Author: Umbrax
Why I haven’t been online lately.
Monday, September 11th, 2006 @ 8:21 pm
I haven’t been visible very much for close to a week. I wasn’t trying to be secretive on why I was online I was just too sick to be doing what I normally do online
On the morning of September 6th I woke up with cellulitis on the lower part of my left leg. The night before I went to bed feeling fine but I woke up at midnight feeling like a bad cold was coming on, I was achy all over. I decided to take a couple Tylenol cold tablets in hopes of feeling better in the morning. Instead of the deep hibernation most people are used to, I was practically up all night, delirious from a high fever and the cold meds.
After a night of drifting in and out of consciousness I finally woke up with a clear mind at 7 am. Immediately I noticed soreness on the inside of my thigh. It was a familiar feeling. It is a swelling of a gland and is a symptom of cellulitis. I know this because I’ve suffered from this type of skin infection several times before. I pull of my blankets, and sure enough the front of my leg was red from my knee down to my ankle.
As I’ve already mentioned, this is not the first time I’ve suffered from cellulitis. I believe the first time I got this was some time during the year 2000. It was so bad I couldn’t walk and my leg was grossly swollen and painfully red. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve had cellulitis now but I think this is my fifth time. The last time I had cellulitis was over two years ago. I felt it had been so long, I would never have to deal with it again.
The timing of this was bad (not that there ever is a good time to be sick).
Currently I’m a stay at home dad. My wife works a 9-5 job. We have a 6 year of daughter and a 3 year old son. It was my daughters second day of grade 2 and it is a half day. It is my job to pick her up after school.
I felt pretty miserable from the crappy night I had but I felt I could put off going to the hospital until my mother-in-law could watch the kids at about 1:30
1:30 came and she dropped me off at the hospital and it wasn’t long from me to get through the triage and begin treatment for my cellulitis. First my vitals were checked by a nurse who had showed me that my temperature was 39.5C. Soon after I was brought to a bed for a nurse to take blood and make a site for antibiotic intravenous treatment. I don’t have a problem with needles but they have a problem with me. Nurses often have problems hitting my veins. This time it took three pokes before they were able to set up a site for the IV. Nurses have a “rule” that they try twice and then get a different nurse to do it. There was one time when I had 4 nurses trying to catch a vein. Anyway, after all that was done with I was treated and told I had to come back in 8 hours (12 midnight!) for my second dose and then again at 8:30am the next day to be set up with a “home-IV.”
So, I was set up with my home-IV on Thursday morning. It is a bag and a pump in a fanny pack and it pumped antibiotics along a tube and into my arm.
It was to wear this for two days and return to the hospital Saturday morning. The one problem was that the clinic that handled home-IVs was closed on Saturday and I would have to go to a different hospital. The other hospital takes me over an hour to get to.
Saturday came and I made m way to the other hospital. The doctor there examined me and decided that I need two more days on the home-IV. They had to make a new site for my IV as the existing one was getting sore and swollen.
This morning they took out the home-IV and I’m on oral meds now. The past 5 or so days have been pretty crappy for me but I’m getting better now. My home life is getting back to normal and my online life will be as it was.
Cheers.
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September 12th, 2006 at 4:13 am
Hope you feel better soon Umbrax. It sounds awful with all the needle poking and carrying around of the IV bag. Did you have to have bed rest the entire time? Or did they allow you to walk around?
September 12th, 2006 at 4:45 am
Ah, as I was reading this I kept thinking how many ways we can get sick. I feel for you dude, I have deep veins as well, and the alsways havbe to poke around in me to find one. I am just glad you are on the mend, nothing worse than feeling sick, except for head related pain, maybe! I hope you continue to heal. Do you know how you got this infection, or why you are prone to it? I got it on me one year and the doctor told me it was from a scratch!
September 12th, 2006 at 7:34 am
Yeah, all it takes is a break in the skin. My doctor said we have something like a 1 in 250000 chance of getting it the firs time and then it doubles every time you get it.
I was supposed to keep of my feet and keep my leg elevated. Of coarse yesterday I was on my feet trying to catch up on house work and errands. I had to go to bed early because my ankle has swollen to almost twice it’s normal size.
Today I’ll be making an effort to keep off my feet.
Thanks for the well wishes guys