February 15, 2003

• Boil Update

  
  
  

  Because You Like Me to Gross You Out

  
  It isn't that bad.
  
  The antibiotic the doctor gave me wasn't doing anything. The package indicated that the normal dosage was double what he had specified, so I called to double check. Sure enough, he had made an error. Hey, at least he admitted it. The medicine was new to him and he hadn't been sure of the dose. Each little package contains two horse-chokers, each with 1,000 mg of medicine. It's easy to believe this would be a full day's dose ... but I can imagine that one 2,000 mg tablet would have been nearly impossible to swallow.
  
  Anyway, I had taken half the correct dose for a full day and my boil had turned black with a red ring of inflammation extending an inch above and below and 1.75 inches to either side of the lump containing the black boil. And it extended down inside the leg, into the muscle, causing pain when I moved and cramps when I didn't.
  
  That was yesterday. Today there is no blackness. The redness is much reduced. The lump is much reduced. There is a small white head, probably an accumulation of pus, but I'm not about to open it to see. I haven't checked for fever but I don't feel feverish or unwell. There is much less pain.
  
  Cathy is slightly better today, too. She got up, medicated the hell out of herself and went off to work. That was probably not the smartest thing in the world to do and she will probably collapse into her bed as soon as she returns, but it is promising.
  
  Poor Delia. Valentine's Day is normally such a special day for us -- we met on Valentine's Day 32 years ago -- and I had completely forgotten what day it was yesterday. Delia claims that she forgot, too, but I'm not so sure. It would be too uncharacteristic of her to forget. But she couldn't do much with Cathy and me both so ill.

  • 21:04
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