How long do Soft Tissue Infections take to go away?

[Austin_98]

I woke up earlier in the week with what I assumed was a bug bite on my lower leg, but over ~10-12 hours, I developed what looked like a rash with heat and swelling and became systemically unwell (nausea, diarrhoea, clammy, fever etc). I started to look BAD super quickly and it looked SCARY* so I went to A&E. They initially scared me by saying it was PROBABLY a severe Cellulitis, but because I was systemically ill and had stuff like pain out of proportion, pain in the "healthy" looking areas around the wound, rapid spreading etc they were concerned it MIGHT be "Necrotizing Fasciitis".
They draw around it in pen and made me wait 2 hours [N.F. can spread as rapidly as an inch an hour in all directions] to rule that out, then decided it WAS just a severe cellulitis.
They gave me Flucloxacillin (500mg, 4 x day) and Clarithromycin (500mg, 2 x day) which I've been taking for 3.5 days. I know that isn't long (they gave me a 7 day course) but it looks slightly worse (slightly) rather than better.
I don't know if the slow-reaction is because it isn't working or just because healing is slow in diabetics? There's no pain anymore but honestly that's also a toss-up of really bad (nerve death) or really good (healing), too.

Anyone had a Skin or Soft Tissue Infection? And how long to notice definitely improvement with antibiotics?


*Like, have you guys seen Cabin Fever (2002)? Ya know that scene where Marci is shaving her leg in the bath?

 

[Taighnamona]

I got a dog scratch on my ankle which became infected and I cleaned and dressed it for three days before noticing infection around it. I got a tetanus injection plus…
Doctor prescribed Clarithromycin for 7 days which didn’t seem to improve it.
Practice nurse swabbed it, cleaned it and put an ‘Inadine’ dressing on it. I was given some home with me and it took another 6 days before I was confident that the infection was receding. Those daily dressings worked and I never did find out the swab result but it took about 4 weeks in total.
I also plunged it in/out alternate hot/iced water - 3mins hot/30 secs cold before renewing the dressings in an effort to stimulate natural healing.

 

[Inka]

I had to have four courses of Flucloxacillin to get rid of a skin infection @Austin_98 If you think the infection is looking worse, get medical advice. You might need IV antibiotics for a few days. A friend had cellulitis and was admitted for IV antibiotics for a few days.

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

Gosh sorry to hear about your poorly leg @Austin_98

How have your BGs been while you’ve had the infection? Raised BGs can slow down the healing process I think