blahblahblah: We take pictures of abscesses and injecting related mishaps at the needle exchage I work for. I'm getting them scanned and will post some soon. There's a few nasty abscesses there as well as the aftermath, which I'm sure will make everyone very nauseous, but I think if you've ever seen a really nasty one, you wouldn't hesitate in seeking medical treatment when one starts developing.
Just to clarify, there's a major difference between the little lumps and bumps from injecting, and an abscess.
Check out
this website and the section on "lumps and bumps". It gives a good overview.
Abscesses are characterised by pain, swelling / risen area, redness / irritation, the site feels hot, and a white pus filled head (sometimes) or darkend area forms in the middle. If you are getting one of these abscesses, you should apply a warm or hot compress to the site early on to help kill any bacteria which is causing the infection.
Tablet injectors will often get sterile abscesses (one where no bacteria can be found). These are usually smaller and a little less painful than regular abscesses, and don't really feel hot.
I think negrogesic is talking about sterile abscesses, because they usually heal on their own without antibiotics, over time with the correct care. They also won't cause more severe symptoms like fever, septicemia (which can turn into endocarditis) etc. They'll scar a bit and sometimes foreign body granulomas are formed which stay permanently.
Major problems occur when someone doesn't treat a sterile abscess correctly and it ends up infected. Negrogesic's outline is really good for treating sterile abscesses.
Swab the site first (as much as it might hurt) and lance it with a sterile needle. Squeeze at the base until all the pus comes out. Clean with somekind of antibacterial cream, and pack with sterile gauze then bandage. It'll need to be drained, cleaned and packed like this daily until it heals.
Without the original poster explaining exactly what 4 symptoms they had, we can't really tell whether it's a sterile abscess or the regular variety. Seeing it's a novice user and people rarely look after their sterile abscesses properly, I think it's much safer to recommend medical treatment.
The person I mentioned in one of my earlier posts who's abscess I helped drain last week, was back today. After refusing medical treatment, the abscess has doubled in size (and I thought it was big last week), and is starting to turn black in a few places. I have a picture of this, and I'll post it with the rest of my abscess porn
The worst negative consequence of going to hospital is being treated badly by the staff (which they do), whereas the worst consequence of not treating an abscess is blood poisoning, gangrene, amputaion, and in the worst case scenario, death.
I know what option I'd be taking.
