Posted on 03/14/2009 10:15:37 AM PDT by george76
The novelty will wear off and one of two things will happen.
Either you’ll forget about it and stop even noticing it’s there.
Or you will slowly come to find its presence more and more annoying, until you wake up every day regretting you ever got it.
Dirty tatto + Early antibiotics => No severe cellulitis => No deep vein thrombosis => No pulmonary embolus => No death
*******
I don’t have the knowledge you do. I simply remember one of my doctor buddies getting sued for malpractice because he failed to prescribe an anti-coagulant to a patient who died of a bloodclot. He won.
It all depends on what point in the flow chart you come in at.
Initially, if the skin is hot and red, the leg is NOT swollen, there is no deep calf pain and the tatto is recent, then deep vein thrombosis is not yet a reasonable consideration. Anti-coagulation carries serious risks and a deep vein ultrasound is expensive so you don't initially go down that route with everybody with an EARLY skin problem.
Note, however, that I said "EARLY antibiotics" and put it right at the very beginning.
After the cellulitis is so severe that the clot has already formed, then you need BOTH antibiotics and anti-coagulation.
What are alarm bell for DVT?
Deep calf pain, not just skin pain, and swelling of the calf so that one calf is "fatter" than the other.
When you see a patient, you need to ask "What else could be going on?". After you answer that, you then ask, "What else could be going on?". Again and again.
The GP's thinking apparently went like this:
"The patient has pain and swelling after a tatto. What's going on?"
"I know! An allergic reaction to the ink. Here are pain meds and an anti-histamine."
The ghost of his medical school professor then appears and says, "Ummm .... Okaaay ..... Allergic reaction to the ink. Not at the top of MY list but .... Okay ..... Certainly plausible. ..... What else could be going on?"
"Nothing else that I can think of!"
"Infection, maybe?", prods the ghost.
"Nah! It's a reaction to the ink. I have covered all the bases!"
"Oy Vey! Okay, I won't take points off for missing the infection if you get the next question right. His calf is swollen. What ELSE could be going on?"
"Nothing else. It's a reaction to the ink. I have covered all the bases!"
"Fine ..... Let me page the Grim Reaper"
RIP.
I saw the most hideous thing yesterday. A dude with his entire arm blued (or is it greened) with tattoo ink, except for a star around his elbow (and we all know how pretty elbows are and how they need to be showcased) which was his natural skin color. Oy.
Painkillers and antihistamines for an infection? Is this one of the many curses of socialized medicine?
Wow, happy birthday.
Now I know one present to absolutely refuse (in addition to laser eye surgery).
OR...
I may actually enjoy it.
Nah. Human psychology doesn’t work that way.
After your brain accepts it as part of yourself on a subconscious level you will begin to go for long periods of time where you don’t notice it or give it any thought at all. But if your brain never accepts it psychologically as part of your body then you will begin to reject it subconsciously as your brain categorizes it as a disfigurement.
Or he could just enjoy it...
There you go. Thinking I’m human...
;-)
The same thing could be said of my hair being down to my beltline.
The same thing could be said of my left ear having 2 holes in it.
Neither is the case.
We actually have had one or two cases of infected tats locally in the past year. Meth then MRSA then infected tats, etc. No PTEs that I’m aware of, but this isn’t surprising.
If you’re going to page him, page him already.
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