A few months ago I had gone into the doctor because what I thought was a spider bite had grown in inflation and irriation to the size of my entire hand over the course of a few days. My doctor informed me that had I waited another 24 hours or so to come in, he would have had to apuptate my leg! The reason was not that I had been bitten, but because I had drainined the bite, and Staph had infected it. If you have a bite you could drain it and it could heal, or staph could get in it and infect you. Luckily the disease did not get into my blood stream. Though, I do I have a nasty little purple scar.
The thing is, when I went in, my doctor performed sugery immediately in his office to cut out the puss and fill the 3/4in diamater hole, that went 3/4in deep, with medicated cotton. I got pain medicine and antibiotics and was sent on my way. In the days before I simply could have just been given antibiotics. Before that, I could have even just left my spider bite alone and washed my hands more often, preventing the whole thing!
Interestingly enough there has recently been a death in Brooklyn of a
teen with Staph. When I was in high school the whole football team
passed it around, I knew it was common, I did not know the disease had evolved into some fatal strains. So, be aware this is easily spread, and can be fatal. Every once in a while throughout your day, please take the time to wash your hands. Staph now totals deaths higher than that of AIDS annually, and it is really easy to wash your hands to help prevent it, and get treatment if you think you are infected.
http://www.cnn.com/2007/HEALTH/10/25/bacteria.staph/index.html
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