Health,  Self Care

Know and Listen To Thyself!

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I talk a great deal about the importance of listening to your body.  Our bodies are so miraculously made and they are always speaking to us.  They key is being in tune and following suit at all times in order to live optimally.

Well, practicing what I preach was put to the test over the weekend as I ended up in urgent care for what I initially thought was just a little skin irritation or rash.

What started out as an innocent pimple that popped, turned into an irritating growth on the left side of my face.  At first, I was just treating the irritation at home because I thought my skin was just normally reacting to the pimple being popped.  However, when the irritation began to spread rather than heal, I knew something had to be up.  After doing some research, I decided to take myself into urgent care Saturday morning to get it checked out to be on the safe side.  Thank God I followed my instincts because it turns out it was a staph infection, NOT something to be played with.  The doctor had me receive an IV to deliver the first round of medication to start treatment right away and then gave me a prescription of antibiotics to use at home for the following ten days. It’s important to note here that I am NOT a fan of needles (like, HATE is not even a strong enough word to describe my feelings about them), or taking medication, but in this case I had no choice but to suck it up.

Cut to the following day when I was well into taking meds and I was noticing more flesh colored bumps start to prop up in other areas of my face.  I didn’t think that was normal, so I made a call to the urgent care center to see if I could get some insight and the only thing I was advised was to come back up to be re-evaluated.  As much as I didn’t feel like going back up there, I again followed my instincts and made another trip to be seen again. Well, it’s a good thing I did because this doctor was completely perplexed as to why I was prescribed the initial medication because he said they don’t prescribe that for staph because it’s way too mild and that was in fact why it was still spreading! WHAT?! UGH!!

In any case, he gave me a dose of “what I’m supposed to be having” right then and there and assured me that the infection was caught early enough to not be of grave concern and mentioned that it was good that I came up when I did! He also assured me that I was not in danger of spreading to others as I of course asked about the safety of my clients and other people I had been around.

I must say that I was NOT happy with the first doctor not giving me what was needed.  It’s just very scary to be dealing with an infection as serious as this one and be given the wrong thing initially. I’m just glad I did my due diligence in monitoring the situation and went back for a second opinion.

So far the new antibiotics appear to be working as my skin is slowly but surely coming back to its normal state.  I did end up calling the urgent care center and filing a complaint with how my first visit was handled. Aside from the doctor, the first nurse that came in to administer the IV was a bit of a nightmare as well (another story).  I have since heard back from the lead physician after filing the initial complaint and them taking this matter seriously makes me feel a bit better.

I wanted to share my personal experience here to drive home the importance of paying attention to your body and not being afraid of questioning doctors or getting second opinions.  Listen and follow through at all costs!  You have one body to live in, take care of it with a vengeance!

Always wishing you great health!

xo,

C


UPDATE!!

Welp, the medical saga continued! Turns out that I WAS MISDIAGNOSED AND NEVER HAD A STAPH INFECTION AT ALL!! It was actually an allergic reaction to the neosporin I had been using the ENTIRE TIME!! I had put some on after I cleaned the area where the pimple popped and had been using it intermittently and then more vigorously over the weekend to keep further bacteria from infecting the skin not knowing it was the culprit!

I came to this realization after my face broke out AGAIN in the same area but MUCH worse the following weekend (even though I had been on the strongest staph antibiotic for 8 days at that point) and had to be seen for a THIRD time to get relief. This time I was given a steroid cream and hydrocortisone for the pain, itchiness and skin inflammation. 

After doing research I found out that the first doctor that saw me, not only prescribed the wrong thing after diagnosing it as staph, also WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE DONE A SKIN SAMPLE TO EVEN TEST THE BACTERIA. He instead looked, GUESSED and prescribed! Then after researching skin reactions to neosporin and saw exactly what I had been experiencing I deduced it had been that all along!

I started using the creams the same day they were prescribed and my skin was clear and back to normal within just a couple of days! Further proving that it was a skin allergy to which my primary care doctor that I saw toward the end of the week confirmed by looking at the pictures I had taken of the rash because by the time I saw him, my skin was already clear.

He was very shocked and taken aback by the lack of care and improper diagnosis, but said sadly it happens more often than not at urgent care facilities and told me ways I can be seen sooner by the primary care office in the future if need be.

Needless to say, I’m relieved that I FINALLY got to the bottom of this and I’m healed, but this was a 8 day saga of unnecessary meds, pain and wasted time. I will be making another formal complaint!

Again, always research, listen to your body and do your due diligence! Here’s to a proper diagnosis and good health!