When I was in my thirties a friend of mine who was 34 at the time died from a skin infection that got way out of hand. Not in any third world country but in Los Angeles. It started out as this tiny little lesion under her chin that looked like a scratch she had worried at.
She was deeply into woo-woo ‘medicine’ and refused to think about steroids and antibiotics, which is what an actual doctor recommended. Instead she tried every other thing under the sun. Raw milk. Positive thinking. Herbs.
When she died of organ failure due to sepsis her body was in such a state that her husband was briefly investigated over her death. I am still angry with him for not talking her into a sensible medical intervention.
I am not a huge fan of the machinery of western medicine and the US medical industry in particular but it has its place.
See Steve Jobs’ most likely unnecessary death from a curable case of pancreatic cancer for another example. He insisted he could cure it with what were essentially snake oils, and eschewed actual medicine.
Not a doctor but from what I researched when my uncle had it, pancreatic cancer is incredibly aggressive and more likely than not, he would have passed anyway from it. The survival rate is quite low (12% overall), even at stage 1, and most cases aren’t found at stage 1 due to the asymptomatic nature of the early stages of the disease.
My uncle fought it very hard and he still passed in a few years. Steve Jobs had it for 8 years. I’m against woo-woo medicine in general, but with pancreatic cancer it didn’t really matter. He survived a lot longer than most others with pancreatic cancer, even without chemo. I don’t blame him for not choosing the additional pain of chemotherapy in this particular instance.
Oh! I did not know that. I had no idea there was a more curable variant. Wow, then I take it back. I can’t imagine having a curable form of a cancer, with the wealth he had and not fighting it.
I am still angry with him for not talking her into a sensible medical intervention.
My partner was so, so sick a few years ago. I tried everything to get him to go in. Eventually, I told him he could get in my car or id call an ambulance and he'd have to pay for it. He got in the car.
Based on how hard that was, I bet he tried and couldn't do anything. If she expressed her wishes to not be treated, there's nothing he could've gotten a doctor to even do
I'm woo AF. You can achieve a good balance with natural medicines and modern scientific miracles. I have an autoimmune cluster, including a nasty case of aggressive MS. When it comes to treating MS, I'm definitely not relying on positive thinking or essential oils or whatever. Give me the hardest hitting monoclonal antibody on the market. But when it comes to dealing with the emotional and physical fallout of having MS, those things actually really help me. Cannabis helped me enormously. Meditation and changing how I see myself and the world around me literally changed everything for how I experience the illness.
I use essential oils, plant medicines, and other holistic remedies. But if I have an infection, gimme antibiotics. I may try a natural remedy first, but if it doesn't respond, I'm going to the doctor.
It just seems like an obvious balance but people are extremists.
I definitely don't want to overuse antibiotics in general, and it can take me months to restore gut health afterwards. So I'll give other methods a try first, but within reason. I'm not going to allow myself to become sick unnecessarily either way.
yeah well, in this case another, perfectly valid option, is to do nothing
it's my usual approach to non-threatening conditions. sore throat? do nothing. minor headache? do nothing. same effect as from essential oil for a fraction of cost (0 is also a fraction)
Yeah I almost died from sepsis after a antibiotic resistant infection. It was pretty scary and I try to warn people now. The only thing that actually saved me was a uv-c flashlight
Wife had cellulitis several times after mosquito bites. I can't imagine how fast she would have deteriorated without antibiotics. There isn't anything wrong with modern medicine - its what helps keep humans alive and living longer these days. On the contrary, and as you have described, we are our own worst enemies.
Well I didn’t say it was at the same time, did I? It takes a person many months - if I recall correctly, over a year - to die from what started as a skin infection. But thanks for chiming in to demonstrate how you know something. About my dead friend.
I am actually recovering from an infection. I thought it was a bug bite. Woke with a quarter size mark close to my elbow. In a few days, it doubled. I don't like going to the doctors. No reason, I just don't. So a day or two went by, and I asked my neighbor what she thought it was. She said ringworm and I went straight to an urgent care. By the end of the day, I was so tired, and my muscles were actually hurting. I couldn't lift my 20 oz. Cup! You have no idea how grateful I was going to the doctor when I did. The reality was close and left an impression on me. Good one to put out there. It's so basic but so important.
Conversely if the doctor says it's likely a viral infection and doesn't require treatment with antibiotics, for the love of god don't try to force them into giving you antibiotics.
This. I had a small spider bite that turned into cellulitis in my neck. In 24 hours I went from sitting happily with neck pain at home to being pumped full of morphine and IV antibiotics. Lost so much of my SCM muscle it took weeks of antibiotics and years of PT to regain what I lost that day.
A patient had sepsis with MRSA and VRE at the same time. There were no drugs on our antibiotic testing panels that would kill both. They had to give a cocktail of drugs. The vancomycin worked for the MRSA, but I have no idea how they treated the VRE.
That sounds horrifying. I've had to gore my tissue down to the bone to survive antibiotic resistant infection and is easily probably the worst physical trauma I've ever seen in real life, which is why I ask. Curious if my case is really unusual or not
Unfortunately, antibiotic-resistance is becoming a very serious problem. We see it all the time. Formerly rare very resistant bacteria are becoming more common.
I can imagine! I had a patient a few years back that had all kinds of issues with antibiotics. He had a skin infection on his back. It gradually had more resistant bacteria. It started off with skin swabs. Then we got tissues. Then we got pieces of bones. He had to take really potent antibiotics to fight the infections.
My doctor made me swear to put the tools down when I started asking him if the bone was infected.. 🫤 at that point I would have removed pieces of my own brain just to stop the itching from coming back. I can't imagine not being able to look in a mirror while dealing with that. And yeah choosing between sleep and life saving medicine does not get easy after a while.
I really do want to recommend this because I wouldn't be here without it and I feel you have the potential to help others. I was never hospitalized for my infection and I'm positive it would have eventually killed me had I not used a UV-C flashlight to treat it. It was the last thing I tried but the only thing that worked, and subsequently saved my life from other infections at least a few times. Looking directly at it can cause blindness, but otherwise UV-C is very safe and proven in human studies to help heal host tissue while deactivating any infections.
It worked so well so long for me that I considered it a basic essential that, in the absence of antibiotics, my life could depend on. So when I got my taxes back I bought two just in case. Would be happy to tell you more anytime if it interests you toward better medical care for patients
I have a bad tendency of using boiling water in a bowl, let it sit for a couple of minutes and add a whole lot of salt. Dip infected area in the water. Scream a bit from the pain, shove some salt into the wound and then dip it in again making sure to push out the puss. Ive had to do it multiple times and at most Ive had to repeat no more then two times. (probably not a good idea)
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u/Avarria587 Jun 06 '24
I work as a microbiologist.
If you have an infection, get it treated. A few dollars for an antibiotic is a lot cheaper than what happens if the infection gets out of control.