That was an expensive swim....

I thought buying a new iPhone was going to be the limit of the cost of my misstep at the dock. Little did I know the fun was just starting.

I still had some scratches on my right leg last Saturday when we went boating with Tod & Trish. I never gave it a thought when we all got in the warm bay waters to cool off a little.

Sunday my leg was swollen a little bit in the morning. By that evening it was about 1 1/2 times the size of my left leg.  I was concerned but not worried. Monday morning almost all of the swelling was gone. By that evening it was back. I got a little more concerned. Tuesday and Wednesday were repeats of the Monday pattern. There was no redness or pain, just the swelling.

We did a little googling and found several causes for leg and ankle swelling but nothing I could point to and say "that's it". Thursday morning the leg was just as swollen as it was the night before. I started getting worried about a blood clot.

Connie started bugging me to call the doctor. When I got to work I did some more Internet searching and found a couple of sites that said if it was only one leg swelling you should call the doctor. I gave in and made the call. They told me my doctor was on vacation and wouldn't be back until Monday.  Decisions! Decisions!  After a little thought I asked if I could see another doc. They gave me a 1:10 appointment with Dr. Tang.

Connie insisted on going with me. When we got to see Dr. Tang he took a look at my leg and I knew I was in trouble from his expression. The leg was still very swollen but now my whole shin was a nice color of red. He talked with us a little and we told him about my slip and subsequent swim and then how we had spent a couple of hours in the bay water on Saturday.

He said he didn't think it was a blood clot but sent me for a sonogram to be sure. Back in his office afterwards he said that there was no clot but that I did have a pretty good infection in the leg. He mentioned vibrio which is a bacteria that can be hard to kill and has caused people to loose all kinds of body parts. It can be fatal if not treated fast enough. It's not real common but it is always present in the water. It multiplies during the warm summer months. There have been several incidents with fishermen in the last few years. Locally two of them even passed away as a result of the infection.

He put me on two antibiotics which I have to get pumped into me at the infusion center each day. It takes an hour for each one. I just got back from my third day of treatment. The leg looks a little better. It is not as swollen but the redness is still there.

Dr. Tang said I should have the treatments each day until Dr. Lyons gets back on Monday. They will then decide how to move forward. He is very concerned because I am a diabetic and I guess infections can cause me all kinds of problems. If the antibiotics are working well enough I can continue the treatments until the infection is all gone. If they aren't they will admit me to the hospital and debride (I think that's the term he used) my leg.

I've looked debridement up on the Internet and it doesn't look like anything I want to participate in.

Hopefully my next post will be about something a little more fun and exciting. I know one thing for sure. In the future I won't be getting into the water if I have any kind of cut or scratch.

Adios for now, enjoy the day.
--Rod