My bout with cellulitis

Contracting cellulitis is not what you want to do in any circumstances, so take heed and be careful. Learn by my mistake and close call.

While I was down in Minneapolis a few weeks ago visiting our new grandson, I bumped the shin of my right leg on the end board of his futon, twice. First on Monday and then again on Tuesday.

Since I bang myself up quite a bit and bruise easily I thought nothing of it, except how clumsy I had been.

By Tuesday afternoon I noticed my leg was swelling and getting really red and blotchy, and felt really “out of it” that night when we went out for my birthday celebration with our daughter and SIL on Tuesday night.

Everyone knows I’m sick when I can’t even finish eating a simple small salad and cup of soup, and I passed on the wine!!!

By Wednesday night it was really inflamed and hot to the touch. The RN I was staying with tried to convince me to go into the emergency room in Minneapolis before driving the 300 miles home on Thursday morning, but I told her I’d be fine.

Well, it’s a good thing I went immediately into the doctor’s office on my return home up north on Thursday morning, because I had a really bad case of cellulitis.

Cellulitis is a bacterial infection of the deep skin tissue and can turn life-threatening in a short time. The doctor said that had I waited any longer, I would have been in the hospital with antibiotics given by IV.

As it was, I was put on strong antibiotics (500 milligrams of cephalexin) that I take four times a day for ten days.

This is nothing to mess around with as I found out after doing more research on the Net, and can be a precursor to the flesh-eating disease if not caught in time.

I watched the infection and redness spread as it took over my ankle and went around the back of my leg, and that was just in 24 hours! It felt like I had an alien invasion of the body snatchers for goodness sake.

As we age and our bodies can no longer rebound like they once did from injury, so we are susceptible to cellulitis and other types of infections, so be cautious in all that you do!

I get so many small cuts, scrapes, and bruises that if I went to the doctor’s office every time, I would be living there–but believe me, if any of them get the slightest bit red now, I’m outta here in a flash!

Something as simple as a break in the skin from athlete’s foot, a cut with the toenail clipper, a scrape on the shin, a cat scratch, a pinprick with an awl, a poke or slip of the scissors, all of these things can be life-threatening when you are over 50 or your health is in some other way, compromised.

The docs also said the edema on my ankles could have contributed to it if the skin had stretched and broken anywhere, but I think it was from the scrapes on the ends of the futon bed boards.

My son, DIL, and grandbaby were using the futon as a bed in the small studio apartment. Then when I picked up little Johnny from the bed, I bumped into the ends of the bed boards, causing scrapes.

I’m almost at the end of my antibiotic treatment and my leg looks close to normal, but is still discolored and will probably stay that way forever. It still hurts from the bruising and throbs constantly, so I still elevate it. But at least now I can walk again like a normal person and can even stand long enough to do the dishes. Wheee!

For more information, here’s a link about cellulitis that you might find interesting and helpful if you get into this situation. https://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/cellulitis.html

Like my mom said, “Cathy, you’re going to have to quit being so clumsy.” And mothers know best, don’t they? Anyway, take care of yourself, everyone. Life is precious and too short!