New health experiences

As you may already know, I have several chronic conditions, and now I can also add erysipelas to my list of experienced illnesses.

Erysipelasis is not a Greek drama, a godess or a high-class lady from the ancient era as you might think due to the name, it's rather a mean witch who crawls under the skin armed with an army of nasty virus.

Here we call it rose fever, and by that name you might think it just causes a slight virginal redness on the cheeks but nooo....I got it on my right lower leg and foot already affected by neuropathy. Normally, both legs and feet are swollen to varying degrees and also slightly red in color due to the neuropathy, but now the swelling became extreme and the discoloration turned into fiery red.

The pain when touched was high and so was the general pain. I also got a fever so I called the medical center who referred me to the emergency room when they thought I had got a blood clot.

After several hours in the ER where rose fever eventually was diagnosed, I was sent home with a strong course of penicillin. I had no fever at the time, otherwise I would have been hospitalized and medicated directly into the bloodstream.

I became nauseous from the penicillin the first few days and could not sleep due to the pain in my leg and foot. Fortunately, I still work from home, but the lack of sleep and constant pain meant that everything took longer as the concentration was quite low.

Now I have stopped the medication and the swelling and discoloration has become less and the pain has decreased significantly. I guess it will take some more time before all the symptoms are gone.

Another health-related novelty in my life is the heart rate monitor that has been hanging around my neck with two electrodes attached to my chest for the past 6 days. It was prescribed when I was on a doctor's visit at the rheumatology unit at the county hospital a few months ago since I sometimes experience severe palpitation, strangely enough often at bedtime.

As I said, these sensations come very irregularly, and they have of course been completely absent during these days typically enough....

Well, you might percieve this as a boring and monotonous post, but an insight into my everyday life will probably not be more entertaining than this. I promise that the next post will not be about me other than maybe my opinions on a current topic. I hope it's about something that evokes emotions, positive or negative doesn't matter.

Take care and be kind to yourself and your fellow human beings...

XOXO