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?

DD1 has had cellulitis from chewing her finger skin about 3 times and also from a graze on her knee (which she then had an allergic reaction to the dressing and required the graze scrubbing out at walk-in clinic!).

Luckily it has always responded to oral anti-biotics but then she makes such a fuss (as it is so painful I really don't blame her) that it's never been more than a few hours before she's on anti-biotics (or covered in fucidin cream).

It would be good to have awareness raised as I imagine there are some people would would rather not see a Dr and will just eat painkillers until they are desperately ill.

I had this once from an insect bite on my finger one evening, by morning I was having trouble moving my arm, went to GP who gave me an Rx for some AB that had to be ordered in... I didn't realise how serious it was until I explained to a work colleague that i'd be in later once i'd tracked down the AB and how daft the GP was for specifying that particular AB that no one stocked - and she pointed out that if the GP had prescribed that very strong rarely prescribed antibiotic that it might be quite serious and I should take heed.

I had never heard of cellulitis until recently. Is it a new disease or a new name for an old one?

I'd never heard of it until a few years ago ...

DP went to the Dr. with a manky bite when we got back from travelling and the Dr. shooed him straight off to A 'n' E where they put his entire leg into a plaster cast ( think comedy ski-ing accident ) to stop the grot from spreading when he used the muscle ... Scary!

I had it a few years back from an insect bite. It's ruddy painful. The A&E nurse who spotted it said one of the distinctive signs is the water - instead of being hard and swollen, the affected limb or whatever is squidgy and clearly full of water under the skin. (Thank heavens for an experienced nurse - had the misfortune to be bitten in August, when A&E is staffed by baby doctors. Baby doctor told me it was a sprain. Even I knew it wasn't a sprain and I hadn't spent five years in medical school!)

I read something last year about a certain type of insect causing more of these reactions. I know 3 people who had it last year, which is a bit scary. One needed iv ab, other 2 got it earlier and just needed oral ab. The signs are quite easy to recognise once you've seen it once. Io recognised it in the second 2 immediately but one wouldn't listen (the one who ended up in hospital). All 3 were men. It's hard to get men to see a GP imo

My boss had this back in the spring. He had a bite or knock, and a tiny bit of broken skin. Within a week, his leg was black grey and purple, with a huge ulcer, and he ended up with septicaemia. He's a very driven man, and didn't go to the gp as he was too busy. He was told he could have died!

I've had several nasty horse fly bites this summer, my paddock is full of them! They become large and hot, I'm worried now!

I got cellulitis in my leg after an insect bite I got at a school end-of-term celebration. It was a lovely evening so they decided to be posh and serve champagne fizzy plonk in the quadrangle, ironically it was about the only one I enjoyed.

The bite being hot, swollen, etc didn't bother me too much but when I started to feel ill I knew it was more than the usual bite.

I've had this twice.

The first time I spent three days in hospital - I left it too long to seek help ....

The second time I recognised it straight away and got emergency appt at docs and the necessary anti biotics and spent the following few days at home with my leg up - id drawn around the swelling in black market pen so that I could see if it got any worse

Both from insect bites

I ultra cautious now

I think cellulitis used to be called dropsy?

My mum ended up in ITU when she had cellulitis in her throat. Many people haven't even heard of it, it's scary stuff.

Dropsy is a non specific term for swelling caused by fluid build up. It is certainly a symptom but can have other causes.

i had it during an ear infection... it was AMAZINGLY painful, no way could i have ignored it. so very sad to hear about your friend, sheepgomeep.

oh yes re drawing round bites with pen, that's what i do with the kids.

I got cellulitis from a manicure once - it started where she had pushed back the cuticle on one of my fingers. The next day I had an itchy red line right up my finger, which by lunchtime had spread up my hand to my wrist. Mid afternoon it was on its way to my elbow when I pointed it out to a colleague who panicked. More to placate her than anything else I called my OB GYN, who was the only doctor I knew in that city, and she told me to come in immediately and paged a dermatologist friend of hers.

The dermatologist told me that without the massive dose of antibiotics she was prescribing me by evening it would have gone past my elbow - which woul dhave been very painful, but I'd have probably decided to leave it til morning. Except overnight it would have got to my shoulder, which would have been agony, and from the shoulder would have gone straight to the heart.

I was extremely lucky not to have been hospitalised, and, in fact, was lucky to have survived. Without my colleague's freak out reaction I'd quite posibly have left it til too late.

My mum got cellulitis which went undiagnosed and turned into septicaemia, which in turn shut her kidneys down. She nearly died and was in hospital for 8 weeks. She's still not quite right 2 years on.

So err YANBU.

I had it in my leg when I was 35 weeks pregnant...probably developed the way it did because of reduced circulation due to swelling from pre-eclampsia.

I was on IV antibiotics for 4 days and was allowed home after 6 days when a further course of oral antibiotics seemed to be providing further improvement.

At one point I thought I'd come out of hospital with no leg and no baby, nobody could tell me what was going on!

I was initially taken in beause DH found me asleep and shivering under a 13 tog duvet even though it was about 30 degrees outside, but I was sweating like a fat lass whore in church hot thing, and we assumed I had the flu. They did bloods and saw my white blood cell count was through the roof (which implies there is an infection somewhere in the body) and were trying to work out where (they get worried about amniotic fluid and womb infections and such) and then an astute nurse said "what's that" and poked my leg which had a small red mark on it.

By morning the small red mark had completely covered my leg and was spreading towards my thigh despite the IV antibiotics I'd been receiving overnight, so it was pretty rampant.

Dreadful shadowing and scarring at first like a burn mark, and it peeled as well, but it did gradually fade and by 18 months later was gone, and 5 years later (hell that went quick) its like it was never there.

But its nasty - if you have it, get it checked, once it spreads proper it just takes longer to get rid of and if it gets in your blood then you are fucked basically.