cdamiano
I like Fuzzy Sticks
I was moving some rock around in my tank last week (without gloves on :headwally
and one of the rocks scraped the inside of my hand. It was a very small scrape so I did what I usually do and just rubbed some triple antibiotic ointment on it. Later that night the cut got very red and swollen and stung really bad all night. The next morning it hurt even worse so I decided to go to a walk-in clinic near my home instead of the ER since I figured I would just be able to get a prescription for some antibiotics and go home. When the nurse looked at my cut she asked me to rollup my sleeve. She took one look at my arm and told me to go to the ER immediately. There was a red line going up my forearm from the cut. She marked the spot on my arm where the red line ended so that they could see how quickly it was travelling by the time I got to the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital they admitted me very quickly and took blood and started an IV with antibiotics. Luckily, the ER Dr. was familiar with this type of injury and I also filled him in on some details about the type of infection it was. By that time the red line had traveled even further up my arm near my shoulder. The blood work showed a few different strains of bacteria in my blood as well as a ridiculously high white blood cell count. They then cut my hand open to try and drain it out. I stayed in the hospital on 4 different antibiotics for 4 days. Thankfully the line going up my arm stopped. That was the bacterial infection trying to get to my heart. It could have been fatal if they didn't stop the progression of the infection. They had to leave the cut open so it could drain and I had to dip my hand in a chlorine bath each day while in the hospital and on an outpatient basis. I am still on very strong oral antibiotics for another week. The antibiotics are no walk in the park either since they have some bad side effects - headaches, stomach issues, joint pain, etc. It was amazing how fast the infection spread from the day it happened to the next day when I went to the hospital. I was fortunate that I acted as quickly as I did and didn't wait any longer to go to the hospital.
I know there is another thread that was started regarding wearing gloves, but I can't stress enough the importance. You don't want to go through what I just went through. Those throw away type gloves that most people use would not have helped with this. There are sharp protrusions on all rocks which will tear through those. Many corals can also break through the thinner gloves when handling them. The only protection against what happened to me would be from the thicker type of gloves that don't tear.
This experience has really made me think seriously about leaving the hobby. I got into this hobby for the enjoyment of it, not to deal with life threatening dangers like this. I will delay this decision for now and just use thick gloves when working in the tank until I decide if I am going to take the tank down.
and one of the rocks scraped the inside of my hand. It was a very small scrape so I did what I usually do and just rubbed some triple antibiotic ointment on it. Later that night the cut got very red and swollen and stung really bad all night. The next morning it hurt even worse so I decided to go to a walk-in clinic near my home instead of the ER since I figured I would just be able to get a prescription for some antibiotics and go home. When the nurse looked at my cut she asked me to rollup my sleeve. She took one look at my arm and told me to go to the ER immediately. There was a red line going up my forearm from the cut. She marked the spot on my arm where the red line ended so that they could see how quickly it was travelling by the time I got to the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital they admitted me very quickly and took blood and started an IV with antibiotics. Luckily, the ER Dr. was familiar with this type of injury and I also filled him in on some details about the type of infection it was. By that time the red line had traveled even further up my arm near my shoulder. The blood work showed a few different strains of bacteria in my blood as well as a ridiculously high white blood cell count. They then cut my hand open to try and drain it out. I stayed in the hospital on 4 different antibiotics for 4 days. Thankfully the line going up my arm stopped. That was the bacterial infection trying to get to my heart. It could have been fatal if they didn't stop the progression of the infection. They had to leave the cut open so it could drain and I had to dip my hand in a chlorine bath each day while in the hospital and on an outpatient basis. I am still on very strong oral antibiotics for another week. The antibiotics are no walk in the park either since they have some bad side effects - headaches, stomach issues, joint pain, etc. It was amazing how fast the infection spread from the day it happened to the next day when I went to the hospital. I was fortunate that I acted as quickly as I did and didn't wait any longer to go to the hospital.I know there is another thread that was started regarding wearing gloves, but I can't stress enough the importance. You don't want to go through what I just went through. Those throw away type gloves that most people use would not have helped with this. There are sharp protrusions on all rocks which will tear through those. Many corals can also break through the thinner gloves when handling them. The only protection against what happened to me would be from the thicker type of gloves that don't tear.
This experience has really made me think seriously about leaving the hobby. I got into this hobby for the enjoyment of it, not to deal with life threatening dangers like this. I will delay this decision for now and just use thick gloves when working in the tank until I decide if I am going to take the tank down.
