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 Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
   
| Does anyone have experience with cellulitis in humans? Someone I know has been hospitalized for nearly a week with minimal improvement. Wondering if this is common or if a second opinion is needed. Thanks |
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Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| Wanted to add that I've done some research online, but what I've found says that usually oral antibiotics will take care of the infection and that hospitalization is necessary in severe cases. But what I also saw was that 7 days seemed to be a common number, and 14 days of antibiotics. |
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  Angel in a Sorrel Coat
Posts: 16030
Location: In a happy place | That's what I had after my bilateral mastectomy. I stayed in the hospital for 7 full days on IV antibiotics and then they had a pic line in and sent me home for another 7 days continued on IV antibiotics.
I promise you it was not fun and took a lot of time. |
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 I Prefer a Beard
Posts: 1944
| I'm a Home Health Nurse and take care of a lot of patients with cellulitis. It is possible that they may need a different antibiotic but cellulitis can take quite a while to resolve. Often I will get a patient who needs IV antibiotics at home for 4-6 weeks after they have been on them in the hospital for a few days. |
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The Advice Guru
Posts: 6419
| Depends on what else the person has going on that is compromising the vascular system, such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, obesity, etc. |
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 Shipwrecked and Flat Out Zapped
Posts: 16390
Location: DUMPING CATS AND PIGS IN TEXAS :) | cheryl makofka - 2014-04-16 5:57 PM Depends on what else the person has going on that is compromising the vascular system, such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, obesity, etc.
Exactly, my neighbor has chronic cellulitis, but he has diabetes, is obese, and has PVD.....so, all that is working against him.
As a young solider with no other issues, I had cellulitis in one of my feet and it took over a week to resolve with IV anitibiotics and hospitalization. |
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 Elite Veteran
Posts: 600
Location: Oklahoma & Texas | I got bit by a spider and ended up getting it mine resolved with oral antibiotics but I caught it very early like day 2 because I was already going to the Dr for the spider bite....took10 days of very strong antibiotics and personally I was dousing it with vetericyn too and honestly.i think it made a huge difference because I never had to be hospitalized for iv antibiotics. .. cellulitis is nothing to play around with because can quickly turn into septicemia. .. |
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Veteran
Posts: 278
Location: Whitney, NE | I have had cellulitis 5 times. The first time I talked the dr into not admitting me, but I had to get IV Rocephin(sp?) for 4 days then 7 days of augmentin twice daily. The other times I recognized the symptoms right away so just had 10 days of oral augmentin. It cleared up in about 4 days each time. It is also always in my legs (I react to horsefly bites, so I have had to stop wearing shorts and capris in the summer, because it always ends up in cellulitis. I am swollen from foot to knee in an hour.) I would think the extent of the cellulitis and the location would play a part in how difficult it is to treat. |
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 More Famous than Dr Phil
| Weird, I had never heard of cellulitis until my mom was hospitalized with it last week. Now there is a thread on here about it. |
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Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| Thank you all for the information. I've talked to a hospitalist since I posted this and another person in the medical field. I don't think any of us realized how long the treatment for this was going to be. I think we're still going to try to get a second opinion from someone who will be a little more proactive. I'm going to share with them what you've shared on here and what I got from the hospitalist and let them make the decision. Unfortunately, this was a pretty severe case that appeared to be pretty advanced by the time they went to the ER, so they went straight to IV antibiotics. I sure appreciate you all sharing your information! |
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Regular
Posts: 71
| I am also a RN who works in out patient wound center. Does your friend have an open wound associated with her cellulitis?A tissue culture should have been done before starting antibiotics to identify organism. Swab cultures not nearly as accurate. Does pt have vascular issues?May need ABI's to determine if there are vascular/circulatory issues contributing to cause cellulitis. If ABI's are not within acceptable range they will order vascular studies. If no vascular issues or comorbidities such as diabetes and friend is not responding to present antibiotic treatment I would recommend an infectious disease doctor to put them on right antibiotic. The home health nurse is was right treatment can go for 6 weeks. We see a lot of crazy bugs and just so happens that our wound care doc was an ID doc. Taught us a lot. Was too much MRSA out there.! |
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 A Lady with Fight
Posts: 2701
Location: NC | I had it twice in boot camp. The first time it came on quick from a blister on my foot after the rifle range. Within one day that sucker was infected and throbbing. They had me take two rounds of Clindamycin IV then sent me to strict bed rest for a week on Augmentin and Bactrin I think it was. I couldn't even walk on the thing. Had to have crutches. And ii was excruciating throbbing pain.
Second time I had it for the crucible, which was 3 days. I was already having a fever by the last day when we had to hike home. Took two people to hold me up, but I managed to make that hike home! LOL Sent me straight to medical, lanced 3 big nasty blisters on each foot, transferred me to the main BMC, pumped a few rounds of clindamycin in me and sent me back on strict bed rest again, same meds.
I was able to get over it pretty well over the week-10 days I was laid up. They did have to lance the second round of blisters more than once, and that was a pain I don't wish on anyone.
Now, MRSA can cause you to be in the hospital for a long time. A guy I knew in A school had it bad on his leg and he was put in isolation for a week, then had to stay for another week or two to clear it up. It's nasty stuff. |
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Coyote Country Queen
Posts: 5666
| Thank you all so much! I passed along your information as well as the info from the hospitalist, and this morning they are already getting some more action from the doctor. Doing an MRI to check for abcesses, getting in contact with someone for a second opinion, and getting in touch with an Infectious Disease doctor. Hopefully this was what they needed to help get this dealt with. |
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