Stiletto – sometimes stepping back from antibiotics is the right solution
Anonymous
“Nothing worked… The pain continued to ramp up, and the infection lingered…but this time it was different. It didn’t have sharp edges, this time it ballooned out and pressed on me.”
RL, 25, PhD student, London, telling her story of an antibiotic resistant infection. An actor reads RL’s words.
This is the story of a healthy, young woman who developed an antibiotic resistant infection after someone stood on her toe while dancing at a club. A stiletto heel pierced and broke her toenail.
After months of procedures by doctors and podiatrists, as well as multiple different antibiotics, the infection continued to worsen.
“The wound was black, oozing green pus. The lab found many pathogenic microbes in the nail, including MRSA – an antibiotic- resistant form of the common bacteria Staphylococcus aureus.”
But as the infection worsened, RL sank into depression and loneliness. “The black colour had crept from my foot into my thoughts, and I could no longer see beyond them. I quit my PhD, and left London. I had sunk as low as I could go.”
In the end, after 18 months of drug resistant infection, pain and declining mental health, RL saw a young doctor who advised stopping the antibiotics and changing the cleaning regimen. Within two weeks, her toe was better.
RL was healthy, strong and young, and yet an antibiotic resistant infection reduced her to physical and mental collapse. Don’t underestimate the devastation drug resistant bacteria can cause anyone at any time of their life.
