Commissario
Firstly, don't turn this into a medical thread. It's not intended to be a medical thread, it's a tale of my feet over the last week. There are naturally some medical details but it's not a discussion about medical things.
Last Thursday, when I took my socks off, I was surprised to see this on my feet. It was on both feet, it went up to around the line of the top of my socks.
This was quite a surprise, there was no itching, they didn't feel uncomfortable, it was just there. I went to bed.
If you're wondering about my lack of left toenail, I'll refer you to this post from some years ago.
On Friday morning, it was still there and looked about the same.
By this time, I was a bit concerned and around midday, I called 111. They asked me lots of questions and told me they'd phone back within two hours but stressed that "because of the global IT problems, it could be a bit longer". I waited. In the meantime, my daughter had sent that last picture to a couple of friends, one a nurse and the other a paramedic and they both said that I should head off to A&E.
I went to A&E and was referred straight through to the AMSDEC (acute medical same day emergency care) department.
I was booked in, initial observations were taken, they took blood, asked loads of questions, prodded and poked and generally had a good check but nobody could really decide what had caused this to happen. I was there for a long time and as the evening progressed, I was taken into a nearby ward where I was sat by the side of the bed. By now, it had got worse.
Finally I got to see a consultant who said that they were going to give me a five day course of steroids and get me to see a dermatologist. I was also told that she'd like to admit me. I politely refused that and explained my reasons why. Nothing ever happens in hospitals over the weekend, I wouldn't get to see a dermatologist, all I'd be doing would be laying in bed, taking it away from someone that really needed it. She agreed with this and gave me an appointment to go back on Tuesday for a follow up. I left the hospital around 22:00 and headed home.
111 finally called back at 22:57.
I started the steroid tablets on Saturday morning and it seems I didn't take a picture on Saturday.
On Sunday morning I thought that things had started to improve, although there was still plenty there, I didn't think it was as red and angry as the day before.
On Monday morning I could see a definite improvement, everything was fading nicely.
And again on Tuesday morning, even more improvement.
Tuesday was the day of my return appointment so I was back to the hospital. They had a good look, took some photographs, took some more blood and then I was eventually told that a dermatologist wasn't available so I was being sent away and would get a specific appointment in due course.
All my blood tests had came back normal, there were no problems detected.
Wednesday morning saw it fading even further. This was the last day of the steroids.
Today is Thursday and it's faded away more than yesterday, it's almost gone.
What caused this?
On Tuesday, the doctor suggested she thought it was this. I'm deliberately posting it as an image here rather than type the name because I don't really want this thread to appear high in the google search results.
It's more common in young children but can occur in adults following a viral infection. I know hindsight is perfect but looking back, the week before this appeared, over the course of a few days, I was showing symptoms of covid. Food was tasting strange, I was tired. The kicker is that my wife then tested positive a couple of days before this happened so there's a good chance I gave it to her.
We reckon I had covid on holiday in Wales but didn't realise and this followed on.
So this is the illustrated story of what's happened to my dirty great plates over the last week!
Last Thursday, when I took my socks off, I was surprised to see this on my feet. It was on both feet, it went up to around the line of the top of my socks.
This was quite a surprise, there was no itching, they didn't feel uncomfortable, it was just there. I went to bed.
If you're wondering about my lack of left toenail, I'll refer you to this post from some years ago.
On Friday morning, it was still there and looked about the same.
By this time, I was a bit concerned and around midday, I called 111. They asked me lots of questions and told me they'd phone back within two hours but stressed that "because of the global IT problems, it could be a bit longer". I waited. In the meantime, my daughter had sent that last picture to a couple of friends, one a nurse and the other a paramedic and they both said that I should head off to A&E.
I went to A&E and was referred straight through to the AMSDEC (acute medical same day emergency care) department.
I was booked in, initial observations were taken, they took blood, asked loads of questions, prodded and poked and generally had a good check but nobody could really decide what had caused this to happen. I was there for a long time and as the evening progressed, I was taken into a nearby ward where I was sat by the side of the bed. By now, it had got worse.
Finally I got to see a consultant who said that they were going to give me a five day course of steroids and get me to see a dermatologist. I was also told that she'd like to admit me. I politely refused that and explained my reasons why. Nothing ever happens in hospitals over the weekend, I wouldn't get to see a dermatologist, all I'd be doing would be laying in bed, taking it away from someone that really needed it. She agreed with this and gave me an appointment to go back on Tuesday for a follow up. I left the hospital around 22:00 and headed home.
111 finally called back at 22:57.
I started the steroid tablets on Saturday morning and it seems I didn't take a picture on Saturday.
On Sunday morning I thought that things had started to improve, although there was still plenty there, I didn't think it was as red and angry as the day before.
On Monday morning I could see a definite improvement, everything was fading nicely.
And again on Tuesday morning, even more improvement.
Tuesday was the day of my return appointment so I was back to the hospital. They had a good look, took some photographs, took some more blood and then I was eventually told that a dermatologist wasn't available so I was being sent away and would get a specific appointment in due course.
All my blood tests had came back normal, there were no problems detected.
Wednesday morning saw it fading even further. This was the last day of the steroids.
Today is Thursday and it's faded away more than yesterday, it's almost gone.
What caused this?
On Tuesday, the doctor suggested she thought it was this. I'm deliberately posting it as an image here rather than type the name because I don't really want this thread to appear high in the google search results.
It's more common in young children but can occur in adults following a viral infection. I know hindsight is perfect but looking back, the week before this appeared, over the course of a few days, I was showing symptoms of covid. Food was tasting strange, I was tired. The kicker is that my wife then tested positive a couple of days before this happened so there's a good chance I gave it to her.
We reckon I had covid on holiday in Wales but didn't realise and this followed on.
So this is the illustrated story of what's happened to my dirty great plates over the last week!
