Cellulitis, an infection of the deep subcutaneous tissue of the skin. Not cellulite, aka cottage cheese skin. (Skinny people get cellulite -- the rest of us just deal with fat. But this entry isn't about cellulite, or even fat. It's about cellulitis.) If you want to know more about cellulitis
click here.
Anyway, on with the tale. Cellulitis is generally caused when bacteria normally on the surface of the skin gets under the skin. The scrape I got while picking up pears during the windstorm (not the brightest thing I've ever done... but the pears are really sweet :-) ) we had a couple of weeks ago allowed the bacteria in and after about a week I noticed the part of my leg that was scraped was tight, hot, red, and very tender to the touch. So there are these minor treatment clinics set up in some of the larger Kroger's in the area, so I dropped in there to have it checked out. Sure enough, it was cellulitis. So the nurse practitioner gave me a prescription for antibiotics and I also got a tetanus shot. Those clinics are mighty convenient -- I was able to do my grocery shopping while I waited for my turn and then I got the prescription filled at the in-store pharmacy.
Now my leg is feeling better and is not nearly as red and sore, but is still swollen and certain spots are still really tender. I think I finish up the antibiotics this coming Monday, but I'm starting to wonder if I'll need another course of them. It is clearing up, but doesn't seem to be going quite as quickly as I expected. From what I understand cellulitis can sometimes be tough to get rid of completely and can become very serious if it isn't completely wiped out, so I want to make sure to beat the crap out of it. I'm thinking I might call my doctor and see what he thinks. My mum had it (from a cat bite) and it was serious enough in her case that she had to be hospitalised and given intravenous antibiotics. Of course, she had other health issues that made her more susceptable to any kind of infection, so she couldn't fight it well on her own, but her experience still makes me nervous.
So here's a pic of my lovely (NOT!! haha!) leg. It was getting dark outside and I had to use a flash, so the redness doesn't really show up that much, but I took this just after getting the cellulits diagnosis. Charming, isn't it?
