# Poison Oak turns to dangerous staph infection



## mtnbiker72 (Jan 22, 2007)

I am writing this from a hospital bed and waiting to be discharged after three days. Physically I feel fine except 2/3 of my body is covered in red blotches from a secondary skin infection. It all started simply from getting some poison oak on my arm. Over the years I have been lucky to have some level of resistance to it and never got it when others did. I did finally get some on my calf about 12 years ago on a ride but after a week or so it went away. So when I got it this time, I didn't think much of it and just used some Caladryl to control the itching. However, this time it spread and blistered really bad. After about a week, I started to break out in what I thought was hives in different areas of my body. I went into the ER, got a steroid shot and some anti-biotics and was sent home. That night it got even worse as the itching all over my body was intense. I got into my primary doctor the next morning and he immediately admitted me to the hospital. Some cultures were ran and it turned out I had a cellulitis infection over 2/3 of my body. Luckily it was not the drug resistant type of Staph so after 3 days of IV anti-biotics I am starting to improve.

So be careful out there, next time (hopefully never!) I will be very diligent about washing if I notice poison oak (I'm pretty sure I got it from my clothes and not direct contact) and if I do get a rash from it I will be seeing my doctor right away.

Lesson learned, now for my real punishment...listening to my wife (who told me to have it looked at early in the rash stage) tell me "I told you so" forever!
:madman:


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