Michelle cheats death

So last week was one of the worst weeks of my entire life, because I felt like, for lack of a better word, death. I'll recount the entire experience because if you're interested in how my last week went, and what we did, then my being sick is all I have to talk about, because its all I did ALL week.

If at any time you're feeling frustrated with me for my stupidity and negligence which basically lead to my getting sick, I've included this picture below for your punching pleasures, its the closest I could think of what my face would look like as I was getting punched. Just be careful not to break your screens.

We'll break this down day to day, starting from about a month ago. I'm also going to put some pictures at the very bottom of the blog entry, I'd scatter them throughout, but I know some people just don't want to see that, so if you're easily grossed out, or don't like to look at nasty body ailments, don't look at the pics on the bottom. Thank you.

Day -30: What is that bump on my stomach? That's weird, it kind of looks like a zit, but it won't pop. Oh well.

Day -20: Is that bump getting bigger? Its definitely getting uglier, why won't it still not pop? Is that a bug bite? Oh well.

Day -10: Ow! That bump hurts really bad when I bend over. Its DEFINITELY bigger than it was before, and it stings now. Oh well.

Day -9: This bump stings like a mother. Oh well.

Day -8: I had a really bad headache, I took an excedrin and rubbed Aveda Blue Oil all over my forehead and neck and went to take a nap around 4pm. When I woke up around 7, I was SO hot, and I had awful chills all at the same time, I was starting to feel worse, so I went back to bed for the night.

Day -7: I woke up and my fever was gone and my headache was pretty much gone, but now my fingers were really really swollen. I took some more medicine and went back to bed for a nap. When I woke up I was feeling better and got out of bed, made dinner, went to a friends house, was feeling fine. Halfway into a movie at my friends house I started to get chills really badly again. Asking her to toss me a blanket at the end of the couch, I cocooned myself and tried to stop shivering but knew I wasn't over whatever little bug this was. I went to drive home and realized I was really dizzy so after I picked up my sister from campus where she'd been studying until late, I asked her to switch spots with me and drive me home. As soon as I got home I drank a bunch of water and went to bed.

Day -6: YIKES. I woke up feeling absolutely awful, my fever was out of control, I couldn't stop shaking, my hands were so swollen and in pain, I was too lightheaded and dizzy to get out of bed to even walk to the bathroom. I don't think I got out of bed once that day.

Day -5: I decide to call my mom about this weird bump I'd seen on my stomach, it was starting to get really inflamed and it hurt every time I moved, plus now I was starting to get really sick and wondered if they were connected at all. After talking to my mom I immediately skype IM my sister at school and ask her to come home and look at this mysterious bump because I'm starting to get freaked out and then I fell asleep. As soon as I woke up Cari was in the room and home from school to check on me/this bump. She opened the door and said it felt like 100 degrees in my room but I still felt SO cold even though to her I felt SO hot. I couldn't even sleep comfortably without a blanket burritoing me because that was the only way I could stop shivering enough to sleep. Cari tells me we're going to the doctor right away because she thinks I have a cyst and that it's infected. She tells me to get dressed to go and I feel like I'm going to die just from the thought of having to get dressed, and she sees that's what I'm thinking and says I can just go in the same sweatshirt and sweaty t shirt I'd been wearing for days, but I had nowhere near enough energy to change, let alone put my t shirt on the right way since it had somehow gotten backwards and inside out.

When I stood up to go to the doctors office is when I realized I was way sicker than I even thought, because I couldn't even walk straight. I was so sick drunk. I kept walking into walls, and I couldn't see anything. Cari had to go to the bathroom before we left and I couldn't even stay standing to wait the 30 seconds for her, so I callopsed again onto her bed. We got out of the apartment and I was wobbling back and forth in the hallway until Casey told me to grab the wall and help steady myself while they urgently got Piper ready to go and then he went down to pull up the car right outside of the elevator. The next thing I remember I don't even remember. Cari said my eyes went into two different directions and I slid down the wall and passed out, which I know must be true because of the giant scrape on my back that stings all the time. Cari gave me a piece of gum and was helping me drink sips of cold water until I came to enough to try and get up and get into the elevator, I remember her saying a prayer and I KNOW that that's why I was able to get up. I remember listening to her pray and all of a sudden being able to see the elevator clearly and feeling like I maybe was strong enough to get up and get into the elevator, I just need a boost of strength.

Once we got into the elevator I got super dizzy again and I remember starting to cry and asking my sister if I was going to die. This sounds very dramatic, but I'd never felt this awful, and this out of control of my own body in my life. I've never been drunk, I've never been on drugs, this whole not being able to know where you're walking, or see where you're going was really scaring me. Not to mention I had this foreign thing on my stomach that was festering, and I couldn't stop shivering and sweating. The look of the people on the first floor when our elevator doors opened was priceless, they looked horrified, like they were looking at a dead person. I don't know what I looked like because surprisingly enough in the midst of all this I hadn't primped much in front of the mirror but I can only imagine that I looked awful because not only could I smell myself, but I hadn't been out of bed in days, and I had just minutes before passed out on the floor.

The look on the receptionists face when we walked into the Doctor's office was similar to those of the elevator waiters. Maybe I had something embarrassing written on my face and I just didn't know? ;) I'm thinking everyone thought I was extremely drunk or something. We were in the actual Doctors office within three minutes, he's a Dutch doctor, and he was SO nice. I sat at his desk, told him all my symptoms, and he had my lay on the bed so he could look at my "bump" which he swiftly told us was a boil which had resulted in a bacterial infection which was now spreading into my blood and thats what was making me so sick. He gave me three different meds, one of which was a suppository med incase I started vomitting and wasn't keeping the drugs down. If you don't know what a suppository med is, its put in through the rectum...aka anally...aka butt...aka ICK. I didn't know what it meant until later, and my sister asked why I seemed so calm when he said that and I said I had no idea what it meant! I just laid on his bed half passed out, glad my med school sis was there to hear everything he was saying. But I knew one thing, I'd cut the skin from my face loose and turn it around so there was no hole for my mouth before I'd let myself throw up and have to take my medicine THAT way.

When we got back home I got a priesthood blessing from my friend Matt and Casey, they said a special prayer for healing and told me that the Lord understood everything I was going through, and how this would have no long lasting effects. The blessing made me feel better, after the blessing it was back to bed.

Day -4: I woke up feeling a little better than the day before, but my main issue now were my swollen fingers, they really ached, and I couldn't make a fist, so I couldn't even brush my own teeth, and it was driving me insane. I'd been wearing a ring since last summer when I bought it, and we tried really hard to get it off by lathering up my finger with soap and different things, but nothing worked, and the ring was cutting my circulation off really bad since my fingers were twice as big right now, so we cut the ring off. Casey thought to use a fingernail clipper which was such an inspiration, and it actually worked! I'm glad we got it off, too, because the indent from the ring took two days to go away, and I knew I could have had permanent problems with keeping the circulation cut off like that for so long.

Day -3: I woke up and we switched up the ointment and bandage on my boil and it was now totally open, and at least an inch deep, it was SICK. The flesh eating virus had done me dirty, and I can't believe all that was underneath the "hat" on top so the doctor called it. But it looked absolutely awful, but Cari kept reassuring me that this is how it heals, and that it needs to fill up and close. I also now had all these white blisters on the finger we'd cut the ring off of, we looked it up and thought it to be swollen blood vessils because this made sense. The blisters popped with almost no pressure, but then after that, entire sheets of my skin kept coming off the finger. I figured it was normal, since obviously the skin was dead and needed to come off.

Day -2: I kept getting acid reflux really bad and realized it was because I'd taken my pill with no food in my stomach, after taking literally one bite of an apple, I threw up four times and FREAKED out that I'd have to take my medicine that other way... Luckily food stayed down the rest of the day and my fever broke and stayed away without taking medicine for it, so that was exciting.

Day -1: I ate a lot today, while, relative to what I'd been eating all week, which was basically nothing...Cari made me a bowl of oatmeal right after she'd sought sick entertainment from draining the gross junk from my boil, her face was pure thrill and "this is awesome" while the hold time I was holding my puke bucket and heaving pretty bad. After I ate her oatmeal I threw up right away, and right in front of her, I think subconsciously it was payback for her boil loving. In reality I think I just ate way too much, way too fast. The skin from another finger peeled off completely which was really weird. My friend Danny who's also a student at the med school suggested I have a staph infection, which usually accompanies a fever, and chills, and swollen fingers, and it all starts from a boil. He also thought I had severe scalded skin syndrome. We looked them both up, and I'm pretty sure he nailed it. So as of right now that's my official diagnosis.

Today: My fever is completely gone, and there's been no throwing up, or nausea, I can stand up without feeling dizzy whatsoever. I've had some muscle atrophy from not using my muscles at all, and constantly laying down, so I've had my niece stretch out my arms and legs, but other than that everything is doing way better, and I think I'm on the rebound of this infection. The only ailments really left are my boil thats still a couple days from closing, and my fingers. The skin on four of my fingers have fallen off now, and they're just bandaged with gauze and neosporin, but they burn. I feel like a leper.

I just want to thank everyone for all of their prayers, I know they've helped. I also want to urge everyone who ever has something new appear on their skin to get it checked out IMMEDIATELY and not prolong it so long like I did. After hearing that staph infections kill people, and how I had that spreading throughout my body for so long, it really made me grateful that I'm going to be okay. The hardest part of this whole thing was being away from home, its weird to be so sick and so far away from everything that's familiar. A big thank you to my sister and my brother in law and my nieces and nephew for all their help getting me stuff when I yelled to them from my room because I sure as heck couldn't get up to go anywhere, and a thank you to everyone who sent their well wishes and their prayers to help me get better. Keeping a good perspective in this has been really important for me, because whenever I look at my boil, or my half peeled off skin hands, I just want to cry, and I have to remember this could be MUCH MUCH MUCH worse.

Here's to me kickin' this disease 100% soon and getting back out in the Caribbean heat!













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