case study for class that I need help with

[marciedee]

sorry if this is not the correct place to post this. i need help with this case study that my teacher has given us.

case study: a 19 yr. old girl on spring break goesto the beach at lake michigan. in the house where she is staying the flower bed is overgrown with weeds. she lays out in the sun and begins to complain of an insect bite on her ankle that looks like a mosquito bite. she finds an old bottle of aloe lotion and rubs it on the bite mark and returns to laying in the sun.the next day her ankle is very red in the area around the bite mark. it's hotand tender to the touch and she rubs more of the old bottle of aloe lotion onit. she goes off to the lake and the next morning around 2 a.m. she wakes up cryingand sweating. she looks very ill. she iscovered in sweat but was shivering. she is very pale, almost blue in places,and there are red patches on her legs. ** remember all this occurs in less than 48 hrs.

here are the questions that needanswered: what does she have? is it dangerous? what organism causes this? aparamedic that comes to the house writes ''secondary to cellulitis'' on her padof paper. what does it mean that this girl'scondition is ''secondary'' to it? how should janet's condition be treated atthis point?

i was thinking that maybe it could be lyme disease or malaria but bothof these have symptoms that do not present until after 48 hrs. then i thought maybe it was an infection fromher rubbing the old bottle of aloe lotion into the broken skin from themosquito bite (what she has). however, i dont know which organism causes that - i can't figure out if itsstreptococcus pyogenes or staphylococcus aureus?? i understand that cellulitis is sa kin infection caused by bacteria (those named above - staph a and strep p) and that it can be caused by insect bites. i dont know though what it means that her condtion is secondary to it. does that mean it's secondary to the bite mark and that when she rubbed it that's how it became infected and she has cellulitis? i need to know if i'm on the right track but i cant find anything on why she would be pale, almost blule in places and red patches on her legs. help!

[TakeTwoAspirin, MSN, RN, APRN]

This same scenario has been posted several times today with varying degrees of success at getting responses with this homework assignment. Perhaps you should all get together and pool your resources/knowledge as there seems to be several of you struggling with this assignment.