went to school in WS. A day trip in the spring thru the bramble to the river to fish would result in about 20 wood ticks crawling around on you before you went home. If they didn't get your attention the leaches did if you decided to wade in the water at all.
 
#20 ·
Here's hoping the finger gets better soon and without complications. To me not getting worse is a good sign.
 
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#22 ·
Shanny said:
Some noticeable improvement today, I think. After the hot compress this morning, we were able to get it well drained. Coming right along . . . and yeah, there for awhile just not getting worse was a really good sign! heheh!
That's good news, your BG's should be back to normal in no time ;)

Sent from my iPhone using Diabetes
 
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#25 ·
Yeah, it's still red, and prob'ly WILL be discolored for quite some time to come, but it seems to have popped once & for all, so it isn't so hard/tight as before. More soft like a water blister now, except that there's no fluid in it.

Still pumping up my readings though . . . and now that the site itself seems to have started healing, I'm more convinced than ever of the cephalexin raising BG. Only three more days of it! :rolleyes:
 
#26 ·
Cephalexin raised my BGs too, although the doctor vehemently denied it was responsible for doing so. But then again, the Doc isn't the one testing his BG and having the meter "yell" at him either. I was on Cephalexin from Thanksgiving until middle of February and I know what 'C' did to my readings!!
 
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