Kelsey: What’s is cellulitis!?
Cherilyn: Cellulitis is a bacterial skin infection that causes redness, swelling and pain in the infected area of the skin.
Kelsey: What’s were your symptoms of cellulitis and what did your doctors do? Did your leg hurt bad! Rate your pain 1 to 10.
Cherilyn: I woke up feeling just fine and went shopping with my son. We were supposed to go to Edmonton but stopped in the Camrose mall first. I walked into the mall and immediately started to feel sick. We managed to get a couple of shirts and I told him that I needed to go home because I wasn’t feeling well, and I thought I would be better in an hour. I went home and ended up in bed for the rest of the day. I started to shake uncontrollably because I was so cold by my temperature was 41C. I had a heating pad on my bed, and I just couldn’t get warm. It was a rough day, and I finally threw up around supper time and thought I was getting better. I thought it was just the flu. The next morning, I woke up and noticed my leg was red it wasn’t really sore just red. I showed my husband Jason, and he took me to the emerg at St. Mary’s. A doctor seen me told me I had either cellulitis or a blood clot. Did a blood test but decided it was cellulitis gave me a prescription and told me I should feel better in 3 days. My leg started to hurt bad that day and continued to get worse. I was concerned that maybe it was a blood clot and we headed back to emerge. I had an ultrasound done of the leg and it came back fine but they gave me some pain killers to help with the pain. I was in so much pain I could barely walk and taking my leg from the bed to the floor was absolutely excruciating. The pain got to be a 10 anytime I had to move my leg.
I went back to the emergency department on day 3 and the Doctor decided I need to be admitted and given antibiotics every 8 hours. I was in the hospital for 6 days and then they decided to test me for COVID so my friends and family had to gown up to see me. I had no COVID symptoms so it was really frustrating and sucked for the nurses to have to gown up to see me. I felt really alone and sad. It was a long 10 days.
Kelsey: Weren’t you in the hospital for a long period of time? What was your recovery like? How many weeks were you off work?!
Cherilyn: My first trip to the emerge was on the Sunday and I ended up being admitted on the Wednesday. I was in the hospital for 10 days on antibiotics every 8 hours. When I was admitted I was Sepsis which is when the body’s response to infection causes injury to its own tissues and organs, my liver was being affected. The pain killers were causing me to have extreme migraines and it also took a few days to figure out that was what was happening. Also, every time they gave me the antibiotics through the IV I would get extremely nauseous and have to have a drug called Zofran after. A nurse finally said why don’t we give you the Zofran first, I was so happy she decided that!
Kelsey: Are you really recovered from your cellulitis, and how many months did it take to overall get back to normal?
Cherilyn: I was off work while I was in the hospital and when I came home, I worked from my bed and the couch. It was my busy time of year planning our Charity Auction and I couldn’t just lie around. It was hard. My leg was bad for a long time. It still swells every day and goes down to normal most nights.
Kelsey: Did you get physical therapy? How was it treated?
Cherilyn: I never had physical therapy, but I did have to go to home care and they would wrap my leg to help with swelling.
Kelsey: What’s would you tell people that are going through this cellulitis?
Cherilyn: Apparently cellulitis is a common thing but if you deal with it right away it should be okay. I tried to deal with it right away, but I should have been put on IV antibiotics the first time I went to the hospital. They finally figured out that I had gotten the infection while sitting in Buffalo Lake on the Friday afternoon. I had lawn chair a few metres from shore and was sitting there talking to friends. The bacteria from the lake could have gotten into a hair follicle or something. It usually gets into an open wound, but I didn’t appear to have any. I do have cracks in my heals so it could have been there too.
I will never sit in a lawn chair in Buffalo Lake again! If you see any redness mark the area with a marker and see if it grows. Make sure to go to the doctor and make sure to advocate for yourself, my husband made me to do this, and I should have done it sooner. It might not have ended up as bad as I was. When they told me not to expect to better until at least 3 days I believed them, and I shouldn’t have waited that long.
Kelsey: Are you really recovered from your cellulitis, and how many months did it take to overall get back to normal?
Cherilyn: I recently had cellulitis again! I am now prone to getting it. I was on antibiotics for 10 days. My leg continues to swell. I just seen the doctor yesterday and she sent me to St. Mary’s to get an ultrasound of my leg, they ruled out a blood clot so that is great news. She is working with me to help solve this swelling problem. I have tried magna wave which is a machine my friend has that she uses for her horses! I am also booked in for acupuncture this week. I will try anything!
Kelsey: Did you get swelling, tenderness, pain warmth fever chills spots or blisters?
Cherilyn: I did have all these symptoms. This is a picture of my skin shedding after. I got an entire new layer of skin on my leg and foot. It was nasty!
Kelsey: Was it red? Were you throwing up? Were you dizzy?
Cherilyn: My leg started just a light red and progressively got worse. I only threw up the Saturday night and that was it. I was never dizzy that I can remember.
If you would like more information on cellulitis I found this on the internet:
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