In Which I Go See A Doctor

Ever since I've been responsible for my own health, I have been reluctant to go to see a doctor for anything short of an emergency. I don't like being lectured on problems that I'm already aware of, and I hate it when doctors automatically push medication as means to fix everything. I strongly dislike taking any type of medication, even for something as simple as a headache or a cold. Much to my chagrin, something came up yesterday and I had to bite the bullet and go see my doctor.

Yesterday morning I noticed a painful bump on the inside part of my upper left arm. When I touched it there was a little bit of discharge, and pain instantly began to spread into the rest of my arm and shoulder. I watched throughout the morning as redness spread around the bump on my arm, and soon enough the area had grown to a silver-dollar size. Normally extremely tolerant of pain, I found it very difficult to move or lift my arm, and breathing in deeply sent a sharp pain into my shoulder blade. By noontime, the pain was severe enough where I had to leave work early.

I called my doctors office and made an appointment. As it turns out, the bump is an infected hair follicle. The discharge I saw earlier was the pus draining out of it, which saved me from having it lanced open in the exam room. Its a fairly common thing to have, I guess. The one I have is just a little bit more angrier than most. I left the office with two prescriptions, one for antibiotics and the other for pain medication patches. Apparently if its left untreated, the infection could spread and lead to other, more serious problems.

Today, the bump on my arm looks a little better. The pain has subsided some, but is still annoyingly present. I'm experiencing some side effects from the antibiotics that are typical, but nonetheless unpleasant (I won't go into any details, but lets just say I've spent more time on the Throne than I'd like to). The pain patches, while helping with the pain, give me a metallic taste in my mouth. It feels like I have a mouthful of blood, which is turning my stomach a little bit.

I'll be on antibiotics for the next ten days. I feel a little bit like a vampire, with my mouth tasting like blood and all. I can't help but mention that the bump I have looks like a nipple, though. At least there is some humor in all of it.