Fish fin poke gone bad.

[Tawn]

Was admitted to Bethesda Wed for an infected fish fin poke. Today they had to operate on it to literally scoop out the infection. Basically cut hole in my palm and a hole in the tip of the finger and ran a pipe cleaner through it to clean it out. I will be in here until at least Monday on IV antibiotics to kill the rest of it.

Wear gloves and don't let it go as far as I did.

[Tawn]

Another ic.

[Chessie27]

Man, that doesn't sound fun at all. Sorry to hear and see that.

I know I got a pair of those fish off gloves around here somewhere....

[5th Tuition]

Tawn; sorry to see those pictures. Damn glad you got back to the hospital in time. When I said it was a fast acting organism, I meant fast Hang in there buddy.
The only other thing I can think of, is you might ask the Bethesda Doctor to do a consult with a Union Memorial hand specialist (nobody better in our area then Union Memorial Hand Center)
Was it confirmed as Vibrio?
5th (Marty)

[Tawn]

The culture hasn't came back yet .... When the meds wear off, I think this is gonna hurt!

The thing that looks like a piece of penne pasta is actually a drain tube sewn in to my hand.

[Chessie27]

Ok, now I am looking for the gloves to add to the fishing yard sales I am about to have! That looks like it is REALLY gonna hurt when the meds wear off.
So the rest of us don't find ourselves in there next you, can you share a few more details? (Understand you might have a tough time typing right now so short and sweet works great). Main question is - when we're you "attacked"? How long did it take to go from normal to nasty??

A charter capt buddy of mine always wipes down with hand sanitizer immediately if poked. Seems to work for him or he's just gotten lucky to not have had an infected fish stick him maybe...

[Tawn]

Please excuse typos ....typing with one finger. On my phone, under the influence of Percocet!

We had trips Thu, Fri, Sat & Sun last week so my hands were fairly nicked and cut up headed into Sunday morning. We did the usual, go catch spot , live line for Rockfish and then perch fish after we limited out on Rockfish. When spot fidhing I usually wear one of those rubber palmed gloves on my left hand for unhooking the inevitable small perch and/or croaker. I cut about 1/4" off the thumb and index finger so I can still bait spot hooks with the glove on. Well Sunday, we weren't really catching anything but spot so I ended up taking the glove off. The spot were coming in pretty quick and when a customer hauled up a small perch, I didn't take the time to put my glove on and you guessed it, I got stuck. At the time it didn't seem any worse than the thousands of other times we have all been stuck ... I didn't stop and wash it and continued baiting hooks and taking fish off hooks.

When I got home that afternoon my hands were pretty beat up after four days straight but no worse than normal.

By Monday my left index finger and thumb hurt worse than normal. ... I inspected them for any fins broken off in the skin, couldn't find any and soaked the hand in Epsom Salt (according to my mom, that cures everything).

By Tuesday morning, the finger & thumb was swollen to the point it was "hard", discolored and painful to bend. I got in to sick call and was given 800 mg Spectra antibiotics to take twice a day.

The oral antibiotic had no effect and by Wednesday afternoon the affected area was purple, hot to the touch and hard as a rock and spreading.

I went to the AAFB ER, they immediately transferred me to Bethesda. They admitted me and began IV antibiotics and made two incisions to relieve the pressure. By Saturday morning not enough headway was being made on getting rid of the infection so the put me under and operated on the finger & thumb.

Basically what they did was open it up enough they could scrub the inside of my finger. Then they put in drainage tubes and left the incisions open so "they can heal from the inside out". I am still receiving IV antibiotics and have been told I will have to remain hospitalized until al least Monday evening.

My lesson learned is that I wil never again get in such a hurry that I will attempt to unhook multiple small croaker & perch without a glove. I will also make the time to thoroughly clean any and all fish fin & hook puncture wounds immediately.

[Chessie27]

Jesus!! That's a scary thought considering how many of us just "grab and go" when it comes to taking fish off. I think I will go dig those gloves out 'cause that doesn't look like fun.
A little later today, I will raise my glass to wishing you a speedy recovery!

[Chessie27]

Originally Posted by Tawn

Please excuse typos ....typing with one finger. On my phone, under the influence of Percocet!

Actually quite impressive! Please avoid operating heavy equipment though

[Tawn]

The most humbling part of this entire ordeal is being at Bethesda with a fishing related injury when everywhere you look are kids missing limb(s) and other horrible combat related injuries. It really puts my minor inconvience in perspective!