On 7/2/07 12:35, in article
, "Dave Liquorice"
wrote:

On Wed, 07 Feb 2007 10:53:19 +0000, Sacha wrote:

Consequently, on Sunday morning he was in so much pain and his hand so
swollen, with the pain travelling up his arm, that he had to go to our
local hospital for a tetanus jab and has been put on hefty antibiotics.

Oh that sounds more like cellulitis, particularly the travelling up the
arm bit. Any broad red lines below the skin surface?

No, thank goodness. I was on the look out for that myself. The hand has
been very red and swollen and in fact, having seen the doc this morning, the
doc is ringing a bacteriologist for info on another type of antibiotic to
take in addition to he's already taking. Reassuringly, he did say that the
hospital had done the right thing but that he would have hoped to see much
less swelling in the hand. This makes me glad that I put my foot down with
a firm hand and made him see the doc today.

If it is cellulitis it needs to be taken very seriously. I got the red
tracking in my leg just before christmas a year or two back, didn't think
much of it at first but ended up in hospital for four days being given
antibiotic injections by the gramme (not 1/4 or 1/2 gramme as is the
normal dose) every four hours. Off work for four weeks...

Some years ago a friend of mine got septicaemia and the doctors reckoned he
was about two hours away from death by the time he got to hospital. They
have no idea what caused it but think it might have been a scratch from a
rose thorn.

--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)