Your Mother was right - That splinter could make your finger drop off.

[SussexExpat]

Last year I contracted cellulitis after being bitten three times on the foot by ants.

Foot swelled up, went red and was hot. Put my feet up, but as the OP says, when you stand up the pain is excruciating. Wife told me not to be a whimp and it would clear up in a few days. That was until she mentioned it to a friend who knew someone who had died with similar problems. True or not I don't know. Hobbled off to hospital pronto for tetanus and other injections. Daily visits for intravenous anti-biotics. Cleared up reasonable quickly but left scars where bitten.

[natway09]

Many thanks for your tale of woe. I certainly want to hear when all is well again, so please report. Wish you well.

My Scottish mate fell over the coffee table one night (a few sherbets in) & gave himself a small open wound. Went to bed by himself (his wife in the village. Next morning went to 7/11 tinctured & dressed it. Too late.Went blue & then black.T cut a long story short

10 weeks later had 500 g of flesh surgically removed & 6 weeks later again off his lower leg. Colour photos are ghastly.

If in doubt even the smallest scratch does not hurt to wash in disinfectant.

[fantom]

May I suggest that us gentlemen of a certain age tend not to look after our feet as well as we should.

Here in Thailand we can regularly have our toe nails trimmed and cleaned and have a full pedicure for a small fee. I have done this for years and can thoroughly recommend it. My tootsies are the envy of all!!!

A small measure of prevention and worth every satang

[emilymat]

I had a friend in Pattaya who would wander around his hotel room in bare feet. I advised him not to do so.

Anyway, he got a splinter (?) in the sole of his foot and his Thai girlfriend tried to extract it, but was unsuccessful.

Anyway, he ignored it and some couple of weeks later ended up in intensive care at BPH at 40,000 baht a night, whilst they cut his leg open all down the side in order to save it being amputated due to the spread of infection. Fortunately he recovered, but it was touch and go and hit his wallet badly.

When anyone visits me I advise them it is not necessary to remove footwear - ala the Thai tradition. Even though I keep my house really clean, you can never be certain.

(I don't know what the spliter was, or indeed whether it was an insects barbed lance - like a bee)

[JacChang]

The nurses are the only reasons people go to hospitals.

[augustwest]

I use Betadine (Thai brand iodine).

f

I think Betadine is a surgical wash. But if you want to buy a bottle of iodine,I went to more than 10 pharmacies and was told-no have! My wife also told Thailand mai mee. Looking at my bottle with a few drops left I read the label and then asked wife if she can get tincture of iodine. She replied TINCTURE OF COURSE I CAN GET TINCTURE! Just a heads up anybody looking to buy iodine,just ask for tincture

[hocuspocus]

I use tincture of iodine on any cut immediately. A friend fell into a hole and tore up his leg and at home cleaned wound with peroxide next morning could barely walk. Took him 2 weeks to overcome the infection!

Similar thing happened to me what happened to Crossy when my right leg got infected but I was living in Greece. Iodine is great initially but some inexperienced doctors (when i returned to the clinic every 2 or 3 days) pushed an iodine swab into the cut. Iodine kills all new cell growth so the cut never healed and I ended up with a bad infection and ended up in hospital on an intravenous drip for three days and that reduced the infection but in the end I had to return to a hospital in the UK for better treatment. When I returned to the clinic after a couple of months I can remember a doctor was surprised that I still had two legs.All they did in the UK hospital was to clean the cut with iodine and left it to heal and after 5-6 days it was healing well.

[BusyB]

Or worse ... it can be a killer.

I had first hand indirect experience of that when my father noticed a red line snaked up my brother's arm that was approaching his shoulder. He was medically savvy enough to realise it was advanced septicaemia and got him straight to the hospital emergency room. The cause was, yes, a small splinter in his finger that hadn't been removed properly because it hadn't bothered him.

The message was reinforced in Malaysia with the army. It was hammered into us to wash, antiseptic and cover every scratch however minor.

I always take a tube of Savlon with me to Thailand and keep a couple of plasters in my daypack. Have used them many times - the number of jagged edges, raised and rickety footpaths and places to skin your bonce etc is ridiculous but we all know that.

Savlon is also good for sweat rash in the crotch as well.

Lucky escape.

Edited July 26, 2016 by BusyB

[Crossy]

Probably a bit late for those having lunch, but the images in Post #29 now need to click the link to display.

[MiKT]

Probably a bit late for those having lunch, but the images in Post #29 now need to click the link to display.

Don't work for me mate and I can't understand it, so would you mind explaining it in simple baby steps for me. ta

and hurry up I am just going to eat.

555

[Daffy D]

In my early wandering days I always carried a bottle of Mercurochrome.

This came with a handy little brush that made it easy to apply, and when dried would form a nice purple cover over the affected area to keep it clean.

Don't see Mercurochrome anymore these days.

I admit to being a wimp and have not viewed any of the images What you don't know can't hurt you

[Crossy]

Seems the images have gone from the cache. I have local copies. I'll fix it when I have my PC.

Meanwhile, just seen the doc again. Things are much better, but I'm going to be doing the IV stuff for several more days

[denby45]

Great story but I missed the bit where they removed the splinter or am I going senile again?

Den

[MiKT]

Great story but I missed the bit where they removed the splinter or am I going senile again?

Den

You don't want to know, they took the splinter out of his foot via his oooooooooooooh, that's why the photo's have been banned.

[Crossy]

It wasn't a splinter, that's journalistic licence, the source of the infection was a tiny pressure blister. It's in the OP.

Just heading out for the latest IV session.

[GuestHouse]

Glad to hear you recovered Crossy, a colleague of mine is this evening in the ICU of a Brazilian hospital suffering septicaemia that he contracted from a small cut to one of his feet. He is now expected to survive.

[Crossy]

The images in Post #29 now work again, behind a "Spoiler" tab, don't open if squeamish or eating.

Do note, these are NOT me.

[MiKT]

Sorry to hear about your current foot problem. A small piece of advice from one who is suffering.

Was an in-patient for a week in a local hospital for 2 operations to remove abcesses. Shortly after release from hospital, my right foot turned blue. A week later all my toes on that foot had turned black. The surgeon/doctor was very good, and said that he would try to stop the gangrene from spreading to my foot, otherwise it would be a foot amputation. Not a good idea I thought. However, although after many daily visits to the A & E, they managed to remove the black from my toes, when he went to cut away the black on the big toe, their was a lot more damage than he had at first thought. Consequently he amputated my big toe in A & E. Only took 30 minutes, but not stitched, I was told it would heal eventually. Still going back to hospital for dressing changes to the operation wounds and the toe, after nearly 4 months. Now I know the staff in A & E very well.

Look after your injury. The time taken to get serious is very short.

Good luck.

WARNING GRAPHIC IMAGES!

post-214174-0-62830400-1469508720.jpg

post-214174-0-66348300-1469508751.jpg

post-214174-0-53632800-1469508775.jpg

Blimy that's terrible, I do hope you make a full recovery and your mobility is not in any way impaired.

Can you (please) explain what abscess were removed, how you got them in the first place and if the post-op infection and gangrene (must have been really scary) were the result of less than adequate care during the medial processes?

Or were you running round the Antarctic and got frostbite?

I had a similar (but fortunately much less dramatic) scare last year when after donkeys years of pain and lots of lesser operations to cure my persistent ingrowing toenail (I had the nail removed 5 times in Singapore in the 80's), the splendid doc at Bangkok Hospital Pattaya finally removed the complete nail bed of my left big toe with strong warnings to keep the opp site dry and clean.

But immediately after the opp I had to go to work in KL (still wearing open toe sandals) and the office loo's were filthy and waterlogged and despite my best efforts I got an infection in the toe.

I got basic treatment and strong antibiotics from one local clinic but it got worse and I eventually went to a Japanese clinic where an excellent Chinese doctor managed to lance my toe and remove a lot of puss and infection, but she was so worried about gangrene setting in that she sent me to the main hospital in KL.......... who were basically bloody useless.

Fortunately after daily cleaning treatments she managed to stop the infection and I eventually made a full recovery. The toe looks a bit funny now and I have to be careful not to knock it, but otherwise ok.

For those with lesser but persist ingrowing toenails, the super Doc in BH Pattaya does a nice line in a minor opp that slices off the side of the nail and toe; and that cures most of the problems. I have had this done on two other toes and its very effective and it does not take very long to recover. All under local anesthetic and not much pain, but great relief for the toes.

It is fortunate that Thailand has such really good medical care and fantastic doctors (and of course the lovely nurses)at such cheap prices.

Thailand is by far the best in Asia for medical care, including Korea, Taiwan, HK and Singapore, all of which I have sampled personally, not to mention India and Bangladesh, which are not at all impressive and often suffer from fake drugs (and sometimes fake doctors). I got a terrible throat infection in Delhi once caused by the dirty food/utensils and was given antibiotics that did not work. When I got home to LoS I found out they were fake.

Get better NOW Crossy, that's an order. 555.

[harrry]

The nurses are the only reasons people go to hospitals.

But our friend Crossy is married. So like all good thai wives she will go to the hospital with him to make sure he is taken care of does not get led ast​ray by the nurses.

[blackcab]

Any update Crossy?

[Crossy]

OK now the forum is back

Finished the IV antibiotics on Sunday morning, now on horse pills for a week to clear up the stragglers.

Swelling much reduced and now everything is a more sensible colour, pain limited to stiffness in the big toe where the remnants of the infection are putting up a valiant last stand.

Back at work with my foot on a stool.

EDIT And that was definitely the world's most expensive blister. Medical costs just shy of 60k Baht thus far, plus *,000 USD in lost income

 

[Crossy]

 

Well, doc has put me on a reduced oral antibiotic for another week

 

Things are much, much better, but toe is still quite red and stiff, still general swelling of the lower leg.

 

[harrry]

Now that blister could have occured at work couldn't it?

Hope it improves.  

[MiKT]

1 hour ago, harrry said:

Now that blister could have occured at work couldn't it?

Hope it improves.  

 

 

Na, he never wears shoes at work!

 

Keep fighting it Crossy and get some decent work shoes.

 

 

 

 

[blackcab]

Does beer affect your recovery?

[MiKT]

2 minutes ago, blackcab said:

Does beer affect your recovery?

 

2 minutes ago, blackcab said:

Does beer affect your recovery?

 

 

For gawds sake don't say that, I can't afford to come back for his funeral right now!