Until I almost ended up in the hospital.
I've always had dry skin, I don't like the greasy feeling of lotion so I've just dealt with it the best I could. This summer I developed a itchy patch on the bottom of my foot that I scratched until I built up a callous. The callous cracked open so I started to peel some of the dead skin off causing it to bleed. I didn't think to much about it because this has happened before. I put some antibiotic cream on it, covered it with a band aid and forgot about it. Sure a sore on the bottom of my foot hurt to walk on, but I figured it was just the tender new skin being exposed that hurt. It started to heal and I completely forgot about it.
Fast forward about a week later, I woke up one morning feeling fine. I had plans to meet a friend for lunch. I took a shower and immediately after my shower I started to shiver. I knew it was chilly in the house but I didn't think it was that cold, so I went to check the thermostat and it was 69 degrees. Not excessively cold for our house, but yet I was freezing. Still undressed, I curled up in my robe and a blanket hoping I would soon warm up enough to get dressed. I laid there for 20 minutes, still shivering until I finally had to force myself to get dressed. I dressed as quickly as I could between uncontrollable shivering and put on the warmest sweatshirt I could find but I was still cold, and I was suddenly feeling tired and nauseated. I laid down on the couch with a blanket, hoping I'd start to feel better before I had to leave to meet my friend. After about an hour I realized I wasn't going anywhere expect back to bed. I canceled my lunch date, crawled in bed with several blankets, still chilled to the bone, and now feeling dizzy and nauseous. I thought it was the flu.
My son, who was also home sick that day, woke up about 11 and I told him he had to help me. I had to get to the bathroom, but I couldn't get myself out of bed. He helped me to the bathroom and back. Feeling that I could pass out at any moment, I told him if that happened to call his dad/my husband. He was very sweet, he took care of me the rest of the day, bringing me water and anything else I needed. When my husband came home I was still very sick and once again couldn't get myself out of bed. Some time during the day a pain had developed in my lower leg, it felt like a charlie horse, but I couldn't remember having one.
The next morning I was still sick so I stayed in bed, while everybody else went to work and school. The pain in my leg had gotten worse to the point where I could barely stand on it. My husband came home to check on me around 10 and I showed him my leg, which was red all the way from my foot to my knee, very hot (you could feel the difference between the skin temp above and below my knee) and very painful to the touch. I called the doctor and they were able to get me in right away.
After spending most of the morning in the doctor's office, having my blood drawn, and an ultrasound of my leg to rule out a blood clot; she concluded that it was cellulitis. A staph infection of the deeper layers of skin, that if left untreated can spread to the blood causing blood poisoning and death. Since it had spread to my whole lower leg and I was as sick as I was, this was serious. She said we could do one of two things, she could put me on an antibiotic and I'd have to come back in 24 hours or she could send me to the hospital. I really wanted to stay out of the hospital, so we choose to come back in 24 hours hoping that there was some improvement.
The next morning we when back to the doctor. I had my blood drawn again and my white blood cell count had gone down a little so we knew the antibiotic was working. She suggested that I have some penicillin injections to help boost the oral antibiotics. I had 2 injections before we left and I had to come back the following day for another 2 injections. She told me to stay in bed as much as possible with my leg elevated over the weekend, and to go right to the ER if things got worse. After going back in for the last 2 injections, I stayed in bed most of the weekend. By Sunday afternoon, I was feeling strong enough to venture into the living room for a little while.
Yesterday morning I had to go back to the doctor. My leg although still sore looks quite a bit better. The redness had gone down to about mid-calf, but it's no longer hot so we know that the infection is going away. I still have to watch it though to make sure it things don't make a turn for the worse, and it all started because the dry skin on my foot cracked open. This was a hard lesson to learn; but I've learned the importance of taking care of my skin and protecting any opening on my skin from now on.
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