Gardeners take care, (was spiders).

 

from nmm1@cam.ac.uk contains these words:


   Spiders or no,  we should all be taking better care of our skin while
gardening.

   A fit strong gardener friend  has just had a very unpleasant bout of
cellulitis, starting on her face from a scratch while gardening.
  She  became so unwell she had to be admitted to hospital,  where she
spent five days on  intravenous antibiotics before they got the
infection under control.
  
  http://www.cks.nhs.uk/patient_information_leaflet/cellulitis

  Janet.

 

On Fri, 16 Apr 2010 15:57:38 +0100, Janet Baraclough wrote:


BTDTGTTS, twice...

The first time it came from no where, I didn't know what it was and
ignored the classic warning sign(*). The second was after a large but
basically superfical graze down my shin by large I mean an oval 4"
wide and 8" long...

(*) A tender possibly, mildly inflamed thus red track running
anywhere on a limb with a cut. On my first encounter the main site of
the cellulitis was on my leg just above the ankle, the red tracking
was on my inner upper leg and that tracking didn't last long, less
than a day. If you get the tracking get down to the Doctor that day
and be put onto a fairly stiff course of antibiotics otherwise you
will be in hospital being given 1 gram or more of intravenous
antibiotics every 4 hours...

Fascinating group of bacterium that cause cellulitis, many people
carry them as part of their natural skin flora, they are harmless
there. But if they get in and can multiply they produce an enzyme
that breaks down/weakens cell walls allowing them to spread and why
our normally very efficient immune system has a hard time overcoming
it. If it can, cellulitis can turn into septicemia and kill.

--
Cheers
Dave.