Baby Spiders Under My Skin

So last Thursday I noticed a few small red lumps on my face–up from the jawline but below the corner of the mouth. They kinda hurt. “Hmm,” I thought. “Must have rolled over a spider in the night.”

So then that night it hurt, hurt, hurt. And the next morning it was bigger and redder, two distinct lumps. “Yep, spider bite.”

So then the following night it was like the spider had actually laid eggs in there, and the eggs hatched, and baby spiders were crawling around under my skin. Seriously. It felt just like that. And hurt too. And started looking kind of blistery.

I dutifully looked up horrifying images on the internet–of spider bites, of flesh-eating bacteria, of shingles, of allergies of all kinds. Hmm. What I had seemed like none of those things, exactly. And besides, now it was the weekend, and maybe was it getting a little better?

So then the bumps appeared other places on my face–between my nostril and upper lip. By the corner of my eye. And the original sore, which was maybe getting better, suddenly wasn’t.

This afternoon, I was out doing errands, and planning to go the gym, when my smarter self rebelled. “I don’t WANT to go for a swim. I don’t WANT to. I want to go to the doctor. NOW.” I drove past the gym and on to the Kaiser clinic, where I presented myself: “Sorry, no appointment, didn’t even call, please can somebody see me?”

Fortunately, it’s nice and hideous, so the receptionist took pity on me and squoze me for a nurse appointment.

But the nurse was baffled and brought in a doctor.

But the doctor was baffled and brought in my regular doctor.

And he was baffled too, but he’s actually thinking it might be shingles, except it doesn’t make sense that it’s also on the upper lip and at the corner of the eye; but maybe that’s something else entirely; so why don’t we just treat all the things that it might be?

So I’ve come home with antibiotics (for the maybe-something-else) which have to be taken four times a day; and an antiviral (for the shingles) which have to be taken FIVE times a day. With food. I had to draw up a chart to keep this all straight.

I took a photo of the lesion but it’s horrible so I’m not going to post it. I guess I’m not entirely beyond vanity. 🙂

Meanwhile, poor Mark is up in Seattle, bed-ridden with a horrid chesty cough and clogged-up head. And we are supposed to go to Cirque du Soleil for Valentine’s Day, and then (briefly) to California for his mother’s 80th birthday, this weekend….

Three days to get well!