To think there should maybe be a little campaign about cellulitis from insect bites

[solidgoldbrass]

I've just sent a batch of squawky messages to and about another Facebook friend to the effect that: You have a nasty, inflamed, swollen, painful insect bite? Get the fuck to the doctor before you die.

Is it that a lot of my friends are a bit too hardarsed? I was, the first time I had it: general attitude of 'meh, it's a bug bite, that's all. I know it's five inches across and spreading, and I feel sick and dizzy and my foot is massively swollen but oh it'll go away...' until an acquaintance said, you really ought to see the GP. And the GP nearly wet himself and pointed out that untreated cellulitis makes people die... Would you go 'meh' at a painful swollen spreading bug bite?

My friend did until I pointed out, much like you, that she needed to go to the Walk in Centre NOW. Her bite photo on FB showed a red swelling about 4 inches by 7 inches. I squealed and phoned her and stayed in the phone until she was seen.
It was cellulitis.

Never heard of it. Every mosquito bite I ever have inevitably ends as you describe. Surely I'm just intolerant to mosquitos?

YANBU at all.

I've had cellulitus - It's shit. It spread from my foot to halfway up my shin in 48 hours and resulted in a 3 day stay in hospital on IV antibiotics. Had never heard of it until then. Even now, 3 months later, my foot still doesn't look the way it used to. .

I had cellulitis on my eye after an insect bite. Doc said I could have lost the eye and if it had gone into the socket there was potential for death as it could reach the brain. Sounds like an urban myth. It's not.

I know a bit about bad cellulitis as line managed a lady who suffered from it down both her legs. It was never something tgat she said could be life threatening

I suffer badly from mosquito bites, they react in a massive blister that look like the size of maltesers but it is only now I have read this that yes I can see how similar my reaction looks in addition to the blister and I will defo be more aware if I ever go abroad again next time. Thank you.

Oh my god never heard of this! DH often reacts badly to mozzy bites and has once or twice had a bite lithe you describe. Obviously he's fine now but if it happens again I'll get him checked out

DH spent nearly 3 weeks in hospital with sepsis/cellulitis following an insect bite.

The bite was small and unremarkable - a tiny red mark near the end of his finger. It happened in the afternoon. A couple of hours later, he hurt his arm, so when the swelling started soon after he thought it was down to the injury. He saw the GP, who prescribed compresses and painkillers.

Fever and sickness came next, and he spent the night shivering and throwing up. He didn't wake me. When I woke and realised what was happening, I called the OOH doctor, and drove him to the hospital where it was based. I dropped him off, quickly filled a prescription for myself, parked then took 19 month DS to find DH.

It took me over an hour to find him. In the 20 minutes I had been away, DH had been sent with a letter to A&E. He had walked across, got as far as reception and promptly collapsed. I kept walking from the car, to the OOH, to A&E, trying to ring him. Finally, I found him in resus, covered in wires & monitors. They were giving him antibiotic cocktails to try and stabilise him. He kept slipping in and out of consciousness. They saved his life.

It took them hours to stabilise him enough to be x-rayed, and a further 5 hours to stabilise him again so that he could be blue-lighted to a different, nearby hospital, where he remained for almost 3 weeks while they tried to get it under control.

He was seen as an outpatient on release. He still had to take antibiotics, and his arm looked like it had been burned. It was weeping and bleeding. He had physio, and was seen reguarly by the plastic surgery team to try to break down the scar tissue, reduce the scarring, and gain full use of his hand back.

This was in October and November last year. The speed in which a small bite nearly killed DH was shocking - he was critically ill in less than 10 hours. Had we been aware of cellulitis, maybe we would have looked further than the arm/hand injury earlier. We'd never heard of it.

As an aside, the support I received here when this happened was amazing, and still appreciated to this day. I'd had a MC 2 weeks earlier, and was laid low with a throat infection that turned out to be resistant to the antibiotics I wasn't allergic to. DH and I are both self-employed, so I was struggling to try and keep money coming in, looking after DS (we have no family locally), and visiting DH in hospital. I was falling asleep while eating, I was so tired. I posted in Chat (I think), a complete blubbering wreck, and received a much needed lifeline. It made all the difference, so if any of you recognise yourself - thank you.

Essay and hijack over - yanbu

Completely agree, DH spent 1 week in hospital and a total of 6 weeks off work when he had it. He also has scaring on his leg where he had it. I was quite shocked at how few people had heard of it and he still gets jokes about how his fat leg tried to kill him (ha bloody ha)

I agree. My friend died from cellulitis last year

YANBU: I've had this 3 times now. The first time I didn't realise what was happening to me, I was completely delirious. It was only because a friend who happened to be a nurse visited me that I survived!

Now I always carry insect repellent and anti-septic cream.

I agree too. Cellulitis is much underestimated. Dh had it earlier this year after a graze on his leg when he fell off his bike. We expected the leg to look bruised so tbh missed the first tracking marks of the infection. However, I work in a hospital (in admin) and have seen a funny limb or two so did click that something wasn't right shortly afterwards. Dh had about 6 weeks of antibiotics I think and it flared up again when he was in Korea last month leading to an ab injection there and more abs when he got home. Had we not had the background knowledge that we do have we probably would have ignored it and run in to major trouble.

my mum had a horse fly bite and got cellulitis 15 years ago. Her leg is permanently swollen now and the cellulitis comes back now and again :(

Wow, this is scary! Browneyes - thank you for sharing that, I hope things are better for you all now.

I've had insect bites that swelled and went horrible, I just waited for them to go away, which they did with just anti histamine. I will be much more careful from now on.

So, can bites be prevented from turning to cellulitis by something that we coud do at home, or should they always be seen by a doctor as soon as any swelling starts?

It's all very well knowing to be careful, but I'm worrying about going on holiday now as I don't suppose it will be as easy to see a doctor so quickly when abroad as it would be at home. Is there anything we should take, other than insect repellent?

Take some antiseptic stuff to splash around on any bites. That's about all you can do. In dh's case he fell off his bike, didn't even look at his leg and continued to the prayer meeting at church in some sort of martyr mission . So it was about three hours later that I insisted on seeing his leg and even then we didn't really clean the graze. It just seemed so minor. It wasn't.

Thanks Northern. Is cellulitis something that comes with the bites getting infected, or is it an allergic reaction to the bites?

do we need a campaign about every thing now? I've got a sore arse and a crick in my neck, can I have a charity single please?

I've has cellulitis, and its so painful you wouldn't not go to the doctor, unless you had a deathwish. If you're not screaming for drugs, its probably not cellulitis.

Excellent post and thread OP.

If you are Diabetic or have supressed immunity it can really cause you problems. I'm glad someone has finally pointed out how serious it can be. A doctor will never turn you away if you think you have cellulitis.

Cellulitis is a skin infection.

Bites will swell and be sore. What makes cellulitis different is that it spreads extensively - usually towards the direction of the heart and often in a line. A 'normal' immune type reaction will typically remain circular around the wound.

It is an infection whichh is dangerous because it can easily turn into septicaemia. The same seticaemia which is associated with meningitis. That's how dangerous and rapidly deteriating it can be. That's not to say it always is, but I definitely think that raising awareness that a simple insect bite/sting can lead to cellulitis and cellulitis can lead to septicaemia which is potentially fatal. It is also.worth saying that cellulitis can result from any broken skin.

Only last week I ushered a friend off to OOH with a bee sting which was spreading. She is now being treated for cellulitis.

I had suspected cellulitis. I was lucky. It was at first mis-diagnosed as possible dvt (i was high risk and blood tests indicated raised markers for this). I walked around all weekend with it. Went for DVT scan Monday morning and sonographer said "i think that looks more like cellulitis". I went home and forgot all about it. I didn't know it was.such high risk - I was lucky.

Do antihistamines work?

I'm one of those people who have "tasty blood" and always seem to be a target for mosquitos. I treat every bite with a topical cream or ammonia ointment and then take an antihistamine if it gets itchy. Considering the countless bites I've had I've never had a reaction worse than swelling/itching/redness, and from this thread I'm starting to think I've been lucky rather than prepared!

Cellulitis from an insect bite is pretty unlikely. A reaction to a bite is more likely, but a bite being red or swollen is not an indicator of cellulitis, far more likely an allergy or localised reaction.

Oh, and if you went home, forgot all about it and nothing happened, you did not have cellulitis.

DD had a small insect bite on her foot.

It didn't look right so I took her to the doctor first thing in the morning.
Doctor said it was fine, suggested antihistamines.
Four hours laterit was much worse with a line tracking up her leg. Felt like a bit of an over anxious mum because the doctor said there was nothing wrong but asked my pharmacist to have a look anyway.

He said to go straight to A&E. They said if I had left her overnight she would have developed septaceamia.

Always trust your instincts if you feel something is wrong. Doctors can get it wrong sometimes and the speed of the infection spreading was unbelievable.