Acne/boils? Gross Warning! Some Female Stuff!

susiestar

Roll With It
Jess has what looks like a HUGE zit right at the edge of her armpit. It is raised, red and I think it is a boil.

She also has been getting BIG "zits" all over her chest. They are very painful even when not touched. She has popped a few and they are very infected. By big I mean a minimum of 3/4 " in diameter, some end up being an inch or more of raised angry looking bumps.

They were just on her upper chest, above her breasts. Now they have spread and are on the breasts themselves, as of a couple of days ago.

Tonight I found 3 on her thighs.

They don't look like "normal" zits, not even the bad whitehead type.

I am currently treating them with BurnJel Plus. It was designed for burns, but has 2.5% lidocaine and aloe and tea tree oil. On the more normal acne it clears them up in 2-3 days. It is great stuff.

Is this something we should see the doctor for? I am wondering if she has some sort of systemic infection that is showing up with these things.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
See the doctor. I doubt it's a systemic infection, it sounds like classic staph boils. Remember, we all have staph in our skin, it's what causes pimples and boils. But it sounds a bit out of hand and she could be run down a fair bit. Push the Vitamin C into her, meantime.

As for the one on the edge of her armpit - a common cause of these is shaving. I had a huge one some years ago and my GP told me to stop shaving. So I did - I switched to using an epilator, and no more boils!

In the meantime, if she is shaving, get her to wipe her skin down with ti-tree oil before and after shaving.

Marg
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
I agree with Marg. Get her in to see the doctor and have it checked.

Back when I had issues with those darn things.........I'd use antibacterial soap, showering with it at least every other day. But usually every day until the outbreak was over. It kept the staph bacteria down on my skin and let my body fight it off. So it didn't spread.

Poor kid.:(

Hugs
 

mstang67chic

Going Green
difficult child has one of these but his doesn't seem to be painful....it just drives him nuts. In his case though the doctor looked at it and said it was a hemangioma and to just leave it alone for awhile to see what it does. The ones Jess has does sound like some sort of infection so I agree...have the doctor take a look.
 

DazedandConfused

Well-Known Member
Because I have allergies I'm vulnerable to getting boils. Get her into the doctor and have them take a look. I got a really nasty one in my armpit (I went to the doctor for that one) and it was so painful I could barely put my arm down or lift anything and then they spread to my whole side. What finally got rid of them was taking a cotton pad and going over them with rubbing alcohol intil they were healed.
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
Boils were just talked about on The Doctors the other day!

We get them here too. As pointed out above, they are caused by staph infection but it gets in by the pores and normally its a hair or two getting ingrown in whatever place it happens. That can set up a person to have a boil in that area for a long time. Like they go away and come back. I get them under my arms, Cory and Billy get them on their butts. Tony gets them on his side where he wears his tool belt or on his neck.

Dont drain them yourself. Hot compresses, dial soap, making sure the tub is ultra clean with bleach before baths and no sharing of towels.
 

susiestar

Roll With It
Thanks!! My only experience other than this was Wiz getting one that took two large gauze pads to cover after the doctor drained it. they thought it was just in one area and when they lanced it the skin tore from that area and it was huge. He actually missed several days of school because he couldn't bend at the waist and was in lots of pain.

I hope this goes away on its own. If it is not LOTS better by Monday she will go to the doctor.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
A trick I've shared here before about staph infections; this info came from a microbiologist former neighbour of ours.

You apply heat as hot as you can stand it (hot salty water, if you can immerse the site) EVERY THREE HOURS. The reason is, these bugs like to divide about every four hours, and heat interrupts the cell dic=vision of these bacteria. So you hit them with heat, and they have to start it over. And the longer a cell waits before dividing, the bigger it gets. And the bigger a cell gets, the more unwieldy it gets in terms of nutrient transport until eventually the cell dies form old age (ie getting too big for itself).

So keep interrupting that mitosis!

I found form experience, that what works well is having a three hour interval between the heat treatment and aimming to have three heat sessions in a day (consecutive ones) and then continue into the next day doing the same thing. After three days of this, you should notice improvement.

It's not as fast as antibiotics though, so you MUST continue once you start, or the infection merely comes back as bad as ever.

Once the bacterial count is low enough, your body does the rest of the mopping up.

This is what I do, endorsed by my doctors, because in my case antibiotics are not an easy option.

Another problem with antibiotics - for a staph infection in the skin or on a finger or two, the antibiotics have to get into the bloodstream and right out to the periphery. This means travelling often to extremities via capillary circulation, which is where the red blood cells have to line up and get through, single file. In cold weather, circulation is poor. So antibiotics getting to the site - not always successful. Again, heat causes vasodilation and so helps antibiotics get to the site.

IN other words - whatever you try, it's all good. But bad boils - it's a good idea to get them seen by the doctor, he can at least do a swab to confirm what it is.

Marg
 

susiestar

Roll With It
That makes sense, Marg. I get pockets of infection around my fingernails on a regular basis. They are deep, and I first have a sore finger, then it swells, and finally I can see a small yellow spot under several layers of skin. This has happened since childhood (early elem school). I rarely go a season with-o one. Each time I see a new doctor they want to lance it. Not only does that hurt like the dickens, it isn't very effective. They cannot really get a big enough needle down there to get the pus out if they aspirate, or make a big enough hole for it all to drain out.

After using phisohex (neurotoxic soap so you have to be very careful) and hot water to soak for years, I finally just started using hot water. The soap really irritates my skin. Oral antibiotics don't ever make much difference. If they open up and drain a little I use tea tree oil after applying peroxide until it no longer fizzes. the hot water followed by tea tree oil seems to work the best.
 

Marguerite

Active Member
OK, now you know - try the hot water treatment, but do it with no more than a three hour interval. I use the microwave to heat up a glass of water to as hot as i can stand it then walk around with a finger in the glass. It's been a few years since I had this, and last time I was still treating it and it was going systemic and making me feverish, but the hot water every three hours began to beat it.

I will emphasise, though - I had my specialist on speed dial on my phone and he knew what I was doing and supported it.

The deep infections are nasty when they go anaerobic - normally the staph grows in the presence of oxygen, but when it gets deep in the tissues it undergoes a change and chooses to avoid oxygen. That's why peroxide is so effective in that situation.

Marg
 
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