Oh Shit ! I think I have cellulitis in both feet

[Chip (OP)]

4 months is an eternity -- how did you get the infection in the first place, if you don't mind me asking ?

[Chip (OP)]

Now home and feeling much better.

About to start the oral prep (500 mg every 6 hours on an empty stomach) for 10 days.

Apparently it may take 2-3 days before an improvement is seen.

It is a milestone for me because I am committed to staying off the needle forever. I had a good run, 2 years short of 40 years and i survived.

A wise man must recognise his limitations.

[DeadCat]

I know I am coming in alte so apologies for that. These past 2 weeks have been insane.

Before I saw the pics and before you said you went to the ER (Urent Care) I would have told you to start taking KEFLEX, 500 mg 4 times a day. However once the abscess poket has formed it needs surgical draining, IV antibiotics follwed then by Keflesx. (There are other oral antibiotics but they always gave me Keflex and it always worked.

The idfference is blood flow. Id the pocket forms and revents natural circulation the antibiotics are too late.Also DO NOT try to drain them youself with syringes . Repeated puctures can spread the inection and compound your problem. It takes sterile scalpels and irrigation under at least local aneshesia to allow return of regualr blood flow.

The firt time I had it, I had skin poppd in my tricep and I could not even use the arm until I had a fat shot of H in me. I finlly went to my MD and he immediatey called me a cab and told the emerrgencey room I wa coming in for an immediate drainage. Fortunately, they were kind enough to give me morphne every 4 hours for the entre week I was there, just to maintain my habit. Also, the nurse had pack and repack the ow emptied abcess with a surgical wick at least twice a day and that fucking hurt. They started with over 3 feet of the 3/4 inch wide wick and after a week it was down to abut a foot and they sent me home where a visiting nurse came by once a day to re-pack it for an additional week.

And that's how I first learned about cellulitus and abcesses.

[Dopeless Hopefiend]

@chipper
From shooting dope. Speedballs specifically. I had no more veins in my arms or hands so I started using my legs. I am 100% convinced that the coke is what started it. I was doing way too much, cut with who knows what. Missed shots turned into abcesses, then one got infected and it just snowballed. The 4 months I spent in the hospital wasn't all at once. It was spread out over about a 2 year period of time. They'd patch me up, get me on iv antibiotics for a week or two, then discharge me & send me to wound care, etc. Every time I'd get out & go right back to doing the same thing. I was in and out of various hospitals at least 5 times before I finally got lucky & met a surgeon in the ER who was actually willing to take a chance on trying to fix it once and for all. I think every other time the doctors just saw me as some junkie who wasn't gonna do anything different. They didn't want to invest their time & energy in helping someone they saw as beyond help, so it was easier for them to just do the bare minimum and send me on my way. But I finally ended up with a doctor who knew what he was doing and he admitted me. I stayed there a little over a month & had 2 surgeries/skin grafts. That finally took care of it. Well, I also got clean & went on MMT, so that probably helped lol.

[makita]

I have probably had over 30 abscesses and god knows how many bouts of cellulitis in my shooting lifetime.  Many of them were during my 6 month IV speedball run (which also ended in two massive, MRSA like necrotic infections in my forearms that were a whole dif beast).   

What I finally learned is to do a 5-10 min hot compress on EVERY FUCKING SHOT, no matter whether you think you missed or not.  When your veins are crappy this is what you have to do.  This helped me avoid many infections once I started doing it every time.  It brings more blood flow to the area (which is essential when all your veins are shit) which carries away the bad shit like strep, staph, etc. 

Just make it part of your routine.  I would finish the shot, wet a few paper towels under scalding hot water, squeeze out the excess water then hold them on the spot until it got cold.  As a preventative measure this is usually enough.  Might do it a 2nd time later in the night if it is still red or swollen after 4-8hrs.

I've heard varying things about massaging the compress.  I never did because I was told not to by needle exch. that it could spread the infection.  I think it works just as well without massage. 

I finally got able to tell very early on when an infection was forming and what kind it was likely to be, so I avoided a lot of hospital trips that way.  I do have scars all over my body from this: arms, legs, belly, chest, sternum, feet.  I should count them sometime. 

Also if you're shooting anywhere below the waist this is essential because blood flow is slower there and infection much much more likely.  Throw in used up veins and its like a bacteria's paradise. 

Also, hi.  Been busy with school.  Miss you guys.  Glad you're ok, chipper. 

[Dopeless Hopefiend]

@makita that's exactly what mine was too. A massive fucking MRSA infection in my thigh. God it was awful, and I'm positive it was because I was doing speedballs every time. I shot heroin for years before that & had plenty of abcesses, but that's all they were and I treated most of them myself at home. This shit was nothing like a regular abcess. Not only did it almost kill me because I waited so long to go to the hospital, but even once they were able to get me stable they still thought they were going to have to cut my leg off for the first 5 days I was there. It was pretty horrific. I'm glad we both lived through it.

[makita]

43710018.jpg (93.82 kB . 797x520 - viewed 742 times)

Me too, Dopeless Hopefiend

These are the scars I still have from mine.  Mine wasn't actually MRSA specifically (it was before MRSA became common); it wasnt necrotizing fasciitis either.  It was a weird thing: it was very slow moving.  I never got a full workup or had the bacteria typed--I saw the wound clinic people at needle exchange and they actually told me that because it wasn't either of those things I could treat it at home, which I did.  The thinking was that if I went to the ER they would want to do surgery that might make me lose more of my arms than just letting it heal itself.  They gave me all the stuff I would need to debride it, do bandage changes, gave me dif creams etc to help w debriding and healing (this papain stuff that would dissolve the dead tissue, it smelled like bananas...and then silvadene to kill bacteria and help it heal). 

It was a necrotic infection, but it seemed to be more from the coke eating the flesh than bacteria: it wasn't spreading at all, and once I stopped shooting coke it stopped happening and then it was just a long debriding/healing process. 

I think now it might have been a levamisole reaction, but this was before anyone knew about levo in coke (like very early 2000s).

This was a crazy time in my life and the idea now of doing basically surgery on myself every day seems fucking nuts, but there you have it.

[Chip (OP)]

Wow. I wonder how you took that photo.

You guys are hardcore, I've got nothing to complain about.

This thread has turned into both one of great advice and scar porn.

You guys are bloody tough, no doubt about it.

Mine are healing nicely and the spare needles are staged for destruction.

I appreciate all the good advice too so thank you for the support.

[Griffin]

I have had nasal cellulitis a few times, it all started when I pierced my nose with a safety pin and went to hard and when it went through the nostril and I pushed into the inside of my nose(in the septum), it became infected and almost ate through to the other side, but luckily I don't have a deviated septum. Since then every single time I snorted coke my nose got infected and I had to go to the doc to get a topical antibiotic and he said some people just have to much or not enough bacteria in their nose and even the slightest scratch can turn into it.

I didn't realize cellulitis was such a serious thing and was different then what I had, glad yours is healing chipper, I have luckily never had an abscess can't imagine trying to deal with that, especially if you have a habit, on top of getting treated like a murderer at hospitals for being a drug user. Hopefully healthcare in America will someday be about health care and there won't be so much judgement preventing that.

[Dopeless Hopefiend]

Wow @makita. I sure can relate. Luckily mine was in one of my thighs so it's pretty easy to hide. It's pretty heinous though. Especially because I was severely underweight (go figure😉) both when I got the infection and when it finally healed enough to have a skin graft. Then I got on MMT and gained a million pounds, so that made it look way worse. It had gone through the muscle & everything so when I put on weight, I just gained it around the scar. Sucks, but I guess it's just part of the game.

[Thoms]

@chipper I wish you the best of luck at dropping the needle man. We been off the pins for just over 3 months:)

[Chip (OP)]

@Thoms, thank you for the supportive words bro' and i am not going back to the needle, I've done so much of it, my time is over and as I can still get my thrills from a pipe so it's not a total cessation of indulgence.

I can then stop worrying about sending myself to ER. The 4th. and final time has made me appreciate better health consequences from such decisions.

As long as I stick to my tweak weekly, I feel that I'm in control and not the drug.

Do i miss the instant gratification of the needle ? you damn bet i do but the price is now too high and i also still envy those who enjoy good health in their IV practices, but i'm done. You can hold me to that.

Thanks again !