My Latest Trial

Monday morning, I woke up with my lips feeling a little more dry than usual and a bit crusty. I scraped some gunk off my lips that was a yellowish color. When I looked in the mirror, I was surprised to see my lips look so red and crusty. To put it this way, I felt like I looked like the Joker from Batman or some other freaky clown. My thoughts were that maybe my lips are doing this because of the chicken we had the night before and that it was a bit salty on the outside and Curtis had also used baking soda in the mixture. I washed off my lips and put my chapstick on and decided to try and drink extra water and propel that day to see if hydration would help. My bottom lip also looked a little bit swollen, so I took an Ibuprofen. I didn't want to go anywhere that day while looking like this, but I had to meet with Sister Gale to prep stuff for activity days. She's going to be out of town for a while helping her daughter recover from a surgery and wanted to help me in any way she could for the next couple activities. 

That night before going to bed I took some Benadryl to see if it might be an allergic reaction. That didn't do anything, because the next morning it was pretty much the same, maybe a little worse. I could even feel a slight burning sensation and it was a bit itchy. I decided I better see if I could get into a doctor. I don't have a family doctor here for myself yet so I called the Kadlec Express. They were all booked up for that day and got me scheduled for Wednesday morning. After making that appointment though, I really wanted to try getting it looked at that day and so I checked our insurance to see what dermatologist is in our network. I was blessed to find one just down the street and they had a cancelation and was able to get me in that morning at 10:20am. What a relief! I go in and it turns out I have an infection called Impetigo, which is a type of staph infection. They sent in a prescription for an ointment and said it should be looking better by Friday, but if it wasn't to call them.

I am so thankful that I was able to get in so quickly and get this figured out, but so far it's been a long and a little painful process. I apply the ointment 5 times a day and each time I wipe my mouth off with a clean washcloth to get rid of the crusties and then apply the ointment. It typically burns a bit for the first little while and then cools down.

This is what it looked like when I woke up Tuesday morning before making the appointment.

It doesn't help that we are low on food. I need to go grocery shopping, but I don't want to go out in public and I don't really want to wear a mask either. I was forced to go to Walmart to get my prescription, so I picked up some cereal and milk while there. I was embarrassed to walk around looking like that but thankfully most people aren't looking at me. Usually, people are looking in different directions and thinking about their own things.

This is what it looked like yesterday before washing my face off.

This is what it looked like after cleaning my face but before the ointment. It's starting to crack and bleed a little. Not fun!

It has also been a little difficult to eat my food because my lips feel dry and stiff and it's hard to open my mouth all the way. On Monday and Tuesday I felt very tired and didn't do much during the day but yesterday I felt a little more energy. I forced myself to exercise and at least get some finances done and a bit of laundry. Today, I'm feeling tired again and not wanting to do much. Maybe I just need to listen to my body and rest because it's fighting an infection. 

Here is what I look like this morning after cleaning off and applying ointment. 

This morning, I did a little better job scraping the dry crust off and made it bleed more but I think it will help because the ointment needs to get past the crusties to fight the infection. It still looks bad, but I think it is doing better today. It just needs time. So that's been my latest trial I'm dealing with and I'm just glad it's me that has to deal with it and not any of my kids. It is contagious with contact but hopefully nobody else will get it. I have been washing my water bottle every morning and washing my hands frequently.

On another note, Sister Gale gave us some branches that were trimmed off her cherry blossom tree to see if we could put them in a vase or bucket and have them bloom. I wasn't sure if I wanted to, but my girls grabbed some at the end of our last activity day activity. I didn't have a vase, but I found a glass pitcher to put them in and sure enough, they are starting to sprout. Coco has decided that he prefers getting his water out of the pitcher now. I caught a picture of him drinking.

This was taken Sunday morning before church.

You can see the tip of green on the branches. They weren't green at all when she first gave them to us the Monday before.

This is what they looked like yesterday. Big difference in just a few days.

I had this lace tied around my orchid flowerpot I got for Valentine's, but decided to take it off this morning. I asked Alice if she wanted me to tie it in her hair and so I did. She loves it!

She took a selfie first.

It's a little difficult to see because it's sheer ribbon.

But it has rainbow colors in it.

Anyway, other than my mouth I would say this week is going well. Any time I start to feel sorry for myself about my situation and pain, I just remind myself that this is nothing compared to what so many others have to deal with. I'm thankful it's in a small area and that I have antibiotics. 

I am also thankful to have spring like weather because I see family and friends in Idaho and Utah experiencing more snow this week and I'm thankful it's not here! But maybe I shouldn't be thankful because we probably need the snowpack here still. I'm not sure.