Is there a Dr. in the house?

Ok, I know this is a forum for defensive carry topics...but with such a wide array of people, I thought it could hurt to ask....and it might save me an uneccessary trip to a local Dr. or the ER (havent found a pcp yet).

Does look serious? I know, hard to tell from a pic. A shot in the dark.

Story:
Area is back of my leg, hammy area. Didnt scratch my leg best I know. Woke up one morning and realized I had a "bump" on my leg. Area was sigificantly raised and slightly red. I made the mistake of scratching it open. Ummm...weird paranoia....we have a lot of centipetes amd spiders where we are at. I got the insane idea that something had burrowed its way into my leg....as the raised bump was an inch long...so I picked it open just in case.

4 days go by and it's been scabbing up...I pick it. It's EXTREMELY itchy! And now it is way more red than it was a few days ago. I would be lying if I dodnt say I was worried about staph. Its still an inch long raised, itchy bump.

Anyway.....seriois enough for a Dr. or let it heal itself????


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See a doctor, ASAP

It almost looks like a small dab of poison oak. The mild blistering of the skin with the weeping (oozing) is typical of that. If it goes ugly on you, it can get very nasty, very fast. And it has a tendency of spreading, if you're continually touching the oils that caused the problem. Might not spread at all, if you just touch that weeping "wound." Have you been weed wacking, cleaning up or tramping through an area that's got even old, oily residues, lately? For me, I'm extremely sensitive and can erupt a week later if touching my jeans that have the oils, if I've not been careful to clean everything.

For these and other relatively minor skin rashes, often calamine lotion helps resolve. Watch to see if it spreads. If it begins to go away, you're likely fine.

Got Neosporin? NEOSPORIN® First Aid Antibiotic Ointment. Good stuff. Any grocery or pharmacy should have it.

It'll all depend on whether it spreads, and how quickly.

Though, the ugly, erupting, oozing, crusty mess that comes with chicken pox can also so that over time. It's a stretch, but many of the little spots on my skin looked somewhat like that during a bout with CP (as an adult). Don't forget the skin-eating bacteria that'll chew you down to a nub within a short period of time, though that's unlikely.

Am not a doc, but if it's a complete surprise then I'd suggest having someone take a look at that soon. If I had that, if I had no clue where I got it or what it was, and particularly if it spread or grew at all (unless it shrunk and disappeared within a day), I'd head to the doctor and at least get an experienced nurse to take a quick look. You might even be able to take a few photographs and email it into your doc. That way, you can get it reviewed without forcing an into the schedule.

Good luck, with that. Might well be nothing. But, that's the point: you don't know, and it might be rough. Worth asking.

In the meantime, head to Google and do a variety of searches for images, such as: skin rash identification, skin blisters oozing, and so on. At minimum, the scrolling list of images will give you something to compare.

Here's one: rashremedy.com .

Here's another: skin blisters oozing (Google search, images).

And here's one describing poison ivy and its typical results: click, image.

If it were me I would keep antibiotic ointment on it and watch it every few hours. If reddening spreads more than a little bit, it can be a sign of infection spreading.

I'd see the doc asap. That could fester into a very nasty situation very quickly. If ya need more incentive, check out the show (Monsters inside me) on one of the cable channels, I can't remember which. Not trying to freak ya out, but about a year ago I had a festering wound on my shoulder and like yourself I thought I got a bite or something in the night. I kept putting medication and bandages on it for a few months, but it never seemed to heal. My wife finally said enough is enough and made me an appointment with the dermatologist. Sure enough it was skin cancer, it was the most common form caused by over exposer to the sun, but I got a healthy scare from the removal. My advice don't let sudden lesions or festering wounds go unattended for long. The area will just end up getting larger and possibly more serious.

Take care. :bier:

Very possible a spider. If it's not getting better after a couple of days I'd go to the doctor.

"Doctor Moe ~ Doctor Curly ~ Doctor Howard.............. Doctor Moe ~ Doctor Curly ~ Doctor Howard"

Do not take medical advice from over the Internet.

The accepted "Rule Of Thumb" is that if a wound or injury is not healing and looking better in 3 days after it happened then make an appointment to see a Doctor...or in your case a decent Dermatologist.

In your case it's already been longer than three days & you stated that it now looks worse.

Make an appointment and in the meantime do standard basic home First Aid since you broke the skin which can allow nasty bacterial and viral things to enter and fester.

That would be wipe the area down with 90+ percent alcohol...apply Iodine...then a Triple Topical Antibiotic like Neosporin and then don't pick at it AKA "leave it alone" until your Dr. appointment.

Thx guys. Guess I have to have it looked at.

Quick responses....

No poison ivy/oak by me. My old DS who I still talk to said it looks like a spider bite as well. Not really weeping/oozing. Redness hasnt spread in area...only gotten "brighter red". Applied Neosporine yesterday.

Just a note....the open hole looking part...was scabbed closed...I picked the scab off a few minutes before taking the pic.

I generally dont take internet medical advice ...etc If it were...or if I thought it were super serious...my but would be off to the Dr. or ER. I just wanted opinions as to what it looks like it might be.

Thank you everyone for your opinions :) I still dont ever recal a spider bite in an inch long, elongated shape....
while my paranoid brain worries about Staph, especially after moving into our new home, my wife reminded me that she has touched it to clean it and dress it and has not gotten it...Staph is highly contagious....so that helps ease my worries there.


It could possibly be a scratch from one of our outside dogs and got infected from dogs nasty, dirty nail....????

After reading a few thousand posts here on the forum, I thought all threads were simply a rehash of the same old topics. You have effectively proved me wrong and for this, I thank you. :redface:

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Originally Posted by Saber

After reading a few thousand posts here on the forum, I thought all threads were simply a rehash of the same old topics. You have effectively proved me wrong and for this, I thank you. :redface:

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lol umm..you're welcome? :redface:

Dude, don't ask for free advice - it's worth what you pay for it. Not being able to see it, smell it, touch the area around it, check your lymph nodes in that region, take a history, and maybe culture the wound, means the opinions are not worth very much. Doctors spend years in training learning how to put together medical data to forma n opinion based on history and examination. Why would you wnt an opinon based on a crummy photo? Go see your doctor if you are concerned. There are a bunch of things it could be; some of them are serious.

Here's what ya need to do.

Drink 3 ounces of Scotch and swallow half a dozen of your neighbor's pain pills.
As you go down, have your wife wipe a razor blade with alcohol and cut that sucker piece of rotten meat out. Sew skin edges back with some non-braided nylon fish line (wiped with alcohol) and a curved upholstery needle. Go to the local Cattle Supply store and get yourself some Pen-Strep.

Or, go see a doc. He'll do the same but with better results. And a much bigger bill.
And you may even get to keep your leg.

I'm thinking its just a scratch from my outside dogs and it might have gotten infected and swollen because their nails are dirty ...and maybe because I have Seven all over my lawn. If it gets worse I'll have someone look at it. Until then I'll monitor it.

Thanks for the advice all. This is new for me because of all the injuries Ive had and all the staples, stitches etc I never had an infection get bad enough to need medical attention.

IANAD... Might be a cyst. If you squeeze it does it hurt and ooze/spurt anything, white, yellow or bloody?

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Originally Posted by DoctorBob

Dude, don't ask for free advice - it's worth what you pay for it.

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Some is worth zip. But then, nobody's really stupid enough to fully base one's medical future on anonymous "medical" advice from people in a non-medical forum. And, really, suggestions about possibilities don't constitute diagnosis or medical advice. If anything, it's an assist to get more concerned than relying solely on having lobbed a question into a non-medical forum. Medical advice, as such, is for medical pro's ... as you point out.