The Dragon's Keep

when it rains...

I gotta stop jinxing myself, getting all excited about things finally going my way. :/ Where do I begin...?

Well, for starters, this semester is already off to a pretty rocky start. I got sick right as I was coming back from Christmas break, which meant I missed a couple days of classes right off the bat. Then, right as I was finally feeling back in the groove at the end of last week, I got slammed with a bit of a shocker, really. I started feeling really sick quite suddenly on Saturday evening around 9pm, with a sudden fever and chills that had me literally shuddering and sweating at the same time, unable to even try and sleep it off. A couple of hours later, I realized that my left leg was throbbing and starting to hurt, so I called my roommate in to have a look and see if it might be a spider bite or something. After a little online research, we came to the conclusion that it wasn't a spider bite, but possibly an infection resulting from a bite or sting of *some* kind. I called my mom next, and she gave me several more possibilities - shingles, cellulitis, MRSA, or even an abscess/cyst like my brother had to get cut out of *his* left leg a few years ago. I'm thinking, "wow...none of these is really going to be better than any of the others..."

You know what they say about hindsight being 20/20? I *intended* to get to the doctor the very next day, but I was unable to get a ride and so I figured it could wait until Monday morning first thing. I REALLY should have walked over there myself on Sunday when I still had the ability to do so without much complication.

The area of redness and pain went from two spots on Saturday night in the middle of my shin - one about an inch/inch and a half in diameter, the other about a quarter inch - to a much larger, less uniform spread all the way down to my lower shin on Sunday and Monday, to all the way down past my ankle and around the leg today. It was VERY painful this morning; it actually brought me to tears and I have a fairly high pain tolerance.

So, let's back up a little bit to yesterday, when my aunt took me to the doctor. He took one look at it, felt it and everything, and told me very seriously that we were going to have to pay close attention to it and be very "aggressive" with treatment right away. He speculated on cellulitis right from the get-go, but took a culture of it to be sure. He then ordered me a shot of antibiotic *and* prescribed some antibiotic pills to get going on right away.

I hate shots. I *usually* like surprises, but not the kind that involve shots. So when the nurse came in with the needle and said, "ok, I'm gonna need your bum" I was like "...wait, what?!"

I had a different doctor for the follow-up today, and *he* said it looked like cellulitis for sure, and based on the fact that my fever seems to have gone away, we're on the right track with the treatment. But it felt so horrible this morning and looked worse than before, so he ordered *another* shot to the butt for me today, with yet another scheduled for tomorrow. And, if it's any worse tomorrow than it was today, they'll have to take a blood sample and be sure it isn't more complicated than cellulitis, as if cellulitis isn't complicated enough! I mean, check out this link! https://health.google.com/health/ref/Cellulitis That pretty much fits me to a T, so what could be even *worse* I wonder?! I was told to take it easy and stay home, off my feet as much as possible, which means no classes for the rest of the week. :/

I've already gotten emails back from some of my teachers telling me to take it easy and not worry too much about catching up until I get back (hopefully) starting Monday, so that makes me feel a little better. If y'all could pray for me, I'd really appreciate that so much too. To be honest, things could be much worse, and I'm grateful that they aren't.

posted by Erin Duncan @ 3:18 PM