Last Saturday I woke up with incredible pain and swelling in my face. I went to my doctor’s office, and they ent me directly to the hospital – cellulitis, they said. I got an injection of antibiotics and was told to return the next day. The next day the swelling had increased. Half of my face looked like Martin Landau’s in the old outer Limits episode “The Man Who Never Was” (The part where he wasn’t clouding men’s minds, that is). I felt like I needed one of those sackcloth-and-ashes robes he was wearing to complete the effect, but I din’t know where to get one. A Phantom of the Opera mask to cover half my face would’ve come in handy, too. And m nose was positively W.C. Fieldsian. Onb my return to the hospital, ythey immediately committed me. Or whatever they call it.
Massive doses of antibiotics kept me woozy, and hospital gowns, even with th new pants they issue you, leave you with very little dignity. Overall, they were pretty good, and I can’t complan about my treatment, or even the food.
I got gout from the antibiotics, which sill makes walking difficult, and various other things in my life have been screwed up. My face responded with amazing speed, however, and despite the warnings of my doctors not to expect immediate results, the swelling went down immediately.
On top of all this, learned that my father was in the hospital, too. Fortunately, he’s doing well. I called him up and berated him about it – I had the idea first, and he’s already been in the hospital recently. Life goes on.
How’s your week been?
Huh. Were they able to pinpoint a cause? My brother went through something very similar about two weeks ago. His forearm swelled up to Popeye-like proportions, and he wound up spending about four days in the hospital getting the same treatment you did.
They eventually brought back the same diagnosis – cellulitis – but weren’t able to give an actual reason this came about. There was some question if it could have been a spider bite, since he had brushed a large spider off that arm an hour before, but apparently a toxicology screen showed nothing of the sort.
Since then, we’ve heard about four other people in the area having this same sort of thing happen. Odd, I would say.
But, either way, I’m glad to hear the swelling has gone down, and you’ve been sprung from the hospital. Hope you’re able to ditch the gout soon. Feel better!
My sister had this a couple years ago. It was very scary. She had it in her leg. I believe someone here on the boards also had a nasty encounter with it.
I had a friend at work whose face swelled up to about twice – maybe three times its size. They told him it was a spider bite. Frightening. I’m glad you’ve been sprung from the hospital and are on the road to recovery!
Glad to hear everything is ok now Cal - Be happy it wasn’t something more disfiguring and long term like Bells Palsy. A dear friend of mine got it not too far back and he looked like he had had a stroke. One side of his face was completely droopy.
I’m happy you got the right care when you did. Very good on you! Positive thoughts to our dad as well.
Funny you should mention that – Bell’s Palsy struck Pepper Mill just two weeks earlier, and we ad to take her to the hospital. Fortunetely, she’s almost over it now. Otherwise, between the two of us and our one-eyed, distorted-head cat Clarence, we’d look like the Household o the Livinf Dead.
