I am with MJM hottest water you can stand not burning of course , with so much Epsom salt in it you still have crystals in the bottom of the bowl/pan , soak like that 3-4 times a day as a boost to the antibiotics.
you can reheat that and re-use for the day , just watch the temp carefully only bring it back up to 120 then cool just enough to stuff your hand in it.
change it out fresh each day.
so the Doctor is using a scare tactic , because if he honestly though you were going to lose your hand , you would be in a bed with IV anti biotics being pumped into you right now.
that you have a date from yesterday and not one with hour markings is also a sign that you are not rapidly progressing.
not that you shouldn't take this serious because thinking he has you on a pill and it can't progress would be wrong , if it jumps that line or any of the signs he told you to watch out for take it serious.
the hot water gives a local non brain effective fever , most bacteria can not survive above 104 degrees over a prolonged period , which is why fever help kill bacteria the issue is , temps over 104 do a number on your brain , why fever can be good and bad.
Epsom salts are a hostile environment to bacteria in the skin
remember the epsom salt and hot water thing it can save you huge amounts of money , because as soon as you realize you have a little infection going , you soak 3x a day and you can knock it out most of the time before it ever gets to this level again.
ask your parents to show you the bill/ explanation of benefit when it comes in , never seen an ER bill under 1K
I get infections under finger nails all the time when I clean lots of fish , epsom salt and hot water soak knocks them out
my dad nearly dies from an infection that goes sepsis about every other year , they finally identified the leg infection as 2 part ,his horrible circulation in the leg , and that he gets dried out skin that cracks and he gets a tiny infection that then progresses rapidly , yes like every other year for the last 8 he has been in the hospital with IV anti biotics . the worst one they had to go install a port so that they could pump the antibiotics in fast enough. he was in the ICU
since he has been taking much better care of his feet , no cracks , treat every little thing like it is what will put you in the ICU.
I got a crack in my foot in early February that was getting infected 2 days with the epsom salts and hot water made it much better and by the 3rd I was good.
if you catch stuff as a surface /skin infection before it goes deep you can kill them fairly easily.
when it goes deep and gets in the blood you can be dead in hours
