Thursday, March 19, 2009

Ugly Face!!

Not sure what happened to my cheek while we were out in Las Vegas..but I ended up looking like I had been hit with an ugly stick!!

On Tuesday night while out there, my right cheek had a wierd sensation going on. I would rub, then scratch, then put ice on it and nothing I did seemed to help. But Wednesday morning I had some sort of blister thing going on.

Russ took me to a pharmacist and he wasn't sure what it was, but recommended putting Neosporin with pain relief on it and taking 3 advil every 6 hours. So that's what I did for the duration of our time out there.

Each day it got progressively worse. I called the Dr in Nevada IA on our way home from the airport to see if I could get in. They got me in that afternoon. He wasn't real sure what it was but gave me a prescription for antibiotics to take. But by that night my eye was pretty much swollen shut and my face just kept swelling, so Russ took me over to Mary Greeley Medical Center in Ames to the Emergency Room. That was around 10pm. We got home around 4am!! That Dr didn't know what it was either but took a culture to see if that would show what it was. He prescribed a different antiobiotic and a virile med just in case it was something virile. He recommended that I go to see a Dermatologist on Monday if I wasn't showing significant signs of improvement.

Well Monday came around and I didn't look any better, so the Dermatologist got me in that morning. He thought it was staph or strep infection...but did another culture. He said to keep taking the meds and let him know if I didn't see improvement by the time the meds were done. Each day it got a tad bit better and after 10-14 days, it looked a lot better.

Now after 2 weeks all I have left is a small scab on my cheek about the size of a pencil eraser. I think that is the spot where it all started. So I'm letting it take its time in healing and the scab coming off. I sleep with vaseline on it each night. The culture came back with no signs of strep or staph...so it's a big mystery what got me in Las Vegas. But the saying that 'What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas'...did not apply to me. What ever happened to me in Vegas followed me home in a big way!

We still had a great time. Other than me looking like someone that should be a star in a freak show, it didn't slow me down or keep me from doing anything. We went up to the strip on our last night to go up the Eiffel Tower and they took a 'professional' picture of the 4 of us. I leaned into Russ so my face would be hidden on that side. Not something you want a 'keepsake' picture of.

But again, all in all we had a fabulous time with Mark and Deb along. What great friends. We laughed and laughed and laughed. We all have such fun together.

4 comments:

Kristina said...

Did any of the doctor's think it could be a bug bite? There are weird insects out west....I think I've asked you that before. That's what it looked like to me. Some type of a bite.

Judy said...

The pharmacist thought maybe it was a bug bite, but he said that the two spiders that he knew of that bit...were poisonous. One of the guys here in the office also wondered if it was sun poisoning. His sister had something similar happen to her from exposure to the sun. I'll probably never know for sure..but hope it NEVER happens again.

Cheri said...

Whatever the heck it was I'm glad it's almost gone now!! What a thing to have "follow you home". I'm so glad you had a good time! I wanna see the Eiffel Tower pic sometime!

Joellyn said...

Gosh, Judy, it really looks like it was painful. I'm glad, though, that it did not completely ruin your time in Vegas.