Wednesday, August 27, 2014

My short and mostly fun trip to the ER.

So here is a little more to that.  The sunburn on my arms, face, and hands was getting better nicely.  The burn on the upper part of my legs still hurt, but was slowly coming along.  The burn on my calves were a whole other story.  They were swelling and turning a darker color.  I took one day off but then went in yesterday.  I shocked everyone with the purple hue.  A few people said that they thought it was sun poisoning.  I called my mom to see if she would drive me to the doctor in the morning.  My dad overheard and said we should head over sooner rather than later.
After work my mom met me at my house and we headed to Urgent Care...two actually.  Turns out Urgent Care was closed at 11pm.
We then headed to the ER.  Turns out it was the same one I took Bill to when he had bronchitis.  It was pretty dead, so we got seen really soon.  Though it was really funny because I had to use the bathroom and the nurse checking me in was like "We probably won't need this, but since you have to go..."
My mom was shocked by the fact that they had an iPad and free wifi for me to play with while I waited.  They doc walked in and gave my legs a 'what is this?!' look.  He asked me about it and I told my story.  He asked what I had put on it and kept asking 'if I was sure that was ALL I put on it' and if I had put it on only on my shins or not.  He poked various parts of my legs and felt the temp difference between my purple area and my feet.
He kept going 'hmmm...are you sure that is everything you put on it? Hmmmm...'  I could even tell the nurse was shocked as to the color my legs were.  I felt like I should sell tickets, haha.
The doc decided that the closest thing he could think it was was "dermatitis due to sun, cellulitis, and leg swelling" and decided that since he didn't completely know what was wrong we were going to do a double whammy on it.  So I now have anti-biotics and steroid cream to fight what is either a skin infection or a reaction to something that touched my skin.  Overnight the first dose of cream has already taken me from purple down to pink.  It is still a very angry pink, but a nicer color non-the-less.
Another funny thing is that the nurse was named Cheryl.  I work with a Cheryl and I know that she has another job, but I didn't know what it was.  Turns out this one wasn't the same one, but she also found the story funny.
The lady at the all-night RiteAid even asked me to step back so she could see my legs better.
I'm super glad that I got someone to cover my shift for today.  I don't have to tell anyone else about how I saved kittens from a burning building (since sun burn sounds so boring) and I get to relax and heal.
Next time there is going to be a tube of sunblock with me at all times.

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