For decades now, we've been wearing hair ties on our wrists. Not only is this the most convenient method, but it's also the only way we can keep ourselves from losing them — otherwise, the darn things just disappear.

几十年来，我们经常把绑头发的橡皮筋戴在手腕上。这不仅是最方便的方法，而且橡皮筋还不容易弄丢。否则，那个小玩意儿就不见了。

But one Kentucky woman's harrowing tale may cause you to reconsider this accessory altogether.

但是在看完这个肯塔基女人的悲惨故事，你可能会对这个小配饰有些顾虑。

According to WLKY, Louisville local Audree Kopp noticed a bump on her wrist growing bigger and bigger.

据WLKY报道，路易维尔市当地居民奥德利·科普注意到手腕有个凸块而且越长越大。

Though she was prescribed a course of antibiotics¹ from her doctor, it continued to enlarge and become inflamed², so she went to the emergency room. It was there that she learned her glittery hair tie had caused three kinds of infections in her wrist.

尽管医生给她开了一个疗程的抗生素，但是凸块越发肿大，甚至发炎。她不得不去了急诊室就医，后来才知道原来是绑在手上亮闪闪的橡皮筋导致了手腕的三种感染。

Dr. Amit Gupta at Norton Healthcare, who immediately performed surgery on Audree, believes that bacteria from the difficult-to-clean accessory entered her skin through pores and hair follicles.

诺顿医疗的阿密特·古普塔医生在立即对奥德利进行了手术。他认为细菌是从不易清洁的橡皮筋通过毛孔和毛囊进入了病人的皮肤。

If she hadn't visited the emergency room when she did, the infection could have turned into sepsis, a life-threatening condition caused by bacteria in the bloodstream.

如果她没有及时来就诊，感染可能会变成脓毒症——一种由血液中细菌引起的危及性命的疾病。

"People have been known to go into a coma³, your body shuts down," Audree explained. "It could have been way worse."

“大家都知道人一进入昏迷状态，身体系统就会停工，”奥德利解释道。“情况可能会更糟糕。”

Maybe it's for the best that hair ties get lost when we're not wearing them – they have the potential to cause serious harm.

所以可能最佳做法就是，就算弄丢橡皮筋也不要戴在手上，因为它们有造成严重伤害的可能性。