Infected

I've had a tender spot on my right arm for over ten days now. At first I thought it was a bruise because it seemed to start out as a small black spot, but after a day or two it began to swell and redden and become painful to the touch. A modest pimply blister burst shortly thereafter, and it seemed to be improving. But this weekend I realised that it was getting more painful again, the redness had spread, and the lymph nodes in my elbow and armpit were also sore. So I called my doctor's voicemail and left a message asking for an appointment.

This morning I awoke to a bigger than ever lump, and a "significant" discharge of pus. Sorry about that detail... As I was debating heading over to a walk-in clinic my doctor's office called back, and gave me a 1:45 appointment.

So now I'm on antibiotics. What the hell started it? A first I thought it was just a bruise from a bump I couldn't recall, then I though it was an insect bite that I also never noticed. For a half second I considered skin cancer. Maybe it was just a scratch that I never noticed or a clogged pore that some bacteria managed to find...

Pulling a bit of serendipitous literature in I see that Mark Haddon, who wrote the wonderful novel The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, has just published A Spot of Bother: A Novel. It looks promising too. The "spot" in the title is a skin cancer on the main character...

Listening to: Sweet Birth of Truth by The The from Infected.