The doctor told him it was cellulitis based on a visual examination. No culture was done.
Some would call this the proactive approach on the part of the physician. I suspect it may be a case of a patient who's claiming that he may have an infection from steroid use, and a doctor that decided to take what was in all likelihood a histaminic reaction, and allow it to be a scare tactic to dissuade him from further use.
Since he never started, or immediately discontinued the course of antibiotics, and had in fact pinned the gear again and is symptom free, I'm going to stand by my initial thought that it was only an allergic reaction due to a botched injection.
That said, I'd like to slap Steve, and PEP's reaction was still wrong to me. I can't work customer service because I'm a short tempered asshole, and I can't stand whiny customers. I know this about myself, and have greatly distanced myself from that profession. IMO this situation with PEP boils down far more to his lack of process improvement and over the top insulting reaction than anything to do with his gear. If he had kept his cool, admitted to his mistakes, and showed how he was taking steps to fix his shit, I think he could have pulled it out, and I was hoping he would.
Good sources are good for the community. It's really a shame to me. This place has a tough crowd. Takes a special kid of personality to handle it, and that's as much part of the job as brewing good gear.
Maybe a root cause analysis or even a simple Boolean logic test would be more in order than this frivolous pursuit of guesswork which both encourages this shameless practice and carries us even further from that which some of us would choose to put an end to! Mindless speculation,instead of the pursuit of truth.
Call me an old fashioned sort but to arrive at a logical conclusion, it is first necessary to remove from the equation,anything that cant be proved,i.e.cellulitis. Cellulitis' most common causes are streptococcus pyrogenees,staphylococcus(group a-B.hemolytic streptococci);staphylococcoccus aureous;group B,C,D,or G-B staphylococci)Each of which are bacteria and would NOT always suggest a histamine reaction. None of which can be ascertained with certainty,unless a blood culture has been performed.Since we are told NO CULTURE was obtained we must rule out cellulitis with s measure of certainty as we have neither corroberated nor uncorroberated evidence of such. especially if a puncture wound is the likely vector by which the bacteria entered the body(I was under the impression that Steve told the ED physician his malady was caused by a needle-stick),And the speed that the injury healed. It is highly common to diagnose cellulitis without blood cultures being taken but that is a very dangerous practice,indeed as suspected cellulitis is sometimes deep vein thrombosis in disguise and much worse!. Or so I am told. Many people die daily from allergic reactions and since last I heard Steve is very much alive,we cannot say that an allergic reaction isnt dangerous and just wash our hands of it!
The point being that we cannot just make assumptions based on"gut-feelings" we need incontrovertible evidence otherwise we are engaging in guess-work.Secondly we do not know what the physician was trying to do,just get rid of a non-emergent case or was he trying to teach the hapless Steve a lesson? We again are speculating.. For shame!
How are we ever going to determine the truth if we continue to engage in this sort of activity?
We arent,are we?
Lets confine our conclusions to those things we know, not those we feel, if we want to be taken seriously by our peers.
I admit I go with my gut a lot but when it comes down to wanting to be certain of something it takes a little more work than many of us care to subject ourselves to!
When I go to class or to the doctor,Id like to know that those I turn my body and mind over too arent just "shooting in the dark" This isnt how science is done!!
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