Impetigo....

.... or something else?

About three weeks before returning to work I got two cold sores on my lower lip.  I didn't want to go back to work with a fat lip, so I speed burned it out with an overkill of Zilactin and Lysine.  The Zilactin burned and the Lysine healed, so that the sores were gone within a week.

Then I noticed a rash on my chin.  That kept getting bigger.  Ugh!

I have to back up and tell you that when I was pregnant with Helena I got a rash on my chin that the doctors diagnosed as Impetigo - a form of staph infection - that they couldn't medicate because the medicines would be harmful to my baby.  So, the rash ended up consuming my entire face by the time I had her.  I felt like SUCH A LEPER!!!  It itched and looked horrendous!

Well, this rash looked like the exact same thing!  So I went to the doctor.

I did not tell him that I had had Impetigo before, nor that a doctor had once told me that I am a staph carrier.  Yippee.

The doc looked at my rash and listened about the cold sores.  He said I had Impetigo that had been triggered by the cold sores and gave me three meds to deal with it.  The wash, the ointment, and the antibiotic pills.  The wash is Hibiclens, a pre-surgical sterile wash.  The ointment is Bactroban, a topical antibiotic.  The pill is Clyndimiacin (sp?).  He also said he was going to run lab tests for MRSA.  The antibiotic he gave me was strong enough to kill MRSA, just in case.

Well, after 10 days of washing and anointing (and feeling sick thanks to the pills),  NO CHANGE!!!

AURGH!

So, I went back to the doctor's office.  When I called and told them there was no change after 10 days of strong, strong antibiotics, they wanted me to come in right away, even though it was after hours.  This time I saw a nurse practitioner.  She said she didn't think it was Impetigo at all.  Or MRSA, for that matter... though the lab tests seem to have gotten lost in transit, because they never got them back.

She said she thought it was Peri-something-something-dermatitis (Yeah.  Like my doctor speak?) and prescribed a DIFFERENT topical ointment that she said would have it cleared up in 7 days.

So, it has been 4 days on her ointment and I begin to hope that it is working.  I am not sure, though, because I want it cleared up so much that I worry that I am a poor judge of facts at this point.  I am still taking the remainder of the antibiotic pills, too, because I have been told many times to make sure to finish a full course of any antibiotic doctors give you to prevent disease mutation.  There are still 7 more days of the antibiotic... a 20 day course!  Oi!

Hopefully I will be able to report rash free skin soon.  And it would be nice to know for sure what in the world this is!

Heavy sigh.