I've had a rather crazy week since the last time I wrote. Pete came home from work on Thursday not feeling well. He had the typical winter cold. Just tired mostly. Friday morning, however, he woke up with this bright red left calf, that was very painful to stand and walk on. I looked on the internet (Google) for "diabetic red leg" and came up with cellulitis. We decided to go to the ER.
They confirmed that it is indeed cellulitis. Apparently this happens to diabetics from time to time. It is a bacterial infection. We are theorizing that the itching we both had a few weeks ago (scabies…and we STILL don't know how the hell we got THAT), caused him to scratch his leg and he somehow got bacteria inside it. We're not sure, but it has been a crappy month so far in 2014 for us both. Scabies is NO FUN. I don't know if we got it from human skin-to-skin contact or from bed sheets at the skeevy hotel in New Jersey that we stayed in during Pete's mom's funeral back in September. I started itching right after we got back, but Pete started after Thanksgiving. We thought, "well it's just dry skin," so we put lotion on. Nothing improved. Then we had the doctor prescribe some antibiotic lotion. Nothing. Then we finally went to a dermatologist and she gave us some heavy duty stuff, and that worked. We don't have it anymore, but this leg problem may have resulted from that whole mess.
(Hence, the lack of writing I've been doing the past couple months….sorry about that). It has just been crazy around here since then.
Anyway, at the ER, they gave him an antibiotic and sent him home with a prescription. However, he woke up Saturday morning and it was much worse. It had spread. So back to the ER we went. This photo may not LOOK much worse, but the redness was a darker shade, and it had started to streak up his thigh, and down onto his foot. Cellulitis can seep into the blood stream and cause sepsis, which can be deadly. It can also cause blood clots, which can also be deadly. It can also lead to amputation. So this is not something to mess around with.
He wasn't happy about going back to the ER, though, because apparently he was going to an audition to try out for the role of Tevia in Fiddler on the Roof, at a local community theater. He wanted me to wait until 5 p.m. when the auditions were over, to take him to the hospital because he knew they would want to admit him. I said no.
"So I compromised," he says to the nurse, "and I did what she said." hehehehehe (Smart man).
Luckily the director of the play will give him an audition later this week after he is out of the hospital. That made him feel much better.
However, during the course of the day and evening, Pete had a fever of 102.9 and major chills, so that meant the antibiotics in the IV were starting to work. The doctor said he'll just have to ride it out, and deal with the chills and the fever, there was nothing much he could do about it. He also had a very bad headache, which is rare for him. I think he was just overly tired. Who can sleep in a hospital?!
Anyway, so now he's getting an MRI (so I came home to shovel the driveway, we got a ton of snow). I am going back to be with him at the hospital soon, though. I don't want to leave his side, in case anything bad should happen. It was bizarre, we go to the ER and the nurse walks in and introduces herself as "Bree." I looked at Pete, and he looked at me. I groaned silently in my head, because it reminded me of our friends Jeff and Bree. Jeff passed away before Christmas, and Bree never left his side. I thought, "Shit, here is an omen…is it a bad one?" I pay attention to signals like that, stuff that SEEMS coincidental usually aren't. They are messages from the cosmos, and if you pay attention to them, really LISTEN, you can be guided through life on a better path.
Anyway, that's just my opinion.
I stayed with Pete all day, from 10 a.m. until 11 p.m., then I came home and slept with the kitties. I was back at his side at 7 a.m., but they took him to the MRI at 8. I'm going back now, it should be over with soon.
So that's what I've been dealing with. Hope you're having a much better time, and staying warm too. If I could snuggle with ya, you know I would!!! It's friggin' COLD here. Like, the wind chill is going to be -30 tomorrow!!! ARGGGHHHH!!! That's just CRAZY!!
Well, I'm off. Love you lots. Hope you are doing well, and had a great birthday too.
Love, Rebecca
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