"Critical Mass"

Monday, January 28th I woke up with a sore left ankle.  I assumed that I slept on it funny and went about my day with a slight limp.  Tuesday, January 29th I woke up and my ankle was even more sore.  Again, I ignored it.  By Thursday, January 31st I knew something was wrong.  My ankle was swollen and I could barely walk on it.  Knowing that I was extremely prone to infection due to the chemo drugs I was on, I went to a local urgent care center.  The dr there looked at it and pointed out that it was not only inflamed, but it was bright red and hot to the touch.  He said it was most likely an infection and prescribed me some pain meds and an antibiotic.

When I got home I called up my Rhuematologist in Seattle just to let her know.  She told me that she wanted me to go to the ER.  She was worried that it was worse than I thought and said that with my immune system she didn't want me to take any chances.  She finally convinced me so Mama Jo and I headed to a local ER Thursday afternoon.

At the ER the dr gave me an IV bag full of antibiotics in addition to the two oral antibiotics that the dr at the urgent care prescribed for me.  The ER dr also instructed me to return to the ER the following afternoon.  He said that it needed to be checked again for levels of inflammation and a few blood tests would be back at that point.

This collage is from my first ER trip.

This is a picture of my ankle, not shrinking, at home Thursday night.

Friday morning came and I could barely walk on my ankle.  No worries though, genius Nichelle still decided to go on the blind date that had been set up a few days prior.  So, Friday early afternoon I hobbled into Azteca to meet up with this sweet man who I'm sure would later end up regretting ever agreeing to said blind date.  We had a wonderful lunch, during which he insisted on coming with me to the ER.  I tried to convince him that it would be boring and long and that he didn't have to...but he insisted.  He drove me to the hospital and we got settled in a room.  It was at this visit that the dr decided I had cellulitis.  The ER dr decided that I needed to be admitted.  My poor sweet date stayed with me from our arrival time of 2pm until about 5pm when Rachel showed up and he felt comfortable leaving me.

It wasn't until about 9pm that they transferred me out of the ER and up to what would become my home for the next week and a half.