My night in the ER

If there is one place in this world I hate going to, its the emergency room. You have no idea what people are in for, and what type of contagious disease or illness they might have, and you normally have to sit in the waiting room for hours before an overworked nurse and doctor will take a look at you. Needless to say, last night's trip to the emergency was not one I wanted to take.

It all started about a week and a half ago, when I was bite by a mosquito on the top of my left foot. For some reason, those pesky insects are attracted to me, whenever I go outside, I come back in with more bites then anyone else. A few days later, last Saturday, Phil and I went shopping, and that morning the bite was itching so much that I had to scratch it. As the day went out, my foot felt painful in the spot of the bite, underneath the strap of my flip-flop. I took my shoe off to see that the site was red and puffy, and was definitely infected. For the past week I have been keeping it as clean as I can, putting peroxide on it, bandaging it with antibacterial band-aids...the works. Yet, the thing kept getting worse. Yesterday at Walmart, Phil bought some Neosporin, and that just made it angry. So after dinner, with this thing hurting and throbbing and swollen, plus hot to the touch, I was told I was going to the ER.

Of course, I got crabby and bitchy, because even though I knew I had to go, I just didn't want to. But in the car we went and luckily, there is a new smaller hospital nearby that did not have a wait or very many people. And it turns out, I was not the only one in there with an infected bite, I guess it just must be that time of year.

The diagnosis: I have Cellulitis, which is an infection in the tissue underneath the skin, that if left untreated, could go to the bone, meaning a hospital stay, with IV antibiotic. Luckily, its not that bad, so I have to take oral antibiotics twice a day for ten days, keep a warm compress on it a few times a day, and they gave me a shot in my butt of a stronger antibiotic to get in my system and start working.

So I woke up this morning and to my surprise, it wasn't as painful as it was last night, and even though it is still red, it is not as bright red as it was last night, and it looks better, so I am very happy to see that. The dr. said if it doesn't get better then I need to go in and get IV meds, which I really don't want to be admitted into the hospital, so I am going to follow all of the dr.'s orders.