Remember those coal miners who were stuck in the mine for the longest time, waiting patiently for someone to come to their rescue and pull them back into light? I feel like the earth has swallowed me up, gnawed at my limbs a little, and now suddenly, there's a bright light shining through a crack and I'm about to find out where it leads. A little rescuing would be nice, but I think this time I just need to find my way out by myself.
Two weeks ago, I decided I was going to take a little more time off since this summer heat really gets to me. My husband and oldest child would be heading to Hong Kong for a 16 day adventure, so I would have no babysitting options for the baby anyway. I had some creative ideas as to how to get in a run or two, but I had no idea what was coming my way.
It started with a little pink spot on my thigh. I thought nothing of it, just seemed like I nicked myself while shaving, nothing new there. That was Wednesday, just 5 days after my husband left the country. Friday morning I woke up and immediately noticed my leg was burning, the small little pink spot was suddenly the size of a golfball! I visited my doctor who put me on Bactrim to treat the infection and marked the area of redness with her ink pen. Sat. morning I awoke to excruciating pain and the beat red area was now the size of a softball! After hobbling around all day, I called my sitter and begged her to come spend the night so I could have some help with the kids/house. Thankfully I had because I was in the hospital doors by 5 am Sunday morning, unable to bend my leg, unable to handle the pain, and smack in the center of my thigh was now a red area the size of a size 4 soccer ball. The center of it all nasty, purple, open and oozing, completely freaky. The kind medical student volunteered to perform the ultrasound on my leg while the 6 other residents, doctors, and students all gathered for the best seat in the house. As soon as the dark image appeared on the screen, I said, "Awww, look, it's a boy!" I think that med student nearly had a heart attack and I'm sure he thought I'd be better off in the psych ward! I had to lighten the mood, they were all so serious! After leaving there with Clindamycin now threading through my veins, I was hopeful that things would get better. But, Monday was no different from all the other days, the ink pen circles growing (now 4 of them), meant that now the redness was even bigger than the soccer ball (which pretty much means my entire thigh). Back to the doctor. It was hard to keep the tears at bay with the doctor injecting needles and scalpels into my leg, the pain was worse than childbirth--both times!! That pain scale they use? Yeah, 10 plus.
Now 10 days later, I'm on my last day of double antibiotics, and hopefully the last few days of the horrible side effects from being on the strongest drugs on the market. There are still potentials for more infection, recurrence, and c-diff from the meds, but I will not think of those things yet. For now, I am enjoying the fact that I'm pain free, on the mend, and both yesterday and today I was able to run for 30 min. With my husband and daughter back at home, I have enjoyed the help and getting the house back into some sort of order. Now if I can only find a way back onto my training schedule and be ready to run a marathon in just 8 weeks, that'd be great. :) Holy cow, I'll be 40 in just 8 weeks! Oh Lord, I'm not ready for that either.
