How I almost earned the name "Stubbs"

The Thursday of finals week spring 2011 I noticed a small red kind of scaly patch no larger than a dime. Location was posterior distal crus in the nape below the belly of the gastroc and before the achilles tendon I could make out two miniscule puncture wounds, each shaped like a tiny triangle and oriented as though they had been inserted at a shallow angle.

The following Monday I had swelling that appeared to be a half dollar in size. A body flu kept me from classes that day. Tuesday morning I noticed a golf ball sized swelling in the crus. Around 1pm I was able be looked at, The nurse took one look at my leg and expedited my lancing. The drainage was minimal. I was prescribed Sulfa and one other antibiotic.

Wednesday morning my leg was a mess. The cellulitis had spread from the achilles to midway up the gastroc, with an elevation of at lest 1/2". I returned to the clinic and it was decided that I needed an immediate round of gluteus-venous antibiotics (they jammed three needles in my but). I was kept for observation for 2 hours.

That night I noticed increased swelling. My foot kept giving strange feedback, not asleep but numb. At one point I could see discoloration in the top of my foot and I began to get scared. I could tell that compartmentalization was beginning to occur.

Friday morning the cellulitis has spread from my heel to my knee, and left only an inch of uninfected tissue on along the anterior distal surface of my tibia.

Just as I was getting ready to drive to the E.R the foot began to improve.

In conclusion if I had waited one more day I could have potentially lost my foot, from an insignificant infection that turned out to be regular Staphylococcus Aureus. I do have suspicions that injecting lidocaine directly into the abscess may have caused the infection to spread further into surrounding tissues.

Two months later and the scab is still healing.