health update
This will be known in future days as the Week of Cellulitis. (Probably to be expanded to Two Weeks of Cellulitis by the end, but I hope not more than that.) I woke up last Monday to a sizable red area on my left calf, which might with imagination have been described as bull's-eye-ish, so my first thought was tick bite-Lyme disease. But it seemed unlikely that I'd had a tick attached for long enough to transmit disease in such a public spot - it's been too hot to wear long pants - and further developments made that more unlikely.
I went to the doctor, got a vague "too soon to tell" and an antibiotic prescription (because it did seem infected), saw no improvement (and a fever) the next day, went back Wednesday with a spreading lesion (but no fever, and I've had none since), was firmly diagnosed and switched to another antibiotic and told to draw a line around the red area to monitor development. It kept slowly increasing (and the dark part in the middle got bigger as well) so I called the doctor again this morning and he said "Go to the ER." So I did (hurray shiny new hospital five minutes from my house) and they did some tests and put me on intravenous antibiotics and sent me home with a 3-pills-every-6-hours prescription, and here I am, hoping that I can get on with all the stuff I have to do this week (we have a major garden event on Saturday, for one thing). I am fine aside from the ugly thing on my calf, which basically is my calf at this point, it's become so large. I have been tired (according to medical personnel I have a staggeringly good immune system, because I should have been much sicker, but fighting crime infection does take it out of you) and have been doing a lot of sitting without the energy to do much work, so I launched into a reread of all the Amelia Peabody mysteries, which has been great fun.
Cellulitis information and photos, if you're interested. (Mine is not nearly as disgusting as some of those. Just kind of frighteningly large. I did run out to buy some lightweight long pants, and I also have long skirts.) So far I have not had to explain to anyone that it's not the same thing as cellulite, though admittedly I haven't talked to that many people about it.
*fingers crossed*
This entry was originally posted at http://hedda62.dreamwidth.org/101737.html. There are currently
comments there. Comment here or there.
I went to the doctor, got a vague "too soon to tell" and an antibiotic prescription (because it did seem infected), saw no improvement (and a fever) the next day, went back Wednesday with a spreading lesion (but no fever, and I've had none since), was firmly diagnosed and switched to another antibiotic and told to draw a line around the red area to monitor development. It kept slowly increasing (and the dark part in the middle got bigger as well) so I called the doctor again this morning and he said "Go to the ER." So I did (hurray shiny new hospital five minutes from my house) and they did some tests and put me on intravenous antibiotics and sent me home with a 3-pills-every-6-hours prescription, and here I am, hoping that I can get on with all the stuff I have to do this week (we have a major garden event on Saturday, for one thing). I am fine aside from the ugly thing on my calf, which basically is my calf at this point, it's become so large. I have been tired (according to medical personnel I have a staggeringly good immune system, because I should have been much sicker, but fighting crime infection does take it out of you) and have been doing a lot of sitting without the energy to do much work, so I launched into a reread of all the Amelia Peabody mysteries, which has been great fun.
Cellulitis information and photos, if you're interested. (Mine is not nearly as disgusting as some of those. Just kind of frighteningly large. I did run out to buy some lightweight long pants, and I also have long skirts.) So far I have not had to explain to anyone that it's not the same thing as cellulite, though admittedly I haven't talked to that many people about it.
*fingers crossed*
This entry was originally posted at http://hedda62.dreamwidth.org/101737.html. There are currently
comments there. Comment here or there.