Salmon and Souvlaki

I’m taking Cephalexin (cephalexin monohydrate)- 500 mg/pill, 3 times a day, for 10 days.  The doctor said that it’s one that’s good specifically for skin bacterial infections.  This morning the red patch below the red circle is getting lighter and doesn’t itch as much so that’s better.  My body also feels significantly better this morning.  No aching and no fever.  So I think I’m OK.  (Although I’m still taking my sick day because I already had a sub and I figure it doesn’t hurt to rest.)  But I will definitely call the doctor if I get any worse.  Bacterial infections are really scary!  I’m also trying to be extremely careful with washing my hands, bleaching stuff, etc.  I’ll let you know what the doctor says the bacteria is.

My leg is going to rot and fall off

Well, not quite, but over the past week, I have had a very bizarre infection develop on my left leg just below my  knee cap.  It started out looking like a little bit like razor burn last Sunday and by Tuesday night, Kristen said that it looked like I had ringworm (the inflammation was definitely in a circle).  So I called for a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday morning and by the time I got to the doctor Friday morning, I had a circle the size of a quarter that was raised up a least a quarter of an inch and oozing yellow fluid.  There was also a ring of red around the circle that looked inflamed.  The doctor took one look at it, said it wasn’t ringworm and prescribed antibiotics for me (3 times a day for 10 days).  She said that it looked like some kind of localized bacterial infection.  So she took a sample of the liquid and said that the lab would grow a culture of it to find out what kind of bacteria is is.  This will take days evidently (because the bacteria has to grow).  So in the meantime, I have to put hot compresses on it twice a day, I have to bandage it, I’m taking the antibiotics, and I do have a topical athlete’s foot cream to put on it (in case it has some sort of fungal component to it.)  Today, I have a big patch of red itchy skin below the growth (or whatever you want to call it) and my whole body is super achy.  Plus I think I have a low-grade fever.  So I think my body is fighing whatever it is that I have.  I called in sick for tomorrow and am just going to try to sleep a lot and hopefully let my body work on killing this infection.  I will unfortunately have to go into school at 7:00 to get my sub plans ready but then I’ll come back home and go to sleep.

It’s pretty scary actually.  It feels like I’m in a third world country or something.  My mind of course keeps jumping to all the nasty things it could be (like those flesh-eating bacteria) but so far my leg is intact.  If I don’t feel better by Tuesday, I’m going to call the doctor again.  I do have a follow up appointment in a week and a half and the doctor did tell me that it would probably take that long for it to heal.  Anyway, I would appreciate your prayers – I don’t like being sick like this!  (Be glad I don’t have a digital camera.  Otherwise, I would probably have posted a really disgusting picture of my leg).

As I was cleaning up my bedroom this evening, I realized that I had four pairs of shoes out on my floor:

3 pairs of Danskos
1 pair of Birkenstocks

Really, I am quite the snob.  I refuse to wear a pair of shoes if their retail value is under $100. My next shoe need is a pair of sneakers (or is it tennis shoes? – I’m so confused East Coast/West Coast, I can’t remember which one is the right one to say).  I think I’m going to go to Charm City Run. My friend Christine works there part-time and she tells me that I can get a good pair of shoes there for $85.  It will be a bit of a come down for me but I think I’ll try to handle it.

(To my credit, I only paid full price for my Birkenstocks.  All those Danskos, together, only cost me $115 when retail would have been about $320.  So I guess that’s not too bad.  And I owe it all to Rachel!)