Flesh eating bacteria, Flesh eating fish, Flesh eating humans...
Ever feel like your flesh was being eaten away? Necrotizing fasciitis is a bacterial infection. These bacteria attack the soft tissue, usually in an extremity following minor trauma. There are many cases occurring after surgery, and most often abdominal surgery.
The bacteria are introduced from a person carrying Strep Type A or from an area where Strep Type A is present. These bacteria are the same as those that cause "Strep throat." However, there are various strains of the bacteria, some of which are more powerful than others (with stronger m-protein serotypes). The name "flesh-eating-bacteria" is a bit over the top, but essentially, the bacteria do in fact "eat flesh." The bacteria attack the subcutaneous (soft) tissue, which then becomes gangrenous. Infection moves swiftly, usually under the skin, where it is unobservable. Once tissue becomes necrotic (dead), it has to be removed.
Some days this is a reflection of my own circumstances. I awake, exhausted from the emotional drain the taxation of life can slap at me. I feel as if a knawing bacterium has been surviving off my insides and without warning I realize my insides have been vicariously feeding a unannounced invader. The realization becomes epiphany as I look in my mirror and recognize the death of my own hearts tissue. I don’t realize it until the murder has occurred. Too late. Or is it? When life’s weariness seems so strong that we’re barely treading is there another chance to rise above all the conflict and ride with the currant our bodies floating with ease? I think so. As long as we have breath to breathe there is always another chance. At least to take another stroke towards healing. So what’s the best treatment before life devours us from the inside out? Hmmmmmm. You tell me. What is your survival mode? How do you rise above? How do you do more than merely exist until your dead? How do you fight the sometimes unseen battle over your insides?
