those four little letters

Thanks for all your words of encouragement yesterday...it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside knowing that yall think my Face Tumor is "huge" and that I look like I got punched in the face. :) With friends like that...

Haha, just kidding. Actually it encouraged me to come to my senses and go to the doctor today. That and the fact that my face and neck (lymph nodes) hurt SO BAD last night I couldn't lay on my left side.

So it's a skin infection (cellulitis) that I've had many, many times before over the years...only never on my face. It's really good that I went in and got seen as soon as I did...prior experience tells me that if I'd waited any longer, it would NOT have been pretty.

Oh, and lest you think I got off with just a sweet little trip to the doctor, let me tell you: THEY STUCK A NEEDLE IN MY FACE.

Yeah, I am not even kidding or exaggerating. A NEEDLE. IN MY FACE. AND IT HURT LIKE CRAP.

If you're having a bad day today, or you start feeling down on yourself, may I suggest you just think to yourself: at least no one is sticking a NEEDLE IN MY FACE...and then you will feel better.

Oh, also the doctor, who is apparently best buds with my friend WebMD and knows nothing about my alarmist personality, had the nerve to mention MRSA a few times. "It might be MRSA. It's hard to say." "Have you had MRSA before?" "Well, I'm going to give you the medicine we'd use for MRSA...you're not pregnant are you?...oh, thank goodness."

If that doesn't make you feel hopeful about life, nothing will. He was even so kind as to write it on my discharge form...a few times. Just in case I was going to go home and question did he REALLY think it could be MRSA?...yep, he did.

I mean...it's no cancer or AIDS, but I'd say MRSA is a pretty solid excuse to get me out of doing whatever I don't feel like doing for the rest of the week, right?

OH. And after they jacked me up with a needle in my FACE, there was blood. They gave me a monster-sized gauze pad to hold up there for awhile, but when it was time to leave, put a bandage on it instead. The bandage went all the way from my forehead to my jawbone (on the left side of my face), which was my first clue that I was not going to be making it to work today: I seriously do not need to explain my freaky Face Tumor-covering band-aid to 66 four-year-olds and all my co-workers. (I'd much rather explain it at great lengths to the infinite masses on the Internet, right?) I was also given marching orders to go straight to a pharmacy and get 65 (ok, 3, but it felt like a lot more) prescriptions filled immediately. And to spend the rest of the day putting hot washcloths on the offending wound.

Anyway, I came home and went to do the first washcloth thing. Apparently the doctor-office-grade Bandaids are made with SUPER GLUE, because I seriously thought I was going to rip the skin off my face getting that thing off. I cried. Multiple times. I considered getting a neighbor to come over and pull the stupid thing off because I seriously could not get it AND simultaneously deal with the pain and emotions. It eventually came off, and I will NOT be putting back on the extra ones that they gave me for the road. It was horrific.

So now we're all up-to-date. I'm home, took my first DO NOT TAKE THIS IF YOU ARE PREGNANT OR THINKING ABOUT BEING PREGNANT OR MIGHT BECOME PREGNANT OR KNOW ANYONE WHO IS PREGNANT OR EVEN IF YOU MIGHT BE WATCHING "A BABY STORY" LATER ON antibiotic pill, used the antibiotic ointment, peeled my skin Bandaid off, and am hoping the aforementioned antibiotic starts working soon so that my throat and lymph nodes will stop killing me. The doctor said that part might take a few days though, so boo.

Hope you're having a good day. If you're not, just try to remember: AT LEAST NO ONE IS STICKING A NEEDLE IN YOUR FACE. See, don't things feel happier already?