This weekly post often serves as a place to give people advice that you hope will help them in their life (so posting the commencement address is perfectly on brand and the right thing to do) so I hope you’ll forgive me doing the same thing, as my week I feel includes an important lesson that could save someone’s life.
About 12 days ago I started getting an itchiness behind my knee that other than scratching a lot I basically ignored. It then wouldn’t go away so after some googling I went to bed with a damp cloth wrapped around my leg last Saturday night. I woke up in the morning with a fever bad enough to cancel golf and now a rash over my shin and side of my calf. I work from home Monday’s so didn’t move very far that day but did notice my leg was hurting. Walking to work Tuesday I had an awful limp and my boss asked what was wrong and I said ‘never heard of a rash that makes you limp before but that’s what I have’
My boss asked to look at my leg and his face immediately went pale and he basically commanded me to go to the doctors, this made me look at it a bit closer and I saw that the swelling was worse than I’d realised and my skin had opened up with some bad scabs. The doctor sadly took as little notice as I had but after some pushing from me gave my a prescription for skin cream and antibiotics with a note to go to hospital if still bad in 2 days. My mum then saw photos i had sent her and demanded I go straight to the emergency room which I did.
Turns out it was Cellulitis, I was put in an antibiotic IV and allowed home with a prescription for more antibiotics. Now 4 days later the swelling that went down the next day after the IV is gone and it seems that the antibiotics have done their job.
So here is my Leitchian lesson, I have very few stereotypically manly traits, I don’t use power tools or go to it gym or like cars or whatever, but I do blow off medical issues and just assume “she’ll be right mate” when illness strikes or I get symptoms. In this case if my boss hasn’t forced me to take it seriously I would have been in real trouble. Cellulitis can lead to Sepsis and you can lose your leg or die in a real hurry if you don’t get it treated in a hurry, when early treatment had you back at work the next day
So don’t blow off medical concerns, if you’re experiencing symptoms there’s nothing tough about blowing it off, go to the doctors.
P.S. living in Australia I have even less excuse than Americans for blowing it off. Every step of the process including my follow up appointments and blood tests and skin swabs only saw me go to my wallet to get out my Medicare card, I did pay $23.50 (about $15 USD) for the antibiotics, but otherwise money is not a factor for medical treatment here in Australia as we have a universal single payer free healthcare system, Medicare, started by the Hawke/Keating Labor Government in 1984
I spent more time regarding the step by step of what happened than I really intended. The main thing I was trying to achieve was to get men (and men tend to be worse on this stuff) to not blow off medical symptoms but to go and get checked if you’re feeling symptoms
Thanks for sharing. My son, who is now 25, had a mosquito bite when he was 3 that turned into cellulitis. Swollen, very red calf and fever of 104 that we could not get to come down. To the emergency room and 3 days in hospital with IV antibiotics. Very scary. Glad you recovered and wish we had health care like Australia or any other developed, non-US country.
You got a link to "Where'd That Squirrel Go?" 😂
This weekly post often serves as a place to give people advice that you hope will help them in their life (so posting the commencement address is perfectly on brand and the right thing to do) so I hope you’ll forgive me doing the same thing, as my week I feel includes an important lesson that could save someone’s life.
About 12 days ago I started getting an itchiness behind my knee that other than scratching a lot I basically ignored. It then wouldn’t go away so after some googling I went to bed with a damp cloth wrapped around my leg last Saturday night. I woke up in the morning with a fever bad enough to cancel golf and now a rash over my shin and side of my calf. I work from home Monday’s so didn’t move very far that day but did notice my leg was hurting. Walking to work Tuesday I had an awful limp and my boss asked what was wrong and I said ‘never heard of a rash that makes you limp before but that’s what I have’
My boss asked to look at my leg and his face immediately went pale and he basically commanded me to go to the doctors, this made me look at it a bit closer and I saw that the swelling was worse than I’d realised and my skin had opened up with some bad scabs. The doctor sadly took as little notice as I had but after some pushing from me gave my a prescription for skin cream and antibiotics with a note to go to hospital if still bad in 2 days. My mum then saw photos i had sent her and demanded I go straight to the emergency room which I did.
Turns out it was Cellulitis, I was put in an antibiotic IV and allowed home with a prescription for more antibiotics. Now 4 days later the swelling that went down the next day after the IV is gone and it seems that the antibiotics have done their job.
So here is my Leitchian lesson, I have very few stereotypically manly traits, I don’t use power tools or go to it gym or like cars or whatever, but I do blow off medical issues and just assume “she’ll be right mate” when illness strikes or I get symptoms. In this case if my boss hasn’t forced me to take it seriously I would have been in real trouble. Cellulitis can lead to Sepsis and you can lose your leg or die in a real hurry if you don’t get it treated in a hurry, when early treatment had you back at work the next day
So don’t blow off medical concerns, if you’re experiencing symptoms there’s nothing tough about blowing it off, go to the doctors.
P.S. living in Australia I have even less excuse than Americans for blowing it off. Every step of the process including my follow up appointments and blood tests and skin swabs only saw me go to my wallet to get out my Medicare card, I did pay $23.50 (about $15 USD) for the antibiotics, but otherwise money is not a factor for medical treatment here in Australia as we have a universal single payer free healthcare system, Medicare, started by the Hawke/Keating Labor Government in 1984
Thank you for this, for writing it and for sharing it. And I'm glad you're doing better!
I spent more time regarding the step by step of what happened than I really intended. The main thing I was trying to achieve was to get men (and men tend to be worse on this stuff) to not blow off medical symptoms but to go and get checked if you’re feeling symptoms
Thanks for sharing. My son, who is now 25, had a mosquito bite when he was 3 that turned into cellulitis. Swollen, very red calf and fever of 104 that we could not get to come down. To the emergency room and 3 days in hospital with IV antibiotics. Very scary. Glad you recovered and wish we had health care like Australia or any other developed, non-US country.
Great speech. Though loving the black Word document page is true sicko stuff.
Oh, man, it's my favorite. And I will also never understand how people write in Google Docs.
Loved your written speak but winging it takes guts. I bet it was terrific. Good luck with the race. Wow!
I am sure your speech was great, but the one you wrote was pretty good too! Thanks for sharing it.
Good stuff as usual. And your written speech was very good, but I am sure your speech from the heart was better.
Wish they could have heard your bits on and about The great Roger Ebert. Those always land.
Will— your link to the Times piece linked instead to the Cate Blanchett story.
Fixed, sorry!