My big, fat, swollen, hot hand
So, I picked up a souvenir last week in North Carolina that I wasn't expecting....
I've always been allergic to insect bites - especially mosquitoes. Typically, they swell up pretty severely and are warm/hot around the swollen area. This usually lasts for a few days - maybe 3-5, by which time the swelling usually goes down, but it continues to itch for several more days.
I woke up in the middle of the night last Monday morning/Sunday night because the fingers on my left hand were really itchy. When I woke up that morning, I realized that something had bit me - my three middle fingers and the top of my palm were a bit swollen and were really itchy.
I put some cortisone cream on it, and took an antihistamine at night, which helped with the itchiness a bit, but not much.
By the weekend, my fingers and palm were still swollen (and yes, itchy). I mentioned it to my sister last night (Sunday) over the phone, and she suggested that I should see my doctor about it. Dick agreed.
I guess I hadn't thought too much about it, since I usually have such strong reactions to insect bites, but now that I think about it, an entire week has gone by, and it's still swollen - that can't be good.
My middle three fingers and top of my palm are still swollen so much that I can feel a lot of pressure when I bend any or all of my fingers. It's also slightly numb when I bend them.
Luckily, my Doctor as able to squeeze me in today. I told her I thought I was being silly coming in today, but she was immediately concerned when I told her what had happened, and especially when I showed her my big, swollen hand. She was additionally concerned when she felt the heat radiating off my hand.
She checked out my hand and up through my arm, asking lots of questions. Clearly, she was more concerned about this than I had initially been.
She gave me a prescription for 10 days of antibiotics, which should knock whatever this is out of my system. She also told me to pick up some Zyrtec - and over the counter allergy medication.
Just to be thorough, she sent me to an Infectious Disease Services lab to run some tests - including Lyme disease!
Best case scenario: this is just a severe reaction of swelling, or a mild infection that the antibiotics will surely take care of.
I suppose worst case scenario is that it could be a staph infection or even (gulp) Lyme disease.
I need to take my antibiotics with food, so I'll be taking my first dose with dinner tonight.
I'm hoping and kind of assuming that the antibiotics will kick whatever this is. If anything worse shows up in my lab results, I'm sure I'll hear about about it very soon.
It's funny - I'm usually super-proactive when it comes to anything medical-related. I have no fears of doctors or tests. For some reason, I had a mental block on this one, just assuming that it was my normal reaction to an insect bite.
Thanks to my Sis and Hubby for persuading me to visit my doctor today!
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