I have no idea why you'd do an MRI over an x-ray here. Maybe to see if there was something embedded under the surface? Maybe you get a clearer picture?
Jesus fuck, that kid could wind up getting his leg amptutated or dying of a blood clot. He should be in a hospital.
3 gets it exactly right. Good lord.
2: MRI would reveal soft tissue damage that an x-ray wouldn't? This is a guess, not an informed medical opinion.
Really? I mean, should I worry about speaking up somehow if I know that doctors are on the case and keeping an eye on him?
I'm confused. At first I thought this was going to be a lesson on the tragedies of poverty and untreated medical conditions, but it sounds like he is getting medical care. So, the problem is they just can't figure out what's going on? (And don't think it's serious enough to keep him under evaluation?? Or refer him to a specialist?)
"They think it's some sort of bite" sounds like they think it's some sort of venom, which should be eminently treatable. Do you think maybe he's just lying to you about what "they" think? (As in, possibly this is a story about the tragedies of poverty and untreated medical conditions, along with the shame to even admit you need help?)
He told you "they think it's some kind of a bite," then you saw it as the size of a tennis ball, then a day later it was bleeding heavily? Makes me wonder a) what it looked like when they thought it was a bite, and b) wtf kind of crazy arthropods live around you that produce bites like that. Anyway, my non-expert opinion is also that he needs more medical attention.
I think it's more likely that he hasn't been told much, or hasn't made sense of what he has been told.
The lack of diagnosis and claimed MRI make me wonder if he's been seen at all.
5: I don't know what his doctors are or aren't doing for him, but if he has a problem like that serious enough to produce tennis-ball-sized lumps or that result in actual bleeding, it's pretty suprising (and suspect) that they haven't at the very least ordered him off his feet until they can figure out what's happening.
Why aren't there any doctors on Unfogged? Did the lawyers drive them off?
9: Yeah, I'm thinking that too. Regardless, he should get to A&E quick. Please check up on him.
11: They have to work for a living. Not that we don't, but we sit at desks all day, while doctors are doing physical non-computer stuff.
I sent him an email saying
1. I was worried about the fact that it was openly bleeding
2. was he planning on going back to the hospital today?
3. that I'm going to inform the student life people, so that they know what's going on.
Then I can ask the student life people to please make sure he goes to the hospital today. The dean is great and I trust her in a situation like this.
I'm not a doctor so grains of salt and all that, but an openly bleeding lump of that size sounds like a godawful infection of the sort that you'd want a heavy-duty IV antibiotic. The only other thing I can think of that would behave like that would be a big-ass tumor, but those don't just pop up overnight.
Maybe the MRI was one of those strip-mall ones?
15 is what I was thinking, though I don't know how to research lump etiology.
Yay decisive action Heebie!
I feel confident, given my limited exposure to modern medicine, declaring that it's probably not an enterolith.
Also, 14 sounds like a good response.
I said in the email to the dean that I thought it might be accelerating faster than the doctors realized, and could she help me make sure he goes to the hospital today? So hopefully that will happen ASAP.
Why aren't there any doctors on Unfogged?
I'm a doctor!
14: You care enough to act - good for you, HG. Comity with good thoughts in 17, 18.
LB has a doctor sister she could call, if she cared enough. But she probably doesn't.
I had some bites from what I think were Blanford flies [evil little bastards] which were half-a-golfball sized lumps with blood trails and bruising radiating out like something from a horror movie. Took a while before a doctor did shit all about it [ended up with antibiotics].
23: yeah, but you live in the socialist UK. Here in America we have the best healthcare system in the world, so this kid shouldn't have to wait.
I got to see a doctor quickly. They are just fobbing bastards.
25: Fortunately, this kid will be dealing with an HMO, so it should all work out.
I second 17.2, nice one.
My grandfather had an allergic reaction to chigger bites that a couple of times got to a state similar to what you describe.
That would make sense with it being his ankle. And with not being something that you would notice when you got bit.
Black Widow spider
(don't most schools require their students to carry insurance?)
23: I got bit by Rockford flies once, but it just resulted in me doing a lot of crazy spinouts while driving.
But seriously, a friend of mine got bitten (on the face!) by Blandford flies when she was staying at a squat in Amsterdam. It sound horrific beyond description.
There are definitely black widows around here, and also brown recluses. But I would have thought that would be an immediate thing for doctors to check out - country kids all love to tell stories of the brown recluses living in their barns and attics and equipment.
(don't most schools require their students to carry insurance?)
I'm pretty sure this is true.
The dean wrote back that she was contacting the school nurse, which doesn't sound quite as urgent as this thread has made me think it should be treated.
Damn straight. That's what I meant though.
Man, I feel bad for the kid. Sounds like a swell guy.
But presumably the nurse will send him along to the hospital if it warrants.
Do you know what happens when you presume?
38: You make a PR kerfuffle for East Stroudsburg University and me?
36: Sounds like a swell guy.
Red-blooded all-American boy, from what I hear.
37: Yeah, presumably the nurse will be better able to make a determination than we can.
I make aprés out of you and me?
I keep on reading this thread hoping bob will show up to say that you should have sawed of his leg when you had the chance and now the poor kid is doomed.
(and now I ruined it)
re: 31
The bites were certainly worse than I would have believed you could have gotten from some insect that's native to Northern Europe [rather than some place where humans are not supposed to live, like Australia or Texas]. It looked like I was about to turn into the Fly.
42:You should have sawed of his leg when you had the chance and now the poor kid is doomed.
There you go.
Although I was remembering the movies and what they do about rattlesnake bites...
Brown recluses scare me.
bob, just remember: they're more scared of you than you are of them.
Carry a bell and don't get in between the mother and her young.
Brown recluses scare me.
What did I ever do to you, punk?
48: Thanked me falettinyou be yource elf agin. Jerk.
Also, and I've said this before, but I love that Heebie's students call her "ma'am."
Here's the response I just got from the student:
Yes ma'am, I took an MRI yesterday and am just waiting on the results to get back from the radiologist. Just a slow process that needs to be sped up. As soon as I know something more I will let you know. Sorry about the bleeding lol.
50: That's an extremely difficult habit to shed once it has been drilled into you as a kid. I am almost physically incapable of not answering "yes ma'am" and "no ma'am" to my kids' teachers, despite the fact that I'm now 15-20 years older than most of them.
51: His lol is bleeding? That could be very serious.
Yes ma'am [...] Sorry about the bleeding lol.
Awesome.
I find the ma'am kind of surreal sometimes, too. Like every now and then I think "You're under 25! Why are you wearing Wranglers and full quill cowboy boots?" Or for more fancy occasions, your formal cowboy hat.
It's probably only 5% of the student body that really wears the whole cowboy garb. But still.
I'm not sure what lol means anymore. Is it just a leavener, and no longer an indication that something is (intended to be) funny?
When I was at the ag school, I loved the unironic western dress. Oh. You are wearing those because they are your clothing. Of course.
Why wouldn't you wear full quill cowboy boots if you could get away with it?
At this point, you have to read the lols and the hahas exactly as you would perceive an unconscious nervous laugh. People are actually unaware they are typing these things. They are very nervous that you are going to fail them, or make fun of them in the faculty lounge, or on the internet, or in whatever strange cave it is that teachers go into after classes.
59: I was going to say it's a facial expression -- he's grinning sheepishly at you. Doesn't mean there's anything funny, but he knows that the way he's feeling would go with a grin in person, so he lol's in text.
LOL used to signify something akin to ROFL, but seems to be evolving toward heh.
A mild, maybe sheepish "heh", sounds like.
7, 9, 10, etc- I've seen doctors because of similarly drastic symptoms and met with similarly nonchalant responses a few times. I totally believe that the kid has not received any instructions beyond "let's wait and see what the MRI shows" or possibly just "let's wait and see what happens".
My experiences with school nurses/school health care in general have been uniformly, extremely, bad, but maybe Heebie's school has good ones?
It's alright, ma'am.
I'm only bleeding lol
45: Thanks for trying, bob, but I was right in 42 about my having ruined it.
Actually my main reaction to the story was "oh that's such a breach of etiquette! To show up in public with exposed bleeding!" I'm pretty sure Miss Manners says you should cover up any weeping sores before going to class.
or in whatever strange cave it is that teachers go into after classes.
My dining room growing up, was where we made fun of my father's English students. Perhaps the trick is to assure them that their work will be mocked no matter what.
where we made fun of my father's English students
I have similar memories, but my father was a psychiatrist.
67: Sort of my reaction, anytime I've bled on things or people while not on an athletic field I've felt extremely sheepish and apologetic about it. A general keep your "precious bodily fluids inside your skin sack in public" rule
It's alright, ma'am.
I'm only bleeding lol
This is to the tune of "John, I'm Only Dancing", right?
my father was a psychiatrist
So much explained.
(Because if so, you're making the baby Ogged cry.)
71: I wasn't actually trying to sing the "lol".
Your song works ok for that, I guess.
So much explained.
Further explanation: before he went to medical school, he was a Southern Baptist Minister of Music.
71 looks bizarre but I guess there's no reason to think a Bob Dylan song from 46 years ago is vastly better-known than a David Bowie song from 39 years ago.
Semi-OT: Today in giant rat news.
I have similar memories, but my father was a psychiatrist.
Do English students have a lot of mental health issues?
80: The last acceptable bigotry and prejudice. Pitchforks!
I honestly thought the rats in Brooklyn were normally that size, the way everyone talks about them.
64:Y'all do watch Monsters Inside Me, doncha?
"Son, I do believe I see something crawling in there, I'm gonna refer you to a dermatologist."
two weeks
Well, gosh darn if they ain't a whole passle of those things breeding and spawning. But dang me if I know what they are. Been overseas lately? Need a blood test on this one."
Two weeks
Blood tests are back, and those are the rare ggglebrglllook worms, and they are so nasty. Son, if we don't operate today I'm afraid we'll have to amputate your head.
80: holy hell. One of the problems with living where we live is rats (and I say this as someone who has watched, with real fondness, the documentary on the Ratatouille disc). I think we've finally eliminated the various families living in our attic and beneath our house, but I can't ever be totally sure. Regardless, about a year ago, a pest control guy warned us, in mournful tones, that we "might have an alpha rat" on the premises. The image I conjured at the time was nowhere near as horrific as that.
I love Monsters Inside Me. It's a good way to never want to eat, drink, or touch anything ever again.
|| I read this story over lunch. What a world.|>
When talk turns to parasites I cannot help but think of Jimmy Carter's story about the guinea worm emerging from that poor woman's nipple.
89:
It went:
AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH
There's a reason he was a one-termer. Say what you will about Reagan, but the man could tell a story.
Right. While Carter had the killer rabbit and "lust in his heart".
88: Ew, I remember that.
92: Carter had... "lust in his heart".
Not after that guinea worm came out.
Gross, is my bedbug guy.
The other day I met with him at a distance of 20 feet. I tried to get him to talk about showering and changing his clothes, but he goes off about his terrible depression, starts listing the symptoms of depression and the trauma of 9/11.
I told him not to insult my intelligence, and he laughed.
One of my co-workers works with his apartment-mate who will not leave her apartment due to pain. She said, "I have to go in that apartment." I told her that I understood that she couldn't, but that really she should refuse. We need a union so bad. If all of us refused, maybe we'd get somewhere.
One of our clients had cellulitis and kept fleeing hospitals where he was getting nursing care on the dressing and antibiotics. The doctors would not arrange home care, so we had to tell them to put him on a locked unit. Otherwise, he'll be an amputee.
The kid could be getting some treatment but refusing to go in the hospital.
78 is everything that irritates me about Bob Dylan.
My wife and I saw some rats on the banks of the Arno in Florence, earlier this year, which were the size of that thing above. On-line articles have a load of 'people often claim to have seen rats the size of domestic cats, but this is exaggeration', well, fuck that, these were gigantic scarred looking things.
We lived by a swampy bit of ground behind our high school for a while, and the rats there were pretty big. Our cat killed one or two and they were pretty long, nose to tail, although skinnier than that one in the photo above or the ones we saw in Florence.
Follow-up: He had surgery on his ankle on Saturday morning. I asked if they drained it and what they did, and he said yes they drained it, but he didn't want to say any more because it's too gross.
Way to leave the entire internet in suspense, student dude.
I think I may have just recently developed plantar fasciitis but I'm hoping I can make it the rest of the week until I get back to my socialized healthcare plan. I finally bought some better insoles today. I should have paid attention to the deterioration of the ones I'd been using.
Also, I had some really bad bites on my other foot, but fortunately nothing like whatever this student was dealing with.