Author Topic: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!  (Read 2484 times)

Jules

  • Has dropped his aitch!
Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« on: 02 September, 2012, 01:49:24 pm »
I came up with a slight lump on my back last Tuesday. I  was in Italy, temperatures were in the low 30s so I thought it was the result of either an insect bite or as a reaction to another brand of washing power as that's a problem  I've had before and that it would clear up in a few days.

By Thursday it had got a bit bigger but was just generally inflamed so I wasn't worried and decided to get it looked at in the UK if it hadn't gone down by then. We spent Friday and Saturday driving back to the UK with plenty of delays (P&O's new superferry on the Dover-Calais route is broken) and arrived back late last night. Mrs Jules had a quick prod and was a bit shocked as it was now leaking blood and pus and my entire back was red and inflamed so insisted on driving me to the our local NHS walk-in centre at 8am today.

Quickly seen by a nurse practioner with the good news that it was badly infected and that we needed to go a  bigger A&E as it might need some serious exploration that I wouldn't want to be awake for, we went off to the West Middlesex. After only 90 mins wait (tip - A&E on Sunday morning is a good deal) I was expertly locally anesthetized, cut open, scraped out, re-anesthetized with apologies -  "I wasn't expecting it to go that deep."

Unfortunately the location of the lump meant I couldn't watch but Mrs Jules (she's a scientist) was fascinated by the way the doctor's fingers fitted inside the hole and asked all the right questions. The answers apperently are "5cm" (how the hell you can have a 5cm deep hole in your skin!?), "It smells like cheese" - she had a sniff but couldn't identify the type,  and "yes - he will have a permanent dent."

The doctor went off to get me two different types of antibiotic (excellent service - no queue and no fee) and a jolly nurse came in and spent 10 mins packing the hole.)


I now have about 2 weeks of dressing changes to come - I'm strongly advised to take pain killers before I go so they sound they are going to be fun too.
Audax on the other hand is almost invisible and thought to be the pastime of Hobbits ....  Fab Foodie

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #1 on: 02 September, 2012, 01:55:20 pm »
Infected sebaceous cysts smell  :sick: foul.
GWS!

It's not difficult to achieve a 5cm depth.
2.5 cm lump gets infected and swells but only gets significantly proud of surface when it gets infected.

Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #2 on: 02 September, 2012, 11:59:21 pm »


After only 90 mins wait (tip - A&E on Sunday morning is a good deal)


But go before the Sunday morning footballers arrive. DAMHIKT.

GWS Jules.


Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #3 on: 03 September, 2012, 01:29:39 am »
Do the dressings include having to poke thin lint bandage into the hole with tweezers? That's what mrs j had to do with mine. It was supposed to reduce the hole left behind, and if it did, then that hole was quite big!
It is simpler than it looks.

Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #4 on: 03 September, 2012, 03:19:18 am »
There are some awesome videos on YouTube of people draining abscesses.

Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #5 on: 03 September, 2012, 10:59:57 am »
There are some awesome videos on YouTube of people draining abscesses.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEeMJgV75nQ

Next Monday I have to have a cyst removed from my groin :-[, not looking forwards to that, I've been told I maybe there for three hours.

Jules

  • Has dropped his aitch!
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #6 on: 03 September, 2012, 03:51:40 pm »
Do the dressings include having to poke thin lint bandage into the hole with tweezers? That's what mrs j had to do with mine. It was supposed to reduce the hole left behind, and if it did, then that hole was quite big!

That's what was done to me and I was told to make an appointment at my GP to get the practice nurse to change the dressing by Wednesday at the latest. I've got a grudging appointment for tomorrow pm and told no chance after that until next week so I guess we'll either end up doing it ourselves or going for the permanent 2" deep hole in the back option. The latter sounds it might be fun for scaring  small children and as useful storage for those small items you always want with you.
Audax on the other hand is almost invisible and thought to be the pastime of Hobbits ....  Fab Foodie

Jules

  • Has dropped his aitch!
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #7 on: 03 September, 2012, 04:00:55 pm »
There are some awesome videos on YouTube of people draining abscesses.
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/iEeMJgV75nQ&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/iEeMJgV75nQ&rel=1</a>

Next Monday I have to have a cyst removed from my groin :-[, not looking forwards to that, I've been told I maybe there for three hours.

Just like that! Mine was about the same size but at the bottom of my back so I was lying down - and mine was removed professionally so the contents didn't squirt all over the room. With a local anaesthetic it didn't hurt at all and it's not presently painful.

You'll be fine and hopefully will be able to watch ;D
Audax on the other hand is almost invisible and thought to be the pastime of Hobbits ....  Fab Foodie

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #8 on: 03 September, 2012, 04:09:54 pm »
It will close up even if you don't dress it but it will heal fastest if the cavity is cleaned frequently.
Dressings are useful to protect clothing and bedding.

Jules

  • Has dropped his aitch!
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #9 on: 03 September, 2012, 05:50:25 pm »
Surely if I insert an old plastic 35mm film cannister into the void it will stay open and provide me a useful place to odds and ends to hand?

(only joking)

(srsly - On-line I read that the dressing should be changed every day. The hospital said Tuesday or not later that Wednesday and gave me the impression that it was going to seep and that seepage was good. The dressing inside the wound now pretty sodden and the field dressing has fallen off because of the tremendous amount of sweat my body generated last night in its titanic fight to kill off the infection.

Is it OK to leave this to tomorrow or is it likely to lead to reinfection if I don't get this replaced ASAP. I'm on Flucloxacillin and Co-amoiclav so impressed that anything at all can live in my blood at present?
Audax on the other hand is almost invisible and thought to be the pastime of Hobbits ....  Fab Foodie

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #10 on: 03 September, 2012, 06:36:48 pm »
Leaving it probably won't harm you.

What this does to your clothes, close ones and used-to-be-close ones is another matter.

If you have some gauze, just stick it to the outside of the hole with tape. You won't do yourself any harm cleaning the hole out any way you can or fancy. It's full of bugs and plain tap water has fewer. You're on antibiotics anyway (but they only work where there is blood circulating, which is NOT in that cavity).

Jules

  • Has dropped his aitch!
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #11 on: 03 September, 2012, 07:01:15 pm »
Thanks Helly - My good lady has just come home with a large pad of cotton wool, gauze  and some tape and is planning to tidy my offensive parts so the world won't be shocked. Strangely I  feel quite disconnected to this - probably because I'm still a bit feverish and because I can't see what's happening.
Audax on the other hand is almost invisible and thought to be the pastime of Hobbits ....  Fab Foodie

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #12 on: 03 September, 2012, 07:30:05 pm »
I had one on the back of my neck, which sort of lay dormant as a hard lump for 10 years and then flared up bigtime.  A week of antibiotics sorted it and it has now completely disappeared.
Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #13 on: 03 September, 2012, 07:32:48 pm »
Out of sight, out of mind, as they say. Backs aren't very sensitive, wife's nose may be and it will get closer to the hole than yours...

Jules

  • Has dropped his aitch!
Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #14 on: 05 September, 2012, 07:58:47 am »
News from the Front Back


Wound redressed yesterday afternoon by Practise Nurse. Now a work of art.  She's concerned that it is still infected and has scraped out a sample for analysis and suggests I might need a third type of antibiotic.

Need to keep close to the toilet at present. Interwebs seem to suggest that all healthy bacteria in the gut have been effectively slaughtered by the antibiotics and that the antibiotic-resistant strains are having a party. Body not having any of this! Symptoms don't quite appear to have crossed line of "notify your doctor" on the information sheet yet.

I guess I need to eat to make sure that my body has nutrients but not sure whether it's having time to extract any on their rapid journey. May eat a single sweetcorn kernel later and start stopwatch - is there a world record? Interwebs suggest probiotics might actually be useful in this case - does anyone have any experience of these?
Audax on the other hand is almost invisible and thought to be the pastime of Hobbits ....  Fab Foodie

Chris S

Re: Health advice of the day - get your lumps seen to early!
« Reply #15 on: 05 September, 2012, 09:00:16 am »
Got any codeine?  ;)

Not sure of any contraindications with your other drug cocktail (you would need to check) - but opiates bung you up nicely. Yogurt may also work, but it's less fun.