Sunday, November 05, 2006

The month that was....

OK, not actually a month since I last posted, and it's really only been a fortnight since life got ultra-hectic (and I thought I had no time before!...)

I do promise to get back to holiday updates sometime soon - if anyone out there is still interested... I might even be finished in time for the next holiday in Feb - here we come Tasmania.

But the last month.... well I got back from my birthday weekend to the normal busy working week that I have, plus playing catch-up for having a day off... And I also went straight on-call, so also a working weekend (and these are by no means light-weight weekends! and then on for another week of work.
Friday saw a good friend of mine get re-married (same wife). Their first wedding was in Las Vegas in July, so this one was for the family and friends. It was a wonderful, laughter-filled, layed-back re-commitment ceremony. The event took place in Geelong, so B and I had to leg it home from work and rush just a tad to get down there in time, B more than I, as he is traveling further and had to stop off at home first to get changed.

We arrived back after midnight and collapsed in a heap (well I did, but then I'd had a few wines and delegated driving duties to B). We had a nice long sleep in on Saturday and I awoke refreshed and began contemplating the possibilities of another weekend together. It wasn't until after our showers that I realised something was wrong. B was taking even longer than normal (I'm 15 mins in and out and hair dried - he's more likely to take an hour and still be wandering around half dressed...) He finally came out of the bathroom and was shaking and looking faint. He pointed down at his leg and there was a large, angry, red rash on his left calf. He said it hurt quite bad, he couldn't stand on it and he'd thrown up a number of times. I immediately thought spider bite, so rushed him off to the doctor, pausing only to get fully dressed first - although I did threaten to call an ambulance as he was.
The doctors put him straight into a treatment room and then called an ambulance. He finally stopped shivering (after being put on oxygen - his fingernails were quite blue...) And so off to Sunshine Emergency he went.

I then stopped to have breakfast, before heading over to join him.

We spent the day in emergency and then he got put in overnight and on an IV drip. On Sunday I went back to collect him, but the rash had grown so they were going to admit him. He finally came home a *week* later! He had a skin infection called cellulitis. His was an aggressive, severe infection that required rather large doses of IV antibiotics to get under control. He came home last Friday (I think the hospital were short of beds) and stayed with me for 5 days for more rest and broadband access.
If you click on the cellulitis link above, you can read more about it, and if you scroll right down that page, you'll see some pictures, the first one looks remarkably like B's leg.

And here's a pic of his actual leg. So as not to scare off the easily queasy - click on the pic of the hospital blanket to see his entire calf in all its redness....



He's doing much better know, but you'd better believe I'll be watching his leg like a hawk!