Hi Wendy,
Thanks for asking about Bruce's hand. It's doing better now, but it was
very scary for a while there. I do hope everyone knows about the
dangers and how quickly things can become serious with cat bite
infections. I wouldn't have thought about a puncture wound from the
spine of a cactus doing the same thing, but that makes sense. It's the
same kind of "injection" of bacteria deep into the flesh as a cat bite.
I'm glad to hear your Mom's recovering.
After Bruce was bit we doused it with peroxide, put antibacterial
ointment on it and then bandaged it. After the fact, I found out that
you shouldn't use ointments, or cover a cat bite because you don't want
the outside healing over the inside. I read that soaking it in hot salt
water immediately can help, when I asked the urgent care doctor about
that, he said it wouldn't hurt, but the only thing that will save you
from infection with a serious bite is an abx shot. When I was severely
bitten in the past, I went immediately to the ER and got a Tetanus shot
and abx shot, it never got infected. Bruce went to work the next day
after he was bitten and by the time he got home and I unwrapped his
hand, I knew he was in trouble. It was swollen, red and hot! I took
one look at it and knew he needed medical assistance, (it took me 2
hours to convince him; such a male). He's had 5 abx shots over the last
week. I have it written down, it's Rocefin (sp?). The nurse told us
that this abx use is fairly new, if he had come into the office with his
hand looking like that before, they would have sent him to the hospital
for IV abx. The doctor said that if he hadn't come in that night the
infection would have spread to his elbow by morning. They also put him
on oral Augmentin, (mega dose of 4000mg a day). His hand is still
swollen, but is getting much better finally. It was touch and go
there. The doctor kept shaking his head and talking about the
hospital. It's been an ordeal, (he had to take a time off from work,
the doctor insisted, (Bruce was saying no to that), it's cost a small
fortune, but it could have been much, much worse.
From now on, if anyone gets bit around here, we're going for the shot
immediately.
Nina
wendy wrote:
Hey Nina,
How is Bruce's hand? I hope he is better. I wanted
to give you some scary info. I know you are already
stressed right now with Spencer, but I am feeling the
need to fill you and everyone else in on something my
mom is going through right now. I'd rather tell you
than wait in case it applies to Bruce.
My mom got a bad staph infection in her hand after
puncturing it with a cactus spine (right word?) which
is where the bacteria entered.
