For the second time in a week, a trip to the beach has landed a Texas resident in the hospital with an apparent bacterial infection.
Earlier this week, a Houston man's leg was amputated after a trip to the beach in Galveston.
Now, a North Texas woman is in the hospital after going to McFaddin Beach in Port Arthur.
Both cases appear to be caused by bacteria in the water.
Melody Long, of Greenville, said she started feeling bad on her way home from a weekend fishing trip to Port Arthur.
She said her legs became red and swollen, and she had chills, a fever, a headache.
"I knew I was sick," she said.
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Long, who is a nurse, checked into a McKinney hospital when the swelling became so bad she couldn't walk, and when her blood pressure began to drop.
Blood tests, she said, revealed she has bacteria in her bloodstream.
"It's going to be one of two bacteria," she said she was told by an infectious disease doctor. "Both of those bacteria are found in water."
Doctors should know more Thursday about which kind of bacteria she's battling.
But Long said it could be the same type that may have caused a Houston man to lose his leg this week.
"I had not heard anything about it," Long said.
Fortunately, Long should be back on her feet soon.
She hopes sharing her story makes other aware of the warning signs and dangers of waiting to get treatment.
"If I hadn't of known that and I'd have waited, I'd have waited a day, I don't think I'd be alive. And that's not being dramatic," Long said.
Long has a pre-existing condition that she says may have made her more susceptible to an infection.
The Texas General Land Office provides real-time updates on water quality along public beaches in Texas: https://cgis.glo.texas.gov/Beachwatch/.
