Awesome

Infection is back. Don’t think it’s left. It’s just there. More pus started coming out of my face and ears last week. I’m also getting what I can only explain as sores on the top of my scalp. I returned to my dermatologist for more injections. The last injections I got seriously pissed something off. My face, mouth and neck just burned and hurt. The one spot on my face that constantly weeps pus has just been hurting. You can see a whitehead just sitting there, staring back at you. 

After the first round of shots, more pus has started to slowly seep out of it. The redness has gotten darker. I’m pretty sure it’s probably staph. I know I’m not supposed to pick and squeeze, but it got to the point of extreme pain. A bunch shot out. It was relieving, but at the same time, it started pulsing. The surrounding area started to just burn more and more. My sinuses also just burn. Everything burns. 

In a desperate attempt, I messaged my dermo over the messaging portal. Calling their office sucks lately. Surprisingly he got me right back in. By the time I got to his office later in the week, the pus filled sore on the left filled back up and was going dark red. At the same time, the red spots are starting to erupt everywhere. I’ve lost count, but there is probably 15+ sores and spots all over my head. I’m also getting strange pustules on the side of my body.  Theme?  They all burn. I want to just rip my skin off. 

The kenalog shots aren’t the greatest. They are relieving, but at the same time they fucking burn. Don’t know which is worse. I showed him all the strange bumps on the top of my head, and neck. I flat out just asked him “what do you think this is?”  His response didn’t shock me. “I have no idea”. I then started to ask him if he could talk to the infectious disease doctor again. I know the MRI showed nothing, but I don’t give a fuck. There is pus constantly coming out of my face. There has got to be a way to fix this. 

Friday night the wrath of the shots set in. It felt as though as if someone just dumped gas on my face and just lit me on fire. I frantically put everything on my face. At the same time my sinuses felt the same way.  There is something seriously wrong. I did get the clindamycin out, but decided to not take it. I decided that the next step is ER. 

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go that night. Frustration has set in. I sat up until 3am hoping that something would just turn the fire down. Nothing is working at this point. The swelling in my cheeks is just unreal. You can faintly see it straight on, but if I bend over, you can definitely see it. On the right side of my face my skin just doesn’t feel normal. It’s not the top. It’s what’s under. It feels really tight. It’s painful when you push on the right spots. It’s not so bad on the left side, but I can tell something is there. 

My frustrations probably were at the highest they have ever been in. As I drove to the ER yesterday, my thoughts were just racing through my head. The approach I take every time is I just do the same story, and I get nowhere. Of course that just perpetuated my frustration even more. I told the wife I was angry. As I sat in the waiting room my face just continued to burn. The typical explanation happened. Drill bit. Infection. No immune system. As I was telling the nurse the doctor came in and started off on the wrong foot. “I read your file”. 

No. No you didn’t. 

That’s when I just let him have it. I told him that I was frustrated that this infection isn’t going away. That the infectious disease doctor just stopped seeing me. I told him about the symptoms. The pus. The pain. I just told him I wanted antibiotics. Either rocephin or vanco at this point. He then offered to call and talk to the other Dr.  Looked in my mouth for 5 seconds and left. 

To my surprise he came back in and apologized. He did reach out to the ID Dr and he agreed to give me rocephin. Finally. I shouldn’t have to beg. I’m telling you what works. I’m telling you what will make me feel better. It’s that easy. I did ask him for IM instead of IV. I didn’t feel like having a nurse dig around to stick me 5 times. Just give me a shot and send me on my way. 

The doctor seemed surprised. Maybe this is what I’ve gotta do going forward. About 30 minutes later, we were out the door. They also prescribed Augmentin. Which I know won’t do much, but I’ll just try it. About an hour after I got home, my face just started to feel extremely weird. It felt like my face was just crawling. The burning sensation started to intensify. I laid on the couch to just try and sleep it off. I woke up about 30 minutes after, and the painkillers finally started to work, but at the same time, the burning started to lessen. The tightness in my neck and my cheeks started to seem to lessen. 

I don’t want to get excited. I’ve been here before.   Relief is all I want. I just don’t want to be in pain anymore. I’m honestly done dealing with this. All of it. My face just feels rotten most of the time. I just try to ignore it, but after this past week, it’s next to impossible to pass it off anymore. I’m pretty sure that the infection really never went away.  This was also a test. The past 2 times it’s been both rocephin and vanco. But I think it’s clear that the rocephin is working. 

When I was on it last year, it did make me feel better. It’s just unfortunate that the drill bit was there. That just kept the infection and inflammation from truly going away. Maybe the kenalog shots along with the rocephin is the answer here. What if this really is calcium buildup in my face?  It’s unclear. But the one thing that drove all this was the white spots in my face along with strange redness. Which is something new. 

Honestly it was nice to see some sort of physical manifestation. The spots are on both the left and right side. Tomorrow will be the test if they have gone away. I haven’t looked at all today. I just wanted a break from it all today. It is nice however to not be in so much pain for once. 

I will be calling the ID place first thing tomorrow. I really hope that they don’t pull the same bullshit as last time and just blow me off. I’m sorry but if you want to tell people that you know me really well, you’d think you would have to see me in office at least once.