Feel incredibly guilty

Spine Wars 2023 said:

I’m feeling incredibly guilty to be in hospital with cellulitis in my lower left leg and foot,

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You certainly shouldn't feel guilty @Spine Wars 2023 as cellulitis is a serious condition and, as you state, needs dealing with quickly. I hope things have improved for you.

Spine Wars 2023 said:

Hi,

I’m feeling incredibly guilty to be in hospital with cellulitis in my lower left leg and foot, after it got red fast and developed a ball of fluid which required emergency surgery just over a week ago. It was my feet athletes foot which got me first diagnosed 2019.

In February this year I was told by my GP surgery I was on pathway to remission, could come off Metformin for 6 months (after 5 years use) so I don’t know where this leaves me, who do I listen to?

I had a horrible feeling my GP surgery never really listened to the fact I was paying for the weight loss injections which I admit using over a sustained period of time I had lost 4 stone but slowly and I’m now just floored to be in hospital over foot issues when to all intense purposes I was doing well.

Family lines with diabetes are my brother, Dad, his mother.

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I agree with @Grant_Vicat absolutely no need to feel guilty. When I was about 16 years old I squeezed myself in a pair of jeans two sizes too small. In an attempt to zip those tight jeans up I nicked the skin on my belly. I thought nothing of it and continued on with my day to day stuff. I cannot remember how long it took for me to get sick, but I got there. Fever, feeling rotten, a big red rash on my stomach that got larger and larger and was very painful. I took myself off to the nurse who immediately got the Dr in. I was told I had cellulitis. I was duly told off by the Dr and put on strong antibiotics. It was a long time ago now, but I still remember that huge boil like lump on my stomach.

You can get cellulitis with the smallest of nicks or a scratch. I had barely broken the skin and I got cellulitis. So don't feel guilty.

I would like to say well done on losing that weight and controlling your diabetes towards remission.

Resurgam said:

so not everything is about diabetes.

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In my case I had cellulitis many times caused by extremely poor kidney function. Although this was directly caused by diabetes, I agree that people can suffer from poor kidney function for other reasons.

Spine Wars 2023 said:

Hi,

I’m feeling incredibly guilty to be in hospital with cellulitis in my lower left leg and foot, after it got red fast and developed a ball of fluid which required emergency surgery just over a week ago. It was my feet athletes foot which got me first diagnosed 2019.

In February this year I was told by my GP surgery I was on pathway to remission, could come off Metformin for 6 months (after 5 years use) so I don’t know where this leaves me, who do I listen to?

I had a horrible feeling my GP surgery never really listened to the fact I was paying for the weight loss injections which I admit using over a sustained period of time I had lost 4 stone but slowly and I’m now just floored to be in hospital over foot issues when to all intense purposes I was doing well.

Family lines with diabetes are my brother, Dad, his mother.

Click to expand...

Not everything is caused by your diabetes. You might just as easily have got cellulitis as a non-diabetic.

You might find it worthwhile to book an appointment specifically to talk to your doctor about the drugs you're on. If you've been using drugs that they're not properly aware of - because they haven't prescribed them - it could lead to decisions being made on incomplete information.

Spine Wars 2023 said:

Thank you. I’m sorry things have changed direction slightly. I am still in hospital on IV antibiotics but it now transpires my parents (next of kin) were told Necrotizing fasciitis? before tests actually confirmed this? Is that allowed?

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The answer is "it all depends" - I used to handle these sorts of issues back when I had a job, so that's what this is based on.

It's usually acceptable for clinical personnel to give relevant and appropriate information to next of kin in an emergency, in case they need to make decisions on the patient's behalf. The question often is whether the information given is relevant or appropriate - information about the disease, or suspected disease, for which the patient has been admitted would generally pass that test.

Clinical staff may have suspected NF and acted accordingly on the suspicion, just in case: it can take hours or days for tests to complete, particularly where it involves (as with NF and other conditions) tissue samples and bacterial cultures. One of the principles is to assume the possible worst case scenarios and work from there, rather than hoping it's something not as serious.

Many years ago I was admitted to hospital in the middle of the night with suspected meningitis - it was meningitis, but that wasn't confirmed for three days. Fortunately they didn't wait for the test results to start treatment, including antibiotics for bacterial meningitis, in case that's what it was (it actually wasn't). My next of kin were told it was probably meningitis. I wasn't in any state to be told very much.