thorn of doom - *** UPDATED **
 

My friend poked her thumb with rose thorn. Eight hours later, her thumb was black. Red lines coursed up her arm. She felt sick. Luckily, she dragged herself to the hospital.

The doctor said that she was infected with some sort of badass necrotizing bacteria.

After five days is the hospital, she was released. She’ll be on IV antibiotics (adminstered at home) for another three weeks. She is REALLY sick and in a lot of pain. The doctor told her that they will “try” to save her thumb.

A rose thorn.

Fuck me!

Is the bacteria natural to the rose? or was it from fertilizer or something--

Damn, that's pretty scary...

(I was really expecting this to be an amusing clavus adventure in gardening -- damn... :( It's not funny when it's happening to someone else)

Hope she'll be ok

This gives me an excuse next time I "forget" to buy my girlfriend roses for a special occasion. Think she will believe I was trying to protect her? Nah, me either.

Sorry to hear about that though. I never would have imagined.

Hmmm, glad I fell in love with my SO at first sight, I can get her thornless roses, hehe...

Thats terrible tho... I have a picture somewhere of me holding a rose tightly, and blood dripping down the stem, not gonna do that again...

wow!! that's really crazy sounding. Good wishes to your friend. Guess the phrase "It's the little things that kill" really is true huh? (luckily the last part wasn't true this time)

Geez Clavus, I hope she turns out to be fine. I thought the word "necrotize" only ever meant something to do with spider/snake bites or wounds from other animated organisms, but not plant's! (Yes, I know they're animated, but not in the sense that most people think of!) :D

I've grown just about everything (including native N. American strains of plants from Montechello, which is Thomas Jefferson's home, for those of you who might not know), but not roses yet. I don't think I'll take them up...

You learn something new everyday!

Scary.

Ali

Damn, that sucks.

*jumps on the wish her luck train with others*

Note to self: be careful around roses. Get lily!!

Just a couple of notes:

1) Sorry, this wasn't an amusing tale. I'll write about my epic battle with office insects soon. Will that make ya happy?

2) The rose was not to blame. The bacteria might have been on the rose, or on her skin, or on something she touched after her skin was punctured. But roses are not dangerous...though I suppose they could be linked to sexually transmitted diseases...

3) Staph is most likely the culprit. A little bit can kill ya, and it is everywhere. Staph is what caused my "footgina." Staph is what took out the UC Davis quarterback last year. Wash your hands. Disinfect even the little scratches.

I wish her best!

Wash your hands.....I say it all the time. My spouse is sick of hearing it, but he knows I'm right. Wash your wrists as well, not just your fingers. And use soap and warm water. Wash for at least 15-20 seconds. There are so many germs that we come in contact with every day. It's a scary world. Clavus, I hope your friend will be okay.

Screw that. Hand-washing and bacteria-killing only let your immune system go soft! Pick your nose, eat your snot, bite your nails, and scratch your bottom. Expose yourself to a regular dose of assorted bacteria, and your immune system will grow up big and strong!

Don't make me whip out my foot picture again.

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I laughed when I read this, but I actually believe whole heartedly in the proper building of one's immune system.

I've heard of similiar situations from something as small as a paper cut. Best to your friend.

*** Thumb update***

Well, my friend got REALLY sick. She is just starting to recover enough to do things like walk around the block. Here is part of the text of an email she sent me. Remember WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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A thumb seems like trivial information when we are about to have elections and there is lots of real news, but in my little sphere, the thumb is a big deal. I saw the hand surgeon today—a wonderfully attentive man—who said that after two or three weeks more of IV antibiotics he will operate on the thumb. It will actually be two surgeries. He will cut a big rectangle of tissue off the index finger and while the end of the rectangle is still attached to the finger, he will sew the portion of the index finger onto the thumb, then he will encase the two fingers together for two or three weeks. The theory being that while the tissue gets a blood supply from the index finger, the flap will graft onto the thumb. Then when the graft looks healthy, it will be separated from the finger. Very clever. It doesn’t sound fun, but much more encouraging than the meat cleaver idea. Even though it sounds painful and time consuming, I think a thumb is a pretty important thing to save.

A more critical health issue is the fact that the infection has done a real number on my pancreas. I was discharged from the hospital with syringes, and insulin and a chart of when to give how much insulin. I take about three shots a day and have to test my blood sugar levels about five times a day. The big hope is that all this is temporary and that as the body heals, the pancreas will too. The difficult part isn’t giving myself shots; it is figuring out the amount of insulin that is hard. I guess the big danger is too much. Apparently it is easy to lose a few million brain cells if you overdose on insulin. I think I am already teetering on the brink of Alzheimer’s. I have no extra neurons to spare. I will have to be careful.
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So there you have it. One day you are holdign a rose, the next day you have your index finger sewn to your diseased thumb, and your pancreas is shot.

Amazing. This stuff actually happens to people other than me.

It's easy to say "it's just a freak accident, it won't happen to me." So with that in mind, it's just a freaky accident that turned out badly. I'm not going to worry about it, because i'm sure it won't happen to me.

Sorry about your friend clavus. I hope she makes a full recovery.

:( damn . . . . .

dayum... that's truly freaky....

I just felt the urge to scream just then. Good thing I didn't. Not that that sort of thing disturbs me to the point of actually screaming...shit no! I'm a man dammit! (grabs crouch!) FUCK YEAH!

Asta!!