Warning, there is a tad gruesome picture in this post, definitely not for those with weak constitution.
And no, I am not referring to the opening photo :)
So a short time ago I was reading this post by @rok-sivante about the hash tag people are using while they are filming their hospitals. The point is to show that things are not really as dire and critical as the mass media would lead you to believe.
I made a joke that I might be heading to the hospital due to an injury to my leg and if I did I would be sure to take pictures to see if empty hospital thing were true in my area as well.
So as I was saying, I had this injury on my leg and I have been doing a bit of emailing back and forth with my primary care physician so they can monitor the progress. I scraped it while I was helping my wife's aunt move from one house to the other.
Before I knew it, what had started as this:
Had soon turned into this:
Needless to say, despite having been on antibiotics for about two weeks, my doctor was not happy with the rate of healing. She suggested I head into the Emergency Room and have them give me some antibiotics intravenously.
I begrudgingly hopped in the car and drove myself to the E/R because I knew my wife wouldn't be allowed in anyway due to the current Covid-19 situation.
This is what I saw when I pulled into the parking lot of the E/R...
It didn't appear that there were too many people at the E/R today. Not like they would lead you to believe on the news. I headed into the E/R expecting it to be jam packed with patients who had been dropped off.
I was totally floored. I have been in this place around 10 PM on a Friday or Saturday night when it was packed to the brim with people and there was not a single open seat to be found.
I was taken into a staging room right away where they drew some blood to make sure I didn't have sepsis or any other form of blood infection.
Finally, a nurse practitioner came in and looked at my wound. She informed me that they were going to admit me and I was probably going to have to be on antibiotics at least overnight if not for a couple of days. Talk about ruining my weekend. I figured I would just go in for a couple of hours, get a bag of juice shot into my arm and then be home for dinner.
@mrsbozz was freaking out a bit because who wants to be stuck in a hospital for days during this global pandemic. Plus because of the virus, they don't allow visitors, so she couldn't even be with me.
They took me up to a room and on the ride I saw zero other patients. The hospital was pretty much like a ghost town.
It might be hard to see in the picture, but this board shows that it had been close to a week and a half since they had cleaned the room. That tells me either they don't hold sanitation in very high regard or they just haven't had that many people in and out of rooms.
In the end, a surgeon and wound specialist looked at my leg and they determined it wasn't nearly as bad as the picture made it look, nor the nurse practitioner thought it was. After I told them despite slight pain, I have been exercising and walking every day they discussed it with the general doctor who had been assigned to me and it was determined I should be discharged.
At just about 4 hours, this was probably the shortest hospital stay I have ever had (not counting outpatient surgery).
I made it home around 4 PM and the first thing I did was fire up the grill. It was nice to be home!
Sports Talk Social - @bozz.sports
That looks like a nasty infection?
Staph-related?
They never really said. I know that the antibiotics they were giving me intravenously were for staph infections though, so you are probably on target with that. I did my best to keep it clean, so I don't know how it went from bad to worse so quickly. It was a deep injury though.
It's a good thing you went in because it could have turned necrotic and life-threatening given how your leg deteriorated.
They were afraid that was the case, but the wound doctor determined it was just a scab and there was no tissue they felt needed to be removed.
#posh proof of share on Twitter:
Looks nasty. Does that hospital do intensive care or just accidents and milder stuff? I would expect people to be staying away from such places generally, but if they can minimise the exposure to coronavirus patients they ought to be able to deal with more cases like yours. People must still be getting ill from other things. We know people working in hospitals here and they are working hard.
Hope your leg improves soon.
No, they do all kinds of stuff here. It is a fairly large regional hospital. Probably one of the bigger ones in the area. The people who took care of me were definitely attentive.
Happy to hear it. Are there many COVID-19 cases in your area? I don't know anyone with it so far.
Not too many. The really severe areas are in the Southern part of my state. Our State as a whole is one of the hotspots in the country though.
OMG!!! That looks so bad! I can't even imagine how painful it is...
It's like when you slap or rub a really bad sunburn, but pretty much all the time non-stop. :P
Good to hear you are back home with nothing untoward, quite a different story going into the hospital fearing the worst and finding it empty.
Hope you don't need to do that journey again anytime soon! Take care and stop frightening @mrsbozz like that!
@tipu curate
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Thank you!
I'm really glad that you're okay though that wound looks nasty. I hope that you may heal faster. I'm also glad that your stay in the hospital was short. It kinda sucks to be confined right now because the chance of getting the virus is a lot higher. Anyway, Stay safe always!
That is the thing that my wife was most concerned about. Getting exposed to something unnecessarily.
glad you got in and had that looked at it looks pretty bad, hope it heals up quickly,
I am guessing their trying to keep the Ers empty at this time and also limiting other hospital operations to enable resources to support the areas where they have Covid Patients but I could be wrong
I thought of that too. It was just interesting how dead the place seemed. Perhaps they are all isolated to a specific area where no one would see them.
I know from one of the nurses hear that is the case, all Covid patients are n a couple of hospitals and other hospitals are almost empty with staff rotating to save them getting two rundown at this time
That makes sense.
I am glad, you were send home quickly, I think there is much less emergencies with everybody staying at home during lock-down!!
holy shit! that looks bruuuutal
hope it's starting to heal up well.
glad they didn't have to chop it off!
Me too! It is getting better, just slowly.
That's a nasty ass hole in your leg. What'd you scrape it with, a manure shovel?
It looks like some of the road rash I have seen over the years.
I'm really glad you made it home. I'm just completely blown away by the lack of people in and around the hospital.
I've heard that our local ER and hospital are a mad house.
That is what I expected to see too, but who knows. I had jeans and a sock on when I scraped it so it never came in direct contact with the trailer. That is what baffles me.
Holy fuck, that’s nasty! 🤢
Right!? It hurts like a mother too.
Get better!!!
Thank you!
Yeeezzzzzzz you scared the shit out of me i thought the covid had taken control over your lungs, but your legs looks bad no denieing that, i hope the intraveneus antibiotics helped. And all of the place looks deserted, i wish you well and hope that you and mrs bozz are well, have a good week blog soon
Thank you! I appreciate it!
Holey moley that's a nasty leg ulcer. We do see them often here in Thailand and extremely common in people with diabetes. If they didn't check your blood sugar levels at the hospital, think about doing that after Covid is vanquished??
We use a PHENOMENAL natural powder for tropical leg ulcers here on the Thai-Burmese border. It's an old chinese medicine sulfur-herb mix popularized by the Viet Khong during the Vietnam war. It's inexpensive, painless and AMAZING. Called Yunnan Payao. Grab a strip of capsules from your Chinese Medicine Dispensary, pop a capsule open and literally sprinkle the powder onto the wet wound. Keep it as dry as possible (cover for showers). Can't tell you how many horrendous septic leg wounds we have treated like that here in Thailand. It's also the biz for road rash after motorbike scrapes.
Wish you a full & speedy recovery. Best wishes from Chiang Mai & the @naturalmedicine community.
Wow! Very interesting! They did do a blood panel and I am not diabetic. They asked me about a million times though. That powder sounds really cool. Not sure I have one of those shops in my neck of the woods though.
Very easy to find and buy online. Inexpensive too. Yunnan Payao, sometimes spelled Yunnan Bayao. It is miraculous stuff- the Vietkhong used yo pack it straight into gunshot wounds as a field dressing.
Hope you feel better really soon.
Glad to know that you are home and well @bozz! but daaaamn that was one nasty looking infection!
Yeah, it hurts like a mother too. Thank you!
Ach! That doesn't look like it is healing properly at all! Hope that it gets better with the stronger dose of different antibiotics.
Me too!
I must say our hospitals always look like that since the past 10-20 years and I really wonder why it takes 3 months or longer to get an appointment plus waiting 6 weeks for blood test results etc.
Oh wow! I got my blood test results the very next day!
Really? Lucky you.
Wound looks nasty but glad you are home. I hope it clears up nicely.
Have a great Sunday and stay safe.
Thanks, you too!
There is nothing better than being at home. The image of the injury seemed serious; It was the impression that I had, however, when They sent you home, it was not so bad. I trust you will be 100% soon.
A hug from the distance.
I think it had to do with the lighting or something. It made the reds more prominent maybe.
Wao hard to believe that a hospital anywhere in the world would be so lonely in these times of pandemic, but that's the way it is, maybe people prefer to stay at home for fear of catching the virus and spend their pains that way. Thank you for sharing the experience, I hope your leg is completely healed by now. I leave you my support and a hug here. @bozz
Thank you. I've got about another month to go before I am healed. According to the doctors anyway.
OMG! That's got to hurt a lot. I'm glad you're home and recovering, but you have to be very careful with that wound because it looks so big. 😱
So glad you got to go home! That does look nasty; I'm glad to hear they determined it was less concerning than originally thought. And it's also great that the hospital wasn't overcrowded with CV patients, so you were able to get great care.
I think the media is definitely over-blowing things to a degree. But sometimes I feel a little glad about that. Many people wouldn't take it seriously otherwise. If there hadn't been any containment, it would be much worse. It also depends on where you live, too. The difference between what's happening in the hospitals in New York City, for example, and what's happening here in my home state of Minnesota, is enormous. Below is an up-to-date map I just downloaded:
Heal well!
I am in Michigan but the worst of it is South of us. I think the county this hospital is in only has one reported death.
Thank God you're ok. 🙏
Get well soon!
I hope that you are healing well. It's strange that the hospital is like a ghost town but better like this then fully packed so you couldn't be helped. It's strange though... get well soon.
Thank you!
Thank God it wasn't as bad as it looked, it really looked bad! I hope to see you all better very soon. Keep yourself safe!
I agree, it looks pretty bad. Thank you!
May it heal well and fast, mate :) Take care!
Interesting it seems...and unexpected
So glad to hear it didn't turn necrotic! You are one lucky dude. Not every hospital looks like CNN/FOX News... although every one has its moments.
Welcome home!
Thank you!
So glad everything turned out okay! The hospital is not someplace we want to visit right now right? Take care of yourself, stay healthy!
No, not at all. My wife was not a happy camper that I had to go there.
OMG, what a thing to happen! I am glad it worked-out in the end! Hope you enjoyed your time at the grill afterwards!
I did thanks and the meal was fantastic!
Geez, that's rough. What did you scrape your leg on? If I'm outside and I get a scrape or a cut, I wash the area with soap and water ASAP and then put some Neosporin on it. We've got to be very vigilant with wounds we get while outside.
I'm glad your situation turned out good. It's gonna be hard to not scratch around the wound when it gets to healing, so be careful! 😌
Thanks, it already itches A little so I totally understand!
Wow, that's surprising, I wasn't able to see her very well. She scares me. I hope you're okay now.
Dude, that looks nasty! I'm hoping you grilled up a good burger on the grill when you got home! You deserve it!
I did for sure, check out my post today to see what I served up!
That looks so painful :( I hope you feel better. Greetings!
Qué bien que se encuentre mejor.
Good for you. Glad that story ended well. Stay healthy
Oh! That looks nasty! Glad your on the mend and back at home!
I had heard stories too of people who made videos or were in the hospitals and the were very quiet and not much activity happening - all a bunch of propaganda and scare tactics!
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you!
Speedy recovery on the wound.
Thank you!
Gosh that is insane looking! I very much hope you are okay now, but damn, that looked mental! It must've been really odd being in hospital at the moment, it does look quiet, but there are still plenty of cars in the car park!
I hope you get healed up okay, and you should totally take some healing photos, it is mind blowing how the body recovers from a wound! It must've been such a relief that it wasn't more serious, very much hope you enjoyed whatever you grilled up when you got home :)
Trust me, you don't want me to take any photos right yet. There is literally a hole in my leg right now after they cleared away all the dead tissue at the wound clinic this morning.
I'm here from PHC community, I know I'm being rude to be here just now that you have a bad situation. Even so I want you to know that the hive community will ne there for you to know that we love you. Hope you will be fine soon and take care.