Posted on 07/13/2006 2:13:52 PM PDT by lunarbicep
House Speaker Dennis Hastert was hospitalized Thursday for treatment of a bacterial skin infection.
Hastert was expected to be treated with intravenous antibiotics at Bethesda Naval Hospital in suburban Maryland through the weekend, according to his spokesman Ron Bonjean.
Hastert, 64, discovered the infection on his lower left leg and applied a topical ointment. After a few days, Hastert's doctor examined the infection at Bethesda and diagnosed it as cellulitis, a skin infection that appears as a swollen, red area that feels hot and tender, and that can spread rapidly without treatment, the spokesman said.
Hastert is a 10-term congressman from Yorkville, Ill., in Chicago's suburbs. He has been speaker since 1999, succeeding Newt Gingrich of Georgia, who was the first Republican speaker in four decades. Recently, Hastert's tenure became the longest of any Republican speaker.
I hope he's not getting whatever makes Harry Reid look like the Crypt Keeper.
They found that huge yellow streak up his back?
It can be dangerous, especially if it's MRSA. My MIL was hospitalized for 10 days on IV antibiotics for cellulitis that was resistent to most antibiotics.
Hope he responds quickly to the antibiotics.
Poor Mr. Hastert! I hope he makes a full recovery. Getting old is a bummer.
I thought his problem was cellulite, not cellulitis.
I've had this. The antibiotics should knock it right out.
Well, they bite real viciously in Congress. He better get the rabies shot as well.
I hope he recovers quickly.
that is the first thing that came to mind when I read the title.
This guy should resign before his completely incompetent leadership hands the House back to the socialist crook baby killer sex pervert party.
Who's going to chop down that tree?
I agree.
I got it on one of toes about 10 years ago.
The doctor at Urgent Care gave me some antiobiotics (I can't remember which one) and after a few days, it was all healed.
It's that yellow stripe down his back.
I see that you were there long before me.
I see that you were there long before me.
There are a lot of resistant Staph Aureus strains showing up. Methicillin resistant is the worst. Local emergency rooms are reporting 50+ cases coming in a day of staph aureus, no breakdown on whether they are MSRA. More cases show up in the summer (scratch on skin, insect bite, etc. and the bacteria gets past the first line of defense).
More than likely, Hastert has compromised bloodflow to the extremities and this is why they have him on IV therapy.
Resistant bugs are becoming a huge problem. Drug companies need better protection for their research efforts so they can afford to keep on top of things. The companies making the generics in India, Pakistan, Thailand, etc. are getting a free ride.
I had that once in my thumb and it traveled up my arm in 24 hours, 7 days on anti-B's IV's plus again at home after the insurance company kicked me out of the hospital. Another day later, would have hit my organs. Very serious infection, takes months to recover from it.
Cellulitis can turn into Lymphengitis (sp?) and streak to the heart and enter the organs and cause the blood to become septic, poisoned. It doesn't always clear up easily - It took me 4 months to feel normal after it.
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