wounds

i woke up at 4 am with shooting pain in my swollen lymph node under my armpit which had decided to break and pus up and scab over the weekend.  the armpit situation got progressively worse over the weekend.   i even rang the emergency room at the hospital to see how busy they were...and of course being on hold for 30 minutes quickly answered my suspicion:  avoid the hospital over labor day weekend at all costs.

i took an early morning bath while my very sweet helper dragged himself outta bed to change my bedding. From a conversation I had yesterday, i've re-fallen in love with the idea of grapefruit seed extract as a fantastic antibiotic so my bright early morning idea was that I would spread the stuff all over my wounds.   I even did it IN the bathtub to test to see if I would be okay (the theory being that I would wash it off immediately if it wasn't).   everything seemed to be okay.   I dried off and dragged myself to my happy fresh bed.    being the extremist i tend to be, i added a little more grapefruit seed extract for good measure--after all, if a little bit works, more will work better, right?

WRONG.  within ten minutes both the cellulitis leg and the armpit sore were red and itchy.  unbearably itchy.   so itchy that i took another bath.   now one of my usual treatments is a goldenseal paste that cools my owwies.   so i applied the paste, gauzed it up, and turned the lights out in hopes of getting a few more hours sleep.   OMG.   Lemme tell you.   within a few minutes, the leg and armpit were screaming itch and I, the "I don't like to take drugs" girl,  was hastily swallowing one benedryl whilst seriously wondering how many I could take at once without death.   luckily 15 minutes later, the itch subsided enough that the drowsiness took over and I fell back asleep.   Whew.  close call.

luckily, i had a dr. appointment early this morning.   the good news is my platelet count wasn't too bad...probably will need transfusion Thursday or Friday but that is a slight improvement over my usual five day average.    the doctors both squeamishly looked at my sores and I suggested that perhaps I could go to the Wound Center.   One doctor suggested Dr. Lindsey at the center.

Praise Jah!   Dr.  Lindsey was the first doctor who actually really took an interest in my situation, bless his heart.    We ended up draining--scapel and all--the armpit wound in hopes that this will heal faster.  No baths.  Wish me luck.