The idea of moving from London to Luton after spending twenty-one years in the capital made me apprehensive. The idea of leaving my one bedroom flat to a terraced house with a garden excited me as I really longed for an outdoor space.
It was a quiet, sunny Monday evening in May and I decided to make the most of the warm 
weather and decided to re-pot some plants. I had four plants to re-home and quickly set to filling up the potting containers. After twenty minutes I had finished and went to my office to make a couple of phone calls. Whilst on the telephone to my producer friend Salvador I noticed a small red mark on my elbow. I initially thought I had banged it however it didn’t feel tender to the touch. After about thirty minutes the pain started to set in and my elbow started to tingle and throb. I took a couple of Paracetamol’s and went to bed. During the night my elbow started to swell and woke me up several times.
In the morning my elbow had swollen quite badly and I had a huge red mark around it. After close examination in the mirror, it looked like I had been bitten or stung. I hadn’t felt any pain from the insect when it bit or stung me at the time, in fact, I hadn’t noticed it. I took an anti-histamine and carried on with my day as normal. During the afternoon I had a visitor from a local neighbour who noticed my elbow and instructed me to immediately go to the doctors and get it checked out. As I hadn’t registered for a doctor I went to the local walk-in centre. When they wouldn’t see me I went to the emergency GP at the local hospital. The doctor took one look at my arm and drew a line around the bite/sting area. He prescribed me some (oral) antibiotics and explained that if the redness increases past the line he had drawn on my arm I was to return immediately to see him.
During the night my arm had become more inflamed and in the morning the redness had expanded past the line the doctor had drawn and had spread down the majority of my arm. I headed back to the hospital to see the doctor. Surprisingly I was seen very quickly and the doctor remembered me. He was horrified at the redness on my arm and told me that he was admitting me into the hospital for a dose of intravenous antibiotics. My heart sank as I released I was going to face my worst fear of needles. I went into Luton and Dunstable hospital via the Ambulatory care department and was quickly ushered into a private room where they explained they were going to infuse my veins with antibiotics and take some blood samples; I nearly passed out at the thought of this but the team of professional nurses encouraged and supported me through the process. The team took my phobia seriously and asked if I had had any bad experience in the past. I explained that the fear of needles stems back to when I was in my early twenties and was working on the cruise ships. I was admitted to a hospital in the Bahamas where an angry nurse was having an argument with her co-worker. She paid little attention to me and jabbed the needle into my arm. She missed the vein and repeated the process. Since then I am wary of needles and have developed a real fear of them.
After a while, I was called in to see the consultant who had had the results back from my blood test. He mentioned words like Cellulitis, Bursitis and Sepsis and at that moment I realised that the insect bite was more serious than I had envisaged. Everything became a blur and immediate panic set in. The words “we will keep you in for three to four days” were echoing through my head and all I could think about was how I was going to get out of the hospital now and collect my iPhone charger, headphones and toiletries. The consultant could see I was extremely anxious and agreed for me to quickly travel home and collect some belongings.
I spent six nights, seven days in the hospital with antibiotics being administered every six hours
through a cannula. The doctor had told me the insect that had bitten or stung me had infected me with bacteria causing Cellulitis and Bursitis. The medical team were worried about Sepsis and the speed the infection had spread throughout my arm. I wasn’t really aware of the implications of Sepsis nor was I originally concerned about what it could have done to me. Now I know the facts I am cautious whenever I get bitten by an insect or get a cut on my body. The infection Cellulitis affects the skin and the underlying tissue. Bacteria, (most commonly Group A streptococcal bacteria), enter the skin through an opening, such as a scrape, cut, surgical incision, burn or even an insect bite or sting.
Sepsis can be triggered by Cellulitis in some people. Sometimes incorrectly called blood poisoning by members of the general public, sepsis is the body’s often deadly response to infection or injury. Sepsis kills and disables millions and requires early suspicion and treatment for survival. Initially, if I would have stayed in bed and taken paracetamol then I might have been looking at a more severe outcome. I learnt a few valuable lessons from this incident one of which was when you move house register immediately with a GP another was to take more care in the garden and wear insect repellent, failing this hire a gardener!
Richie Litchfield
Litchfieldslifestyles.com
