Different Sized Legs

And antihistamines work any time if it is histamine causing the problem - so they wouldn't hurt.

PS - please send me tomato or five...

Might be time to see your Gp. .Don't want any infection to take hold.Have you had reactions like this to ant bites before? Did you see the story on TV last night  about the lady from Toowoomba who was just doing a little bit of gardening felt a bite on her finger looked down and saw a small snake attached to her glove. ripped it off went to ED started to become unwell. Symptoms didn't fit with the brown snake or other well known venemous snake bites in Qld. Toxicologist determined it was a DEATH ADDER. Lady was given appropriate antivenene and lived to tell the story!!!. Death adders are very rare they say.( I think they like to eat tomatoes. Just kidding.) Get seen soon so you can feel better. 

Take Care

Kathy

It appears that wishful thinking isn't a good basis for a, or even a little bit of improvement. The cup was too small.

Having watched my leg below the knee, and into my ankle, swell like a slowly inflating balloon and turn really red, I swallowed what's left of my shrinking pride and headed off to give my doctor another opportunity to help. I nearly said really really red but that would be overdoing it a tad.

With the luck of the Irish there was an appointment within a half hour. A twenty minute drive and a twenty minute wait - a doctor's half hour.

And with an acute sense of the mundane we agreed it was definitely swollen. The lack of an obvious entry wound allowed us to discount the possibility of snake bite (though not discarding). A history of reacting to jumping ant bites, though never so vigorously, and never so delayed, allowed us to leap a bit closer to a conclusion.

But in the absence of more evidence, like the corpse of something venomous, we concluded that something I didn't like bit me.

And that it wasn't shingles ('cos the blotchie bits cross the nerve lines and we even had a handie pretty anatomical picture hidden under the desk pad to show me).

Another clue is when doctor suggested that the red bits turn brown for a bit as they fade. Which is what I had observed happened to the smaller bites a few days earlier but neglected to mention.

So. No crutches required. An increase in the pred from 5mg to 25mg for three days then back to 6mg for a bit. While reasonably comfortable at 5mg a lingering sense that it may be a little light. And a quick course of "just in case" anti-biotics. The funny penicillin family one that supposedly targets the skin areas a bit more than others. How clever is that? How does it know?

In my overly frivolous state I find it strange how a chronic illness like PMR and a potentially mind altering drug like pred connive to leave one physically and mentally more sensitive to the slightest possible derailment. In normal times I would simply have told my wife I got bitten and get on with picking more tomatoes.

Who would have imagined how whimpy and anxious I've become. Judgement having totally deserted me. My next post will hopefully (there we go again) be about how rapidly my balloon has deflated and my chronically ill life returns to stable normalcy.

In the meantime I'll be grateful  and put up with all the tender loving care my even longer suffering wife provides and hide my embarrassment.

BTW. I think I'm lucky in the scheme of things. I think I'm getting off lightly with the PMR relative to the majority of people in this group. The tomatoes would have been on their way to Italy by now but, sorry Eileen, they got a bit squashed on the way to the post office .....

Then again, perhaps not.

Within an hour of being home from doctor, plied with cup of tea and sympathy, the helpless patient observed a single, solitary, lonely, 5mm (1/4 in) blister on the inside of ankle. Surrounded by about 25mm (1in) diameter area of pimply rash. Almost wannabe blisters. Stretched and red on the blotchy balloon.

With an over active imagination it could be mistaken for one of the many images of shingles rash present on the internet. How much easier it was when such images were only available in medical text books! Just as well (I think) I'm not a hypochondriac.

I don't think the doctor's powers are sufficient to mention shingles and have a blister magically appear. Nor mine.......... And I don't know of any covens nearby. Maybe hypnosis?

I'll see what the morning brings (I'm having my normal sleepless at 3am interlude) and consider another visit to my doctor for a recount and another blotchy leg inspection. Us males aren't used to having our legs admired.

I'm not about to self-diagnose. Just there's more than a hint of something odd and unexplained happening. I have no additional pain (beyond the residual PMR symptoms). Just swelling, which is already well reduced a few hours after the extra pred, really redness, skin feeling a bit odd, and now a solitary, lonely, blister with a small patch of blotchy rash. Almost embarrassing. In normal times it wouldn't rate a mention, even on the back page. I'll soldier on bravely.

On a serious note - I've checked that Ali has had chicken pox. So she can continue the tea and sympathy treatment!!! Maybe tomorrow I'll get a biscuit as well.

I've always wondered how society increasingly looks for blame. I've learned well. Jury not out by any means but I'm already considering a grovel while offering the squashed tomatoes (and probably similarly squashed ant) my apology.

What a team. The frivolous, hapless, helpless, wounded, patient and the insightful, knowledgable, wise, doctor collaborating in an obvious diagnosis of shingles. If we hadn't discussed (and discounted) it as a possibility yesterday I probably would have waited a bit. But who in their right mind would consider themselves lucky to have shingles?

Its more obvious now the leg looks like just half a balloon. Its much easier when its obvious. Take the uncertainty away and life is so much easier. And the level of tlc goes up another notch.

The pharmacy didn't have the brand named on the prescription of course. But when I asked if pharmacist would take the other brand back if it didn't work he said it would be quite acceptable to return and shout at him.

What more guarantee could I ask for?

And he provided a glass of water for me to take my very first anti-viral tablet in my whole life. So I let him give me the printout describing everything I already knew about the anti-viral and didn't need to ask.

Now all I have to do is programme my mobile phone to tell me when to take tablets 1, 2 or 3 times each day with or without food. And apparently there is no cure for rattling from too many pills.

I feel obliged to complete the anti-bacteria course of course of course. Its not like a mobile phone plan where I can never use exactly what I paid for........

I guess I'm in good spirits because its just a mildly itchy blotchy area on my ankle with a lone big blister and a few little ones developing further up my leg. Add a firm diagnosis and some treatment and I can can convince myself the glass has shrunk.

I'm not sure if I'll feel so relieved or frivolous if it develops into something painful. Maybe the pred high will sustain me. In the meantime I'll afford myself the luxury of feeling a bit miffed the shingles isn't as advertised. If only there were someone to complain to. Is there a medical ombudsman in the house?

Thanks all for all the previous advice. It seems speed is of the essence when things go whonky (the PMR equivalent of when my wife tells me "the car's gone bung").

If they were blisters on my feet from walking I'd burst them and dry them out with meths. Any advice on the shingles blisters? My inclination is to simply let them go their course. But there may be a better way?