Fresh Mud

On the evening of Monday 8th February, as I was being assisted into bed, one of my carers noticed a large red mark on my left butt cheek; she took a photo on my phone and showed me and I immediately recognised it as almost certainly being cellulitis. The nurse on duty had a look and said that she would refer me to the GP in the morning; the GP confirmed what I suspected and prescribed some antibiotics.

Over the next few days the redness and soreness spread down my left leg and my temperature started to spike – early in the morning of the 10th February it reached 39°C and continued to rise back up every time my regular co-codamol wore off. The antibiotics started giving me heartburn every time I swallowed anything, even liquids, and the temperature made me feel confused and disorientated whenever I woke and made me feel subhuman. This continued for around eight days with my temperature peeking at 40° at one point until, on the ninth day, it started to level out to a more reasonable 37°. The antibiotics continued to make me feel awful and the redness and swelling in my legs barely changed.

Sometime around the tenth or eleventh day, the 18th or 19th February, I woke up and felt almost normal; my temperature was good and the redness, and therefore soreness, in my legs had all but disappeared, pretty much overnight. The swelling was still there, but I was glad of being able to be rolled or moved without it hurting!

Today I feel pretty much normal, and even the heartburn from the antibiotics has eased significantly. My feet are still swollen which prevents me from getting out of bed and into my wheelchair, as having my feet hanging downwards would be detrimental at the moment, but I am more than happy to wait until I am fully recovered before venturing out of my room.

I had wanted to write this entry a lot earlier and update as things went along, but I have felt so awful that I literally wanted to do nothing other than sleep or stare at the TV.