Infection from Live Rock - Personal Experience

[josh torbett]

Sorry to here about the tank.

That kinda freaks me out because I too had some cut and scratches from the same rock when Nick (Fishdude) and myself help move that beast of a rock (130+lbs) you have. Some of my scratches were looking like they were starting to get infected as well. The ones that looked bad I would squeeze it till it bleed to get the pus and outer crap out then washed them. I looked for my neosporin but could not find it and did not worry to much about it. Not knowing you were in the hospital for the same thing, worse of course. Lucky for me mine cleared up in a couple days.

Your welcome to a frag of anything I've got, It's not much but your's if you like. Also if you need a hand with anything else just let me know.

To everyone else where is a good place to get some good gloves that go up to your arm pits and which one do you guys/gals like the best? Maybe we should start a group buy or something I think a few us us might be interested in a pair after reading this.

LMK if you need anything
Josh Torbett

 

[ralph atl]

JeffMuse;887785 wrote: Guys, thank you so much for the kind words and well wishes. I really appreciate you guys keeping me in your thoughts, and I will keep you updated on how I progress.

The infection continues to retreat down my arm, so I am pretty optimistic at this point. The infectious disease physician has attributed my recovery to the antibiotics Doxcycline and Levofloxacin, which I took as an IV in the the hospital. As an outpatient, I am going to take these medications in a pill form to see if I can continue to get the same results (keeping my fingers crossed). In the event that I do not get better taking the pills, I will have to go in for a daily infusion at the hospital (not my first choice).

On a sad note, my tank crashed while I was in the hospital. I sustained this cut while transfering my tank from my hold house to my new one, so the system had just recently been set up. I am not sure what happened, but all of the fish died while I was away. I don't know if an amonia spike caused this, or if there was some kind of problem with the RO Water. Either way I am devastated.

This has been one of the hardest weeks I have ever had, and it is certainly the worst experience I have ever been through in this hobby (needless to say). I feel like between the infection and this crash I should never have anything to do with fish ever again... is this a sign that I should retire? I am going to try not to make a decision about my future in this hobby in anger /frustration... perhaps in a week or two I will have some clarity about what to do.

I really apprecaite everyone's support. Thank you again ARC.

nope, restart........I had a temp spike 2 months back, and I could figure out why a few corals were looking like crap, I tested gazillion times.....I gave up...started to send out feelers to sell tank and just get rid of it after I fixed the problem of course....it was too much...lol....2 weeks later, it was if nothing happened....

yours is so much more intense then mine....but, similar feeling....don't give up...if you have sps, I'll hook you up with some free frags......

 

[containerman1]

I hope you get to feeling better soon

 

[snowmansnow]

hope you get to feeling better!

 

[cedzaquaddiction]

Yikes... Thanks for sharing... Hop you continue to get well...

 

[fredfish]

Thanks for sharing your experience....... Hope you have a quick recovery.

 

[joseayes]

Don't give up! You can have my royal gramma and my goby if you need some fish to make you happy every time you feed them, whenever you ready before I disassemble my tank hehehe! I'm not giving up neither, but the boss rules have some different plans :boo:

 

[jfritts91]

Sorry for the experience, but thank you for the share. Hope you get well soon.

 

[jeffmuse]

I wanted to give everyone a quick update. Eight days after getting this hellish infection, I am doing better. I had an out patient treatment at the hospital today and the infectious disease doctor is very encouraged by my progress. While I still have a ways to go before this is over, the oral antibiotics have been working and there should be no further need for an infusion/ IV.

The redness around my forearm has completely retreated and the swelling has gone down dramatically. Most importantly the pain has greatly subsided. The actual cut where the infection initially occurred still looks terrible and is basically an open would... the doctor has instructed me to clean this out 3 times a day and to apply topical antibiotics when dressing the area. If things continue to progress as they have, I should hopefully be recovered in another week or two!

Yesterday was my first day back at work:

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As terrible of a week as this has been, I find myself REALLY missing my tank. I have had a few days to think about things, and I have decided that I enjoy reefing too much to walk away from it. I am going to take a month or so off to let my arm heal before doing an official restart of the system. :yes:

 

[curtismaximus]

Glad your feeling better man! Keep up the good attitude it helps in times like these.

 

[grouper]

JeffMuse;887628 wrote: ARC,

Over the years I have read a variety of posts on the ARC stressing the importance of wearing gloves when working in your tank/ handling live rock. Last Saturday, I scratched my forearm on a piece on a piece of LR while moving my tank to the new house.... this "scratch" has turned out to be one of the most hellish experiences of my life.

I sustained the scratch on Saturday afternoon and did not think anything of it. I have nicked my hands probably a hundred times in this hobby and never had any negative consequences. On Sunday morning, at about 7 am, I woke up in severe pain. My forearm was EXTREMELY swollen and I clearly had a fever/ chills. Now, I don't normally go to the doctor unless I am about to die, but in this instance I immediately asked my wife to take me to the ER.

At the hospital, I was put on an IV and given about 5 different medications to help with the pain, swelling, and infection. I felt a little bit better after the meds and was sent home on Sunday afternoon.

Pic from the ER

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On Monday, the scratched area still hurt, but there was no swelling or fever. Around noon, I noticed that the red area around the scratch had begun to spread all over my forearm. I made an appointment with my family practice doctor, and by the time I got to his office, a read streak had run from up forearm up my bicep. My doctor took one look at the infection and instructed me to go back to the hospital.

Pic Monday afternoon

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I was admitted to the hospital on Monday afternoon and was seen by an Infectious Disease doctor. I received infusions for approx 40 hours, and was given a mix of 3 different antibiotics. Blood cultures came back as negative, so the infection was considered to be localized and not systemic. Despite this news, I was scared to death... no one really knew what kind of bacteria was causing the infection and I saw no real improvement for the first 24 hours.

As of this morning, the redness has finally stopped spreading and has regressed slightly... I am finally getting to go home! I am going to take oral antibiotics from home and will hopefully not have to go back to the hospital for any more infusions.

Leaving the hospital

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This experience has been scary as hell... I am just praying that this terrible event is almost over.

Wow!!! Hope you are okay. I heard about this before. Same exact thing. Scratch arm from the LR
then infection....

 

[davidinga]

JeffMuse;887628 wrote: ARC,

Over the years I have read a variety of posts on the ARC stressing the importance of wearing gloves when working in your tank/ handling live rock. Last Saturday, I scratched my forearm on a piece on a piece of LR while moving my tank to the new house.... this "scratch" has turned out to be one of the most hellish experiences of my life.

I sustained the scratch on Saturday afternoon and did not think anything of it.

There's the real issue. It doesn't matter so much if you were gloves or whatever; the most important thing you didn't think to do (can't blame you) is treat that scratch like and open wound and clean the crap out of it.

 

[90galguy]

Matt.....if you need any help getting set up again let me know. I once received a pretty good gash in my leg while scuba diving in God's aquarium and I was told to pretty much dunk it in peroxide. It never got to that point though. It conscientious amazes me how beautiful our tanks can be but be so very dangerous at the same time.

Continued prayers on your recovery.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[fishdude]

Muse,
I am so sorry to hear about everything you have gone through this week. That is definitely a horrible experience and to lose the tank makes it even worse. I am happy to hear that you are considering restarting the tank in a few months and I would be happy to help you-I might be able to break off a few frags when the time comes to get it going again. Get well soon, let me know if you need any more help with anything. Looking forward to sharing a beer or two when you start the tank back up.

-Nick

 

[jdavid]

I'm glad you are getting better. I got a small taste of what you are going through (a very small taste in comparison)

My finger is swollen, and there is no open wound anymore but there is an obvious infection and it is oozing pus out at the cuticle (continuously). We all need to be way more careful.

 

[jeffmuse]

Fishdude;889409 wrote: Muse,
I am so sorry to hear about everything you have gone through this week. That is definitely a horrible experience and to lose the tank makes it even worse. I am happy to hear that you are considering restarting the tank in a few months and I would be happy to help you-I might be able to break off a few frags when the time comes to get it going again. Get well soon, let me know if you need any more help with anything. Looking forward to sharing a beer or two when you start the tank back up.

-Nick

Nick, thanks bud, I really appreciate that! If you don't mind stopping by and helping me move that rock one more time.... just kidding, (that rock is staying where it is till the end of time).

While it is hard to find any kind of silver lining from this experience, my tank is basically a blank slate and I get to re-start the system exactly how I want it. I have thought a lot about what kind of corals/ fish I am going to raise this time around, and how I want things to look. I am really looking forward to getting the system up and running once again.

Edit: Just a quick update: I am continuing to improve! After 3 weeks, my arm continues to heal and I am off of oral antibiotics. The doctors want me to keep a close eye on things to ensure that the infection does not return/ flare up, so I am still taking it easy. The only medicine that I am taking at this point is a topical antibiotic that I apply when dressing the wound.

Here are pics of my progression over the last 3 weeks:

Day 1

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Day 2

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Day 5

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Day 6

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Day 9

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Day 12

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Day 20

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[jeffmuse]

Here's where I am at with the wound. The Dr thinks that the scarring will fade, but this is pretty much as good as its going to get.

I guess there is nothing left to do but get back to reefing... time to re-boot the tank

Day 35

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[joseayes]

Men this is way to different from last update. So glad you recover to this point and thanks for share!

 

[jimmystephens]

**** Jeff, just seeing this. (I live in kentucky now) sorry this happend to u.
Glad ur recovering. Sending prayers.
Everyone in this hobby for any length of time has had some sort of tank crash and wanted to quit. Keep ur head up !

 

[jeffmuse]

joseayes;896931 wrote: Men this is way to different from last update. So glad you recover to this point and thanks for share!

Thanks man!

Edit:

JimmyStephens;896932 wrote: **** Jeff, just seeing this. (I live in kentucky now) sorry this happend to u.
Glad ur recovering. Sending prayers.
Everyone in this hobby for any length of time has had some sort of tank crash and wanted to quit. Keep ur head up !

Jimmy, I appreciate that! Loosing all of my fish/ live stock was devastating; however, I REALLY miss having my tank setup... its one of those things where you do not realize how much you love something till it is gone.

I have been working on my sump room for the past few weeks and I am almost ready to re-boot the system. I would like to have water in the tank by this weekend in order to get the cycle started. In a few short weeks I should be back in business