Anyone around... scared

[DarkSuitsSadSongs]

I'm home alone with my 12 year old twins as my husband is working away and not due back until tomorrow evening. He's about 6 hours away.

Over the last few days I've had a painful boil under my boob. I saw the GP today as it doubled in size overnight. There is a red circle around it. She prescribed doxycycline (2 a day) and said to phone back if it gets worse.

I've been getting more and more unwell. My left arm has started tingling, I'm sweating with cold hands and feet, the pain is indescribable and I'm exhausted. I slept for 6 hours this afternoon and I'm still utterly exhausted and all my joints hurt.

I've had to phone my father in law who is an hour away to come through to sit with the twins. I'm on hold to 111 but a 45 minute wait to call answer as a minimum they said.

I'm not sure whether just to call a taxi when FIL gets here to go straight to accident and emergency.

I'm a little freaked out at how unwell I feel.

So pleased to hear you are back home and doing well.

What a wonderful family you have! You're clearly very loved! 💐

Yes to the weight loss. After everything you've been through and the amount of gunk exiting your body it seems the least your body can do for you. You have bloody well earned that weight loss. Fingers crossed for you.

Keep hydrated and make sure you have some protein so your body can heal. At least it has an exit now and it’s going the right way!

You need to make sure your body is getting all the food it needs to heal though, weightloss can wait a while. It must be so nice to be back in a clean home!

At least you're getting rid of it - but very tiring having to deal with it every time it pops again. Sending sympathies to you😕

wow that it’s still draining! Hope you’ve got plenty of dressings.

Your family sound fabulous op. Hope they keep up the high standards while you continue to recover xx

Hoping it is much less painful as it continues to drain. What an unpleasant time you have had. I hope it on the mend and that you will soon feel much better.

What a rollercoaster, bless you. I'm glad it's burst (and burst, and burst) but you have my sympathy with the smell. My dog had an abscess last year that burst all over me in the middle of the night. I'm normally hard as nails when it comes to anything medical, but the smell genuinely knocked me out - I fainted on the landing and poor super-squeamish DH had to deal with it all. Your family sound so lovely - glad they gave you such a nice homecoming 💕

This!!

I'm so glad to hear you had such a considerate and happy welcome home after your ordeal. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

It's good that it's draining so much, as that means it's less likely to seal back up and return.

Just keep following all of the aftercare instructions - have they confirmed what type of bacteria it is? I'd be tempted to bathe in Hibiscrub for the foreseeable to make sure there aren't any other colonies waiting for a small blister or scratch.

Glad to hear you're on the mend, OP, and that the gunk is expelling itself. Your DH sounds like a lovely man, as does his dad! Is his dad by any chance single ... and if so, can I have him please?

They've given me bottles of saline to clean it with but I will ask about usinf ibiscrub to them when I go on Tuesday

I found this when DH had an ulcer on his leg. They kept dressing it with creams and dressings designed to keep it moist - it felt very counter intuitive becasue the norm is to dry out and scab. They explained that ulcers and abscesses and the like, can ‘tunnel’ under the skin and go deeper into the tissues if the surface is allowed to scab - better to keep moist to ensure good drainage, and as you say, heal from the inside out. DH was left with a small depression - like a button - in the skin where the ulcer had been.

Actually all wounds heal better when kept moist, drying things out is not the right way to go.

When my horse had an abscess on his jaw (about half a tennis ball in size) I had to clean the scab off and flush out with weak iodine solution every day. We came to an understanding that if I used warm water he'd stand still for me to clean it. The flushing would get more pus out. The vet made it look super easy doing it while he was sedated. It wasn't super easy!

I'm surprised you don't have to do something like that. Abscesses heal from the inside out so, as someone noted above, you don't want them to scab over. Obviously Drs know what they're doing but keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn't heal over and regenerate.

Male rats are prone to abscesses. My boy Blue has had two very big ones. I used hibiscrub to clean it just after it burst, then just cleaned twice a day with salt water - it heals nicely from the inside out. I was told that hibiscrub can actually impede healing if used to often.

Glad you're on the mend op

I’m so glad to see you’re home and that your DH has stepped up. Sounds like a lovely welcome home!
Abscesses are a gift that keep on giving 😆 but it sounds like it’s clearing itself. Sounds like you’re in the thick of it but you should be getting past the worst soon.

I had to do that with a cat - a tiny dot on the top of his head hiding stuff I was massaging up from his chest and legs for a good week-10 days.

I wasnt thinking of hibiscrub on the wound, I meant I'd be thinking about the rest of my body in case there are colonies of whatever it is around feet/underarms/behind ears/skin folds. But I'm not a doctor, so asking professionals is definitely the best action.

Saline is good, Epsom salts particularly good too, still hot from boiled water are really good to bathe it with to keep it open and all that lovely pus coming out. I'd def get advice about using hibi as I think it can be quite drying.

That makes sense.

Also get yourself on pre and probiotics if not already.

I wasn't talking about the first night. more so the second night just because her DH will be tired.

Hibiscrub is not for cleaning open wounds, it’s designed to clean bacteria etc from in tact skin. Saline I think you’ve been given?

But I think there might be some benefit to cleaning with it in normal times to reduce bacteria levels on the skin, definitely worth a chat with the gp about long term prevention if possible.

If you can handle iodine, you could use Betadine around the wound.