Hello, friends. I’m currently waiting to hear back about an interview for a copywriting position that I applied for this morning, so I thought I’d share some life stuff with you. Specifically, stuff from this week. I’m also waiting for my son to finish eating, so he can take his nap, and I can head to the gym, so we’ll see how long this takes.
On July 2nd, I woke up to discover that the left side of my neck was swollen, and felt tender when I touched it. I had dealt with swollen lymph nodes about 5,000 times in my life, but this wasn’t in the same place as usual, and the area affected felt larger. I didn’t think too much of it, and just chose to ignore it.
The next day, July 3rd, I woke up, looked in the mirror to put my contacts in, and saw that my left eye was swollen. Both my eyelid and my under eye were light purple, and puffy, like they were filled with liquid. My neck was also still swollen and sore, and the pain had spread up to my cheek bone, and lower onto my neck. I also noticed that my jaw ached when I chewed food, or clamped down. I started Googling all of the possibilities, and discovered that it was likely an infection (I have acne, and this would not have been my first skin infection, let me tell ya). I chose to wait one more day, and see what happened. I took some Ibuprofen for the swelling, and iced my eye and face.
On July 4th, the swelling around my eye had gone down slightly, but the pain in my neck and jaw had gotten worse, and I could feel a dull ebb of pain, even when I wasn’t chewing. I decided I should probably go to the clinic, since I know that facial infections can have some pretty terrible outcomes. But, of course, the clinic was closed for the holiday.
So, off to the ER I went.
Kyle dropped me off at the ER doors, and we said our goodbyes, expecting my visit to last several hours, mainly because it was July 4th, and also because the last time I went to the ER (remember that awful ordeal?) I was there for about seven hours.
I walked into the ER, and talked to a nice nurse, who got all of my info. I noticed that I was probably the oldest patient in the ER at that point, because only three rooms appeared to be occupied, and it was all young children who were the occupants. There was a lot of crying going on. Poor kiddos.
I was put in a room, and was visited by another woman, who verified my information, and gave me my hospital bracelet. Then, another woman came in to ask me some more questions. I only waited for about 10 minutes before my doctor came in. Right away, I liked him. He was really personable, and smiley, and he cracked jokes while he looked at my puffy face. He even made the comment that I had pretty nice teeth for someone who lived in the Illinois Valley (if you lived here, you’d understand), and that made me laugh.
Sure enough, he confirmed that I had a skin infection, Facial Folliculitis, which had spread to my lymph nodes and sinus area, which was causing the swelling and pain. Funny enough, this was actually exactly what I thought it was. He told me that with a round of antibiotics, I would be perfectly fine, and it would go away relatively quickly. So I got my prescriptions, and was discharged. I actually had to wait longer for Kyle to come and pick me up than I did to see the doctor, and that’s saying something!
Our 4th of July wasn’t particularly exciting aside from that. We went to Cracker Barrell with Kyle’s entire family (great place to go if you’re watching your calories, am I right?), and then went to his sisters for some cake (it was also his step father’s birthday). There were some pretty bad storms happening, so all the local fireworks shows were cancelled and/or rescheduled. It was an alright day for the most part.
So, back to my face. I was prescribed an antibiotic for the infection, and Motrin for the inflammation and pain. It has been three days, and I’ve gotta say, I’m not feeling so hot. The swelling in my face is about 90% gone, and I have very little pain left as well. The problem is the antibiotics. I have to take the whole bottle to make sure the infection is gone, but I’m not even halfway through, and these pills are killing me. Not literally, but… I feel like shit. I have to take them with food to help prevent nausea, but they still make me crazy nauseous. I have to take them twice a day, and aside from the nausea, they also make me tired, and a bit foggy, and destroy my stomach. I feel like a zombie, and it suuucks.
I’ve been trying to make it to the gym at least 6 days a week, but with how I’ve been feeling, it’s getting difficult. I’m officially 10 pounds down, and want to keep up the momentum. Yesterday, we went on a big shopping trip, and I overhauled my entire diet. I’m talking almonds, Greek yogurt, turkey sausage, whole wheat bread, and lots of veggies (including a ton of frozen cauliflower rice). I also recently started tracking my calories, water intake, and exercise with the My Fitness Pal app, and it’s going well.
Work has been a little overwhelming and stressful, and with all the chaos that’s happened this week, I’ve fallen a bit behind. I have an article to write that is due tomorrow, and some flyers and graphics for the gym for a new thing we’re starting on Fridays. I also applied for another part-time copywriting/editing job this morning (did I mention that already?), so we’ll see how that goes. I’m trying to take my mind off of my stress and anxiety. My mom is coming to visit from Maine at the end of the month for an entire week, so I am trying to schedule as many posts ahead of time as I can, so I don’t have to work too much when she’s here.
Also, I got some kind of upsetting news from a friend recently, that I can’t stop thinking about, and it’s honestly such a fucking bummer. I don’t know what I’m going to do.
Well, that’s it. I need to put kiddo down for his nap and hit the gym, even though all I want to do is nap for the rest of eternity. Ugh.
Laters. Thanks for reading.
Jan
My Life as Jan 