Hi all

I seem to have spontaneously developed cellulitis in my right ankle/foot 12 days ago. No obvious injury/bite/infection as a precursor.

I’m on day 8 of antibiotics and the swelling has gone down a little. It’s still very painful to walk on it.

Have any of you had it and what was your experience?

Thanks

Not me, but my youngest daughter, 3 years ago, so she was 8 or so. Broke her big toe, A&E didn’t spot the break, the toe became inflamed, and over the course of one afternoon she became more and more ill until I got home and saw what was happening. She spent a week or so in hospital on a drip and was back and forth to the hospital for most of the year with a couple of surgeries. She was lucky not to have her toe amputated. Also, lucky that we caught the infection in time, because if she’d been left for a few more hours…………doesn’t bear thinking about.

Good luck with yours – it’s not pleasant – and treat it with care.

Yep!  Hope you’re not eating…

I got it in my elbow a few years back, big swelling that got redder and puffier over a couple of days.

Took Antibiotics and it sorted itself over the course of a week, during which it became apparently what caused it as a tiny bite developed from pinprick to whitehead/blister, which upon squeezing would generate an alarming amount of pus/blood mix.

It’s final act was to produce a pea sized lump of green stuff (not actually a pea) after which it healed up very quickly. Though I still have a divot in my arm.

Yup ended up in A@E with it on my knee. It was the gift that kept on giving for a few weeks. It had no real outwardly symptoms until that day in A@E.
2 weeks it took to untill I could put my knee on the floor.

Thanks all – must admit it’s been very painful to date

Yes 3 times twice in my left leg and once in the right, ended up on a drip last Feb!

I have Varicose Eczema which makes it worse, my lower legs look like someone has poured boiling water over them and the skin is very easy to damage. I have to be careful with insect bites or cuts. Usual advanced notice is a fever.

I had a road bike crash about 20 years over the bars and the impact was on the side of my knee. A bit of gravel rash but I cleaned it up and got on with it. About ten days later my leg started to swell went to A&E was given antibiotics by a nurse never saw a doctor.

The next day my now wife came home to find me out of it on the couch with a leg like an elephant. I was in hospital on IV antibiotics for a fortnight until eventually they had to cut all the necrotic tissue away and then spent months packing the wound out for it to heal.

Keep an eye on it and if starts to detoriate I’d get back to the doctors

Twice here – face once which was not at all nice. Second time was a few years later on my elbow. Elbow one was from the smallest of grazes (more like carpet burn) from the inside of an elbow pad in a fall.

Both cases antibiotic tablets sorted it pretty quickly (enjoy them while we have them) – though the doctors were full of warnings about needing admitted if we’d waited a few hours to come in.

Yep. Had it in my right ankle about 8 years ago. Bloody painful. Ended up in A&E after ignoring it for 3 days. The nurse drew round the infection when I went in an hour later it had spread about 2″ further up my leg and sores opening up. Ended up on stupidly strong antibiotics on an IV drip for 2 weeks. Once you have it you need to be careful though as you will be susceptible to it again.

I had it in my arm. It felt a bit swollen but I wasn’t concerned. Went to see GP and they sent me straight to A&E for an overnight stay on IV antibiotics. It was the day John Smith, former head of the Labour Party died.

My mum had it in one of her legs. It got so bad at one point, they considered amputation. She lived with it for 30 years in the end, but it never got properly right.

Yeah it’s horrible. Got it in 2018 through a gash on my knee from an mtb accident. No knee pads – always wear them now.

Actually thought it was clean and ok then after a couple of weeks I suddenly developed a high temperature / shivering and my knee swelled up like an elephants knee. Went to A&E and was in there in several iv antibiotic drops for a week. When I came out I was taking a multitude of other antibiotics for a week or so.

The nurse had a field day just before I left hospital squeezing puss out of the wound when it had started to seep. She took a weird pleasure in it!

You do become succeptable to getting it again quite easily – later in the same year I bashed the same knee and managed to cut it through knee pads that got ripped down in a crash (do not recommend 661 recons – you’re much better off with Fox launch d30). Went straight to a&e where they cleaned it out but refused to give me antibiotics. 2 days later whilst on holiday in devon I then had to go looking for a minor injuries unit to get antibiotics as it massively swelled up again. Luckily I caught it early enough not to need iv antibiotics that time.

I’m on day 8 of antibiotics and the swelling has gone down a little. It’s still very painful to walk on it.

Stay off it as much as possible was the advice given to Mrs Sandwich who usually gets infected after an insect bite.

I had it in my foot – diagnosed fairly early because my flatmate had had it a couple of months earlier. Went to A&E with it and they put me on IV antibiotic and we worked out a schedule where I’d come back in for my next doses as I was living nearby. Went in the next day with a bit of a rash so they opted to try a different antibiotic which made me waaay worse so I ended up admitted for about a week and sent home for bed rest for another week. tuenrs out I’m allergic to a few antibiotics.

It really helped to keep weight off it and keep it elevated.

I had once from an insect bite (possibly a hornet) whilst camping near Mount St Helens in Washington…

Normally, I would have ignored it seeing as I was on holiday in the middle of nowhere but, luckily, my other half is a nurse and insisted we drive 60 odd miles to the nearest town to get an emergency doctors appointment for an antibiotic prescription…

Also lucky that the doctors appointment and prescription where covered by insurance seeing as I was in the US…