Vlog the Inhaler, or The Occasional Video Blog Musings of Jim Thornton

The doctor is in!


I was just able to cajole the lovely death doctor, Heather Rietz, MD, a great swimmer and Facebook friend, who knows more about "icing on the cake" in corpses than all of us put together, to agree to a Q & A about my groin infection.

This is what Dr. Reitz had to say:

James

heather, can you do me a huge favor?
10:04pmHeather

Depends (LOL).
No I will not lick your wound.
10:05pmJames

can you go to my vlog and look at my lesion and offer me the benefit of your pathologist's thoughts?
did you see today's pix?
http://forums.usms.org/blog.php?b=5972
10:05pmHeather

It looks pretty nasty but it maybe looks better.
10:05pmJames

it is the weirdest thing
10:06pmHeather

Did you acquire this in the wilderness?
10:06pmJames

does it look like MRSA or Stevens-Johnson syndrome and toxic epidermal necrolysis
i am not sure where i got it.
it showed up a week or so after the wilderness
a very small little crack in the skin tha itched
10:07pmHeather

Could be. I guess. Hard to tell now that it has been treated. Did your doctor culture it?
10:08pmJames

not yet, he took blood tests to see if it was rocky mountain spotted fever
i am so so so sick of it
can't swim
10:08pmHeather

Hmmm...are you systemically ill in any way?
10:09pmJames

when i first got back from idaho, i had a really bad cold that went away faster than any cold i had ever had (3-4 days). then i noticed this tiny little itchy area, tried to treat it with antifungals and cortisone cream, and it got much worse
and has since lingered despite antibiotics and antibiotic cream
10:10pmHeather

It looks more bacterial to me. May just take more time.
Isn't one of your 500 some friends a dermatologist?
10:10pmJames

i wish!
i am an impatient sick person
prone to catastrophizing
10:11pmHeather

I would be much better at helping you if you sliced off a piece, put it in formalin so I could make a slide!
10:11pmJames

can i buy that stuff at radio shack?
10:12pmHeather

I am impatient too. I would hate anything that kept me out of the pool. LOL!
10:12pmJames

oh, oh! it has been steadily "weeping" very slight amounts of pinkish fluid
10:12pmHeather

I think that you need to go to AZ and go to Kurt Dickson's ER!
Does sound kind of blisterish!
10:13pmJames

the only strange symptom besides this is that the surround skin, as far back as the the first half of the left butt cheek, feels kind of almsot sunburned and sensitive
sorry for the lack of humor here!
major psychopathology taking hold
10:13pmHeather

Be more likely to find formalin at a place like McDonald's!
10:14pmJames

Okay., could I have a Big Mac and a Petri dish? And yes, I do want fries with that
10:14pmHeather

That's very odd. Not good to be a medical mystery!
10:14pmJames

the perfect storm for us nondelusional hypochondriacs
10:14pmHeather

I think that you would be much more ill if it was MRSA!
10:15pmJames

yes, probably. i wonder if it could be a spider bite?
i'd hoped that land exercise wouldn't be bad for it, but the sweat didn't seem to help
it's almost like a burn
10:15pmHeather

Could be. Brown recluse spider bites can be nasty like that.
10:15pmJames

i don't think they have them in Idaho
10:15pmHeather

Yes I would say that it has to be kept as dry as possible.
I suppose other types of spiders could cause a similar reaction.
I would say if it's not significantly better by Thursday GO BACK!
10:17pmJames

well, thanks for listening. I might try to postpone my daily pictures unless there is something noticeably changed
10:17pmHeather

Might need stronger drugs!
10:17pmJames

Okay. I doubt it will have changed much by then.
Would cortisone be a mistake on top on the antibiotic ointment? I suppose you want inflammationfor healing
right now, it just kind of burns
10:18pmHeather

I would just put the antibiotic ointment on it. Burning could mean it's healing!
10:18pmJames

thanks, heather. you can have my body to look at when i expire
10:19pmHeather

FANTASTIC! Hopefully I'll be retired by then.
10:19pmJames

i will be your advisor for affaires de la coeur. You can be mine for infections of the groin.
pretty much the same thing, when it comes down to it
10:19pmHeather

Ha! Ha! Have a good night. Hope that you get back to the pool soon!
10:20pmJames

thanks. one last thing. have you ever heard of someone having a permanent groin infection that never goes away and just makes the person miserable for the rest of his hopeless life? and if so, is this common?
10:21pmHeather

I don't think so. It should heal. You should know that you're not supposed to keep "touching" yourself down there. It will make your tallywacker fall off and you will go blind!
10:22pmJames

Great advice. I only wish I had learned it 57 years earlier. I am going to copy and post this conversation on my vlog for the benefit of my fellow members in the Mysterious Groin Affliction Sufferers
Support Group!
TTYL
10:22pmHeather

Cool!
10:23pmJames

Ciao!



The doctor is out.