wren

I had some random invisible scratch near my ear about a year and a half ago that developed into cellulitis ... a warm pink puffiness grew from my ear slowly over my cheek. After I was on the sofa for a day with a 102 fever I had one of those "shit like this killed Jim Henson, right?" moments and I dragged myself to the doctor, who proclaimed it a "mild, no, er moderate infection" and mentioned that I could have always gone to the emergency room, might have been a good idea actually. Bactrim took care of it. So the weirdest thing was that a week or so later, the skin over it peeled like it was sunburned. Infections that lead to fever, no thank you.

Hospital stories are awesome. I have no stories about major pus drainage but I did get stuck with a needle in the chest once to let air escape when I was about 10. If you cough long and hard and industriously enough, and are a little unlucky, you can pop a small hole in a lung through which air will flow, one way, into your chest where it will build up under your skin. It becomes a little hard to breathe and it looks not so good, and is of course accompanied by whatever malaise brought on the problem in the first place. Anyway, the air hissed out through the needle. Then I was in an oxygen tent for a week, playing cards with the nurses.

Congratulations on the new job. It sounds really good.