!!!TURNS OUT MY MY TANK WAS TRYING TO KILL ME AFTER ALL/or it was simply mimicking cartoon spinach...

[Battlecorals]

Thanks for the reality check. Too often I’m out of gloves and will trim or move rockwork and get a scrape or a cut. I’m ordering a box of gloves now!

I hear you. all things considered I am/was the most reckless dude ever in regard to this sort of thing. honestly surprised it took this long.

 

[Freenow54]

Ok. sensational title notwithstanding, I felt my weeks tribulations were worth sharing. Started off with a mildly swelling elbow.

Of course Dr internet led me to believe it was a simple case of bursitis

But, by Tuesday it was expanding to my forearm and lower bicep. I never had bursitis, and really knew nothing about it and shrugged it off as most stubborn men do. The internet said bursitis is usually not anything really serious so I heeded this info. "I'm sure they will just send me home if I actually go to the Dr" I thought. No point in that. Right? Unless.......

By yesterday (wednesday). My left arm looked like Popeye and I definitely felt weird. All day. Just not quite right. Something's off. So like I said, the internet seems to think bursitis is generally not a huge concern, unless......the area was warm. And boy was it warm. Hot really. I had my wife and kids confirm by touch, and even got out the laser thermometer I use to measure water temps. Right elbow, about 86 degrees. Left elbow all of 99-100.

So I went in. And here's whew it gets kind of cool, maybe. Depends on how you look at it I suppose. But I mentioned to the nurse what I did for a living, and while intrigued, his tone shifted just away from a little bit chatty, too concerned enough for me to notice. And when the Dr. finally came in she did not hesitate for a second to pinpoint the infection to some sort of bacteria, from the saltwater. I was a little shocked but her explanation checked out to me. I had a minor wound on my elbow that was the point of entry and the timeline made perfect sense to me. She had actually mentioned she had experience with this sort of thing and other odd aquarium related maladies before. We talked briefly about palytoxin and vibiro bacteria and touched on aquabiomics testing even.

Anyway, she wasted no time in prescribing Doxycycline monohydrate and a strong anti-inflammatory. The good new is, today I woke up and it's definitely not getting bigger, so I think I made the right call going in, and that really is the moral of this story.

And, I'll confess a bit of an eye opener for me. Because, in over 20+ years of having my hands in the aquarium nearly every day, this is the first time I've had an issue that could have been serious and would probably not have gone away on its own.

Now, whether it was 100% aquarium related, We'll never know. I'm guessing there are tests they could have done to confirm, but there was no doubt that it was infected beyond what she said typical cellulitis would be. So there you have it.

The lesson for me is to be a little more careful in general over all. Use gloves at all times and be very mindful of any cuts or scrapes I may have that get near the water. And, ultimately realize that there are "things" in our aquariums we can't see and would otherwise be very ambivalent about, that are all too easy to underestimate the very real and potential dangers of.

One to grow on I suppose.

However, I know there are a lot of smart cookies on this forum and I'd be very interested to hear any thoughts or insights or shared experiences on this subject for sure. You think the Doc was right in her assumption?


Here's me and my gushy jel-bow lol. Swellings has gone down a little bit at least since yesterday. I think.

Here is a heads up. I was cleaning my skimmer cup. Some splashed in my eye. Ended up with pink eye which is caused by excrement in the eye

 

[Chris Hufham]

Just think how many times we have syphon water out of our tank. We are all lucky to be alive!

 

[GlassMunky]

Hey thanks Jay! I trust your wisdom on this completely. so I think I can say it hasn't gotten any worse. still swollen, still red and warm but not expanding further. I can also safely say it hasn't gotten any smaller either but the other anti-inflammatory has helped.

Tonight will have been 48 hours on the antibiotics. Of a 14 day supply. One super quick question, and feel free to text if you'd rather not discuss in open forum, What is the typical time frame to see any sort of improvement in a case like this?

I'll confess a few of you guys that contacted me directly with stories of your own have definitely freaked me out a little. thinking that there is any way this could possibly not be the right antibiotic is a little unnerving I will say. I didn't even think that was a thing.

Yea man def glad you’re doing ok now, but keep a close watch on that.
My husband is also a nurse. Any time we’ve been concerned about something spreading we draw a circle on the limb with sharpie so there’s no question if it got bigger or not.

Doxy is usually pretty good and a strong one but depending on the actual bacteria it may or may not work.

One of our old LFS owners had something similar happen one time where his arm was swollen and had to go to the er for antibiotics. They gave him some orally but after a week or 2 nothing had improved so whe needed to end up getting a pic line installed with daily IV antibiotics for like another week or 2. They did testing and confirmed his was from mycobacterium marinum.

Stuff can be scary so don’t take any chances!

 

[lubeck]

Crazy, glad you’re okay.

Whenever I have scrapes on my arm or hand it always gets swollen or has bumps after tank maintenance.

I remind my wife that if I go to the emergency room to remind the doc that I have a reef with Paly’s and Zoa.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

I’ve worked on Cooling Towers and Had Aquariums since I was 10 years old. Luckily never got an infection, We were putting in a new Air Handler, one of the guys said my elbow was bleeding. I had sliced it open on the new Galvanized Metal. Just held a paper towel on it and continued working. Three Days later I’m in the ER with similar problems. At the time, I didn’t have an Aquarium.

 

[PhilT]

Hey thanks Jay! I trust your wisdom on this completely. so I think I can say it hasn't gotten any worse. still swollen, still red and warm but not expanding further. I can also safely say it hasn't gotten any smaller either but the other anti-inflammatory has helped.

Tonight will have been 48 hours on the antibiotics. Of a 14 day supply. One super quick question, and feel free to text if you'd rather not discuss in open forum, What is the typical time frame to see any sort of improvement in a case like this?

I'll confess a few of you guys that contacted me directly with stories of your own have definitely freaked me out a little. thinking that there is any way this could possibly not be the right antibiotic is a little unnerving I will say. I didn't even think that was a thing.

Not fish related but I’ve been treated for infection on diabetic ulcer and the dr would do a culture swab which normally takes a week for the result. He prescribed an antibiotic while waiting but when the results came back he changed it to a different one for the bacteria found.

So did the ER do any kind kind of culture swab? Coincidentally I was at the infectious disease dr this morning since the foot ulcer was slow in healing and was still testing positive after 2 weeks of antibiotics.

 

[Nburg's Reef]

Man, this is like the 3rd or 4th story like this in a very short time. I had a little scare the other week and thanked god it just turned out to be a bad bristle worm sting. I’ve become very sensitized to them.

Thanks for sharing. Raising awareness could save someone’s life… or arm at the least.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Years ago, I had breakouts from Instant Ocean salt and switched to Hawaiian Marine Imports and since then, so salt bothers me including Instant ocean

 

[Dburr1014]

Bunch of wussies!

LOL, Adam, happy you got checked out and on the mend. Take care!

 

[rennjidk]

Here's me and my gushy jel-bow lol. Swellings has gone down a little bit at least since yesterday. I think.

Aw man, that looks absolutely gnarly! The infected wound looks pretty bad too

 

[jvbear]

see my next post. this one is a mistake. I can't figure out how to delete it.

 

[jvbear]

Haiou Long Rubber Gloves Elbow...

These are the gloves I got. I am paranoid and talked with a few others who got bacterial infections too. My problem is once I siphoned sump water to drain it and got a mouthful - I used Listerine ever since.

 

[Falreef]

1000% glad you went in, vibrio has been linked to necrotizing fasciitis- (flesh eating bacteria as well as other bacteria like certain staph strains). That’s were my mind went right away. Like you said you had an entry point which is all it takes sometimes.
Keep an eye on it. If it progresses at all with the antibiotics don’t hesitate to go back in. But she most likely has you covered.

Trust me I know- ICU nurse with experience in this department, and also recipient/pt with this. Not fun.

You know how to get a hold of me if you need to ask questions.

Jay

This, vibrio, is one of the most potentially deadly bacteria in our aquariums. Then there are the neurotoxins of palytoxins that are equally as bad.
Bites, by critters in our aquarium, cuts, scrapes, abrasions can cause some severe and potentially fatal illnesses.
A topic rarely discussed in this hobby. Must be taken seriously.

 

[GlassMunky]

Haiou Long Rubber Gloves Elbow...

These are the gloves I got. I am paranoid and talked with a few others who got bacterial infections too. My problem is once I siphoned sump water to drain it and got a mouthful - I used Listerine ever since.

I dunno how anyone can use those with and have any dexterity at all.

If I had to wear those every time I went in my tank I’d legitimately get rid of my tank. Not even joking.

 

[Reefer Brent]

We test our parameters constantly to protect our corals....can we test for bacteria to protect ourselves? Guessing that would be too extensive. (And eye opening lol)

 

[Katrina71]

@Battlecorals doxy is a heavy hitter. You may want to get some probiotics/prebiotics and eat all the yogurt you can possibly stand for about a month.

 

[SteveMM62Reef]

My problem is once I siphoned sump water to drain it and got a mouthful - I used Listerine ever since.

Are there any Squeeze Bulb Syphon Starters that are reliable and last? I’ve had a couple, and they all quickly failed.

 

[rja]

Reminds me of the time I was stung by a torch. I was moving it then all of a sudden I got the greatest searing pain I have ever felt in my entire life shoot from my thumb to my chest. I did not go to the hospital but I was very unfortunately met with utterly no documentation of this happening before on the internet. So I was fairly certain my thumb was going to just shrivel up and fall off (jokes). Needless to say, after a few days of a swollen thumb later, it was all cleared up.

 

[Battlecorals]

This, vibrio, is one of the most potentially deadly bacteria in our aquariums. Then there are the neurotoxins of palytoxins that are equally as bad.
Bites, by critters in our aquarium, cuts, scrapes, abrasions can cause some severe and potentially fatal illnesses.
A topic rarely discussed in this hobby. Must be taken seriously.

yeah I am not going to lie here. The few folks that contacted me directly with some very relatable stories of pretty scary outcomes, succeeded in freaking me out a lot. In this case was probably for the better. I agree this is a seldom discussed topic. One of those, you just don't even consider it, till it happens to you situations.

Glad you guys are all right but yikes! eye opener x 100

Here I am yesterday, still red and puffy. And again today. better, my forearm swelling is way down. Elbow's still puffy . I think I'm out of the woods though. It definitely got redder and a little bigger after my first post, but seems to have started to ebb now. I mean I think the medicine is working. Going back on Monday morning for a follow up.


yesterday

today over 48 hours on antibiotics (serious face)