No News is Good News...

...which means this must be bad. Kinda.  I decided that I might as well share my tragic saga (although both of those words are exaggerations).

Since I've been back in Tucson I have gotten numerous, very large and painful bug (probably mosquito) bites on my knees.  A very Hannah found what she thought was another such bite this Tuesday, however as the day progressed it seemed to get worse and worse.  I tried benadryl, hydrochortizone, (I'm sure that's spelled very wrong) and tylenol, but nothing really seemed to help.  On Wednesday I woke up to it being even larger, red, hot, and tight.  I suffered through walking all over campus between classes and then later in the afternoon decided I had better go to Campus Health to get it checked out.  They said it was a skin infection called Cellulitis which is cause when bacteria gets into your skin through some kind of opening.  So they gave me a prescription for some antibiotics and sent me on my way.

Then Thursday came.  My leg didn't feel much better but the doctor had said it might take 24 to 48 hours for the drugs to take effect so I was trying to be patient.  When I got off of work on Thursday night, I came home to find my infection was HUGE (like legitimately huge) and was also turning purple. Uh ohhh.  Not knowing what was going on, I got pretty scared and worried.  I consulted with two of my friends who live in my dorm and another RA and we came to the conclusion that I should probably go to urgent care.  So off we went.  At urgent care (at about 11:30 pm) the doctor looked at my leg for quite some time and then admitted that she had never seen anything quite like it.  Thus, I was sent to the ER. 

My lovely friends who drove and accompanied me throughout the entire thing took me to the UMC where I checked in in the ER.  Of course, just registering and getting my vitals taken (for what seemed like the 10th time) took quite a while.  And then we had to wait another long while to get an actual room.  I finally got in, and they got busy doing more vitals, hooking me up to an IV (during which time I may have freaked out just a little) and outlining my horrible large infection with sharpie.  After hours, I had somewhat stumped a nurse, medic, doctor, and senior doctor.  Which of course didn't make me too happy.  They decided to do some tests (on my blood or something) to check on other parts of my body to see if there was anything bad going on.  Getting the results took about an hour and a half during which time my leg itched crazily and my friends and I pretty much went delirious from being awake so late.  They finally returned with the news that all of the tests had come back clear, so it really was just Cellulitis (hopefully).  They considered keeping me overnight and giving me antibiotics intravenously but ended up deciding to send me home (at about 5:00 AM) with two new antibiotic prescriptions. 

So I got about 2 hours of restless sleep and woke up bright and early to get my prescriptions filled (during which time the pharmacist kinda freaked me out by informing me of my chance of having an allergic reaction and how I should probably keep people with me.)  Thankfully, I have been taking the pills since this morning and have yet to have an allergic reaction.  I'm supposed to be drinking a lot of water (which of course is hard for me) and I pretty much have to wear yoga pants or sweatpants all the time.

Tonight, as I am writing this at 12:45 AM and wishing I could be sleeping rather than going on 2 AM rounds (I'm on duty) , it looks like the color of my infection may be fading a bit although they said it might take 3-5 days to see results.  It hurts a bit less to walk, but my ankle had decided to swell hugely.  So I'm basically just praying that the antibiotics will work and I will start to feel better sometime sooooon. 

I did get a super official hospital band and tons of paperwork out of last nights fiasco :P