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Hypochondria + Growth on leg = ???
Furu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Okay, here's the deal. I get freaked out a lot easily by fairly minor things due to a crippling fear of catching the death. Usually I get over them and it's fine, which is good because the position I'm in right now means "no medical insurance". Now I have a new, gross problem that I'm some what legitimately worried about. Worried enough to ask an internet forum for opinions on what I should do.
It's kinda gross so I'll give you some space to look away if you want to.
Okay. It's...like a boil. Except it's big, black, and making the area around it swollen as well. So far I've been treating it like a normal boil (hot rag on it, etc) however after reading the wiki aricle on abscesses I am fucking terrified. I mean gangrene. I actually got some....stuff out of it earlier, clear and mixed in with some blood.
So essentially what I'm asking for here is:
1. Is it nothing? If so, talk me down.
2. If I HAVE to go get medical help, how would a broke insuranceless hobo go about doing such a thing?
It's kinda gross so I'll give you some space to look away if you want to.
Okay. It's...like a boil. Except it's big, black, and making the area around it swollen as well. So far I've been treating it like a normal boil (hot rag on it, etc) however after reading the wiki aricle on abscesses I am fucking terrified. I mean gangrene. I actually got some....stuff out of it earlier, clear and mixed in with some blood.
So essentially what I'm asking for here is:
1. Is it nothing? If so, talk me down.
2. If I HAVE to go get medical help, how would a broke insuranceless hobo go about doing such a thing?
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I've never had one so I wouldn't know. I don't think pus comes out of those though, do they?
Were it necrotic it would have a smell unlike anything you've ever experienced.
Edit:
I'd like to say it just sounds like a plain ole blister or irritation to me that you've picked at far too much. If you stop harassing it for a while and it starts shrinking and healing you're probably good to go. If you stop harassing it and it continues to grow, get it checked out.
Either way, stop picking at it. Every time you open the wound to air with your grubby fingers you increase the chance of infection.
If there's any fever!, if it starts to hurt like a bitch!! or it starts to smell!!!, get thee to a doctor/clinic, sooner rather than later. There's got to be some kind of public health facility/free clinic in your area that you can go to. You have the interwebs, get googling.
What you described sounds a lot like a brown recluse spider bite, it would help to know where you lived so we could maybe rule that out. (it's mostly a southern thing but they can live indoors up north during the winter, just a lot rarer) The big thing is to watch it though. How long have you had it? Is it a result of some trauma (pinch/bruise/puncture)? Is this something you found 2 weeks ago, 2 days ago, or this morning?
P.S. keep in mind we're not doctors (I think!) and that you should see one if you're really worried about it.
Frikken gross I know but I'm just saying it doesn't sound that bad, and if it gets that bad FFS go somewhere. I went to the ER when I noticed how bad mine had got.
I think Sporked said it best, clean it if you can or feel comfortable doing that then leave it alone. If it gets better sweet, if it gets worse go see someone.
EDIT ADD. if you're not sure if it's getting worse. Take a normal black inpen and outline all the redness around the bump. In a day or so the line will still be there and if the red spread outside of it, go to a doc.
If anything, I think I have the exact opposite problem from the one you have. I don't pay any attention to things on my body. The only reason I bothered with the blister was because someone else said I should do something about it. I thought it was kind of neat, and just left it alone. I remember having a wart on my thumb when I was a kid, and I used to go to school and stick pins and things through it, because it didn't really have nerve endings, and gross people out. Or I'd cut it off and see how long it would take to grow back.
Actually, right now I realize that I've got this thing on the back of my knee. I can't really see it because of where it is, and I only noticed it about 2 weeks ago when I happened to be feeling around there for some reason. Feels kind of like a tough little lump. But it doesn't hurt or itch or anything, so I just leave it alone. Maybe I'll ask my doctor about it when she gets back from Florida.
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After a couple of days of lancing, applying Neosporin, and then covering it with a band-aid, it's getting better. It's no longer black or painful and is getting smaller all around. The area around it is redder, but I imagine that's from pulling the band-aid off.
So I guess in the end it was just a boil and I was worried over nothing, as I thought. Thanks everyone!
This. Septicemia is a good way to lose a limb or die.
Anything that is big and black that leaks puss on me would immediately make me wonder if I shouldn't go to the doctor immediately.
Basically, be careful man.
No, it's a big red patch.
In the shape of a band-aid.