I almost had big news
I was in D.C. last week, in a moderately sketchy hotel (nice lobby area, good location, but when I walked into my room, it felt like I was going into an attic that'd been closed up all summer, and I didn't quite want to shower without flip-flops), when I noticed two little bumps on my right wrist. They didn't really itch, they were just sort of weird-looking, and I figured there were bugs or something in the room, and I didn't think too much about them.
And they stayed pretty much the same through the weekend, and then yesterday I woke up and the bumps had spread, into a little red line that wrapped around to the side of my wrist, ending in an especially large bump protruding from the side of my arm, pulling my skin into sort of a shallow teepee shape.
One of my co-workers told me I must have a staph infection, which completely freaked me out. Then I asked one of my other co-workers who's a non-practicing physician, and he said he was pretty sure it was not a staph infection, and not life-threatening, but that it was likely a parasite and I should definitely go to a real doctor and get it looked at.
Yeah, a parasite. Like, something crawling around inside my body, like my worst spider fear coming true.
So I went to the dermatologist today, who diagnosed me with: poison ivy. Which is way better than a parasite, obviously, although much less interesting. I'm still not clear how I picked up poison ivy, and the dermatologist pointed out that there's always a chance there's a parasite, but that she'd be pretty shocked if something came crawling out of me. But assured me that if it does, I should come back in, and she'd put it in a jar. Oh, dermatology humor.
And they stayed pretty much the same through the weekend, and then yesterday I woke up and the bumps had spread, into a little red line that wrapped around to the side of my wrist, ending in an especially large bump protruding from the side of my arm, pulling my skin into sort of a shallow teepee shape.
One of my co-workers told me I must have a staph infection, which completely freaked me out. Then I asked one of my other co-workers who's a non-practicing physician, and he said he was pretty sure it was not a staph infection, and not life-threatening, but that it was likely a parasite and I should definitely go to a real doctor and get it looked at.
Yeah, a parasite. Like, something crawling around inside my body, like my worst spider fear coming true.
So I went to the dermatologist today, who diagnosed me with: poison ivy. Which is way better than a parasite, obviously, although much less interesting. I'm still not clear how I picked up poison ivy, and the dermatologist pointed out that there's always a chance there's a parasite, but that she'd be pretty shocked if something came crawling out of me. But assured me that if it does, I should come back in, and she'd put it in a jar. Oh, dermatology humor.
