Zombie finger; or, A Young Man with a Staph Infection in the Spring

ew, dude

Interesting stuff - added it to my favorites.

EW, DUDE.

Oh man.... you drained it? With what?!?

Please don't say "rusty nail."

mizzchelle: Well, originally it got sore and I was prescribed erythromycin. I think. That wasn't doing anything and it got worse, and I kept banging it against doorways. It started to hurt pretty bad so I went to the uni health clinic. It was so swollen (this was on the weekend), but it was not filled with pus yet so the doc couldn't drain it or take a sample to see what it was.

I was then given Clindamycin. By the next day I could feel it full of pus. That night I couldn't sleep because it was so swollen so I used a needle that I dipped in rubbing alcohol to lance it, drained it (and believe me, it deflated like a mother, pus came out forever), and then I cleaned it out with hydrogen peroxide.

I went to see a hand surgeon at the uni health center later that weekend, and the nurse fussed at me for lancing it myself, but the surgeon told me that of course I should've lanced it.

All this from a hangnail.

Is it better now? Are you still on the Clinda?

I'm glad it's better now. These modern infections will kill a fellow.

fuz: Yeah, it got a little inflamed later and so I went to the emergency room in Brooklyn on a Friday evening I was so scared of dying of the STAPH.

I don't recommend it as a way to kill an evening.