Infected leg

I'm glad that I live in the post- penicillin era.

About five days ago, I was sitting at my desk when I idly scratched my shin, and noticed I had a big ole tick hanging off it. I absent-mindedly pulled it out with my fingers -- then realized that that was pretty dumb: should've used used tweezers, to try to get the head out, too.

The next day, it was looking rather festive: a lovely burgundy color, and in an unusual shape (kinda kite-shaped).

The next day, I noticed a little black dot in the center: when I picked at it, what might have been the tick head came out, with a little bit of white puss. The green arrow shows the resulting little hole.

You can also see, in the photo, how I used a permanent marker to use dots to define its outline: ever the empiricist, I wanted to see if it was getting larger. It wasn't: apparently, the size had reached its equilibrium -- although it was getting ever-darker.


So, I went to the doctor, and he prescribed a course of antibiotics. After a day and a half, here's how it looked:


Rather anti-climatic. Less red; seems to be fading from the bottom, up. The green line represents the top of the red area; the green arrow represents the hole where the tick bite was.

So, good stuff.


--GG