I’ve seen a lot of wounds over the course of my medical career — some of them from car crashes, others from assaults. Many of them have been work-related injuries or resulted from the use of tools around the home. Still others have been due to animal bites or stings.
The injuries I listed above are often dramatic and hard to miss. They get our attention. However, other wounds are more insidious. The source of the wound may not be known. It might have been a casual scrape against a door frame, a minor bruise from a fall. The wound may have been from opening a can or from a broken jar and may have been dismissed, and not without reason.
Others — which result in ulcers, swelling or bruising — seem to have no source. These often show up in those who have diabetes, which, over time, reduces both immunity and sensation — a dangerous combination. Or they may appear in those with poor blood supply to feet or hands from the combination of diabetes and smoking.
These days, many individuals with autoimmune conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, psoriasis or Crohn’s disease take immunosuppressive drugs. These, too, may make wounds hard to detect because the medications blunt the body’s ability to react in order to relieve the symptoms of the underlying disease.
These wounds may not even look like wounds, but only like areas of redness or swelling. In those who are overweight, are bedridden or have had strokes or suffer from dementia, these areas of infection can easily go unnoticed in damp areas of the lower back or pelvis, under extra skin or in the groin, under the breasts or armpits. Even unnoticed dental infections can become severe.
In addition, friends or family who may abuse IV drugs can also develop severe infections at the sites where they inject and, due to their addiction, often let them worsen rather than seek timely treatment.
Any such wounds and subsequent infections may lead to the widespread bloodstream infection we call sepsis, producing fever, confusion, difficulty breathing, low blood pressure, shock — and, if untreated, death.
My point is just to remind everyone to pay attention and seek medical care when minor wounds become painful, angry, red, swollen, develop drainage or are associated with fever. And, by all means, ensure that family members, young or old, are regularly checked for signs of infection if they are in any way immunocompromised or unable to communicate their symptoms.
We live in a remarkable time of antibiotics and surgical procedures; wounds with even severe infection can be readily treated. But diligence is key so that a minor problem doesn’t escalate into something deadly.