I hope you're not squeamish...

I have decided to share my skin infection with all of you. Don't worry it's not contagious (woah, took me a minute to decide whether to use "it's not" or "it isn't" there). I am aware that many of you will find this disgusting as even the girls with me in Africa were grossed out, but I wanted to share it anyway because I think it is interesting. And I love strange stuff like this. 

Day 1

I came home from clinical in Enchi and asked Kelsey what was on my neck. It was a little bit itchy and a little bit painful. I thought it was scratched, but I couldn't see. K said it was red and there were some small white dots. I went to bed hoping it would just go away...

Day 2

 Well it didn't go away. It got worse. Day 2 brought more raised, white, painful, pustules. And it felt a little bit more raw. I tried not to worry about it, but i must admit I was the slightest bit concerned. After all, I was in Africa and you never really know what you're going to get.

Day 3

On day three it felt like a raw, painful, sunburnish, sore. I felt the urge to scratch, but scratching it was painful. Touching it was painful. I decided to go see the medical assistant (smartest man in the clinic). He looked at it and said it was an infection of some sort (thanks!) and gave me a prescription for an anti-inflammatory, anti-bacterial, anti-fungal cream. Three times a day. The girls didn't like looking at my infection (let alone touching it) so I had to apply the cream myself. It's pretty difficult when you can't see what you're doing and you really don't want to miss anything.

Day 4

Raw and painful. It stung a lot actually. It felt soothing to have my "cool" hands on it. I wet my sweat rag and tied it around my neck for a while. I really wanted to pop those pustules this day, but I resisted the urge. Everybody knows it is better not to pop things. I wore my hair in a low bun because I was embarrassed of my gross neck.

Day 5

I think it may have started improving on day 5 (day three of my topical combo). It was no longer as painful and didn't appear to be getting worse anymore.

shoulder sore before it opened.

Oh! I haven't talked about this yet. I also had infection rearing it's ugly face on my shoulder and on a small spot on my back. The infection looked completely different at each of the three locations. My shoulder had what appeared to be an open sore (no pustules or raised bumps of any kind). And the spot on my back appeared to have deflated blisters. I thought this was strange, but the medical assistant didn't seem to be bothered.

Day 6

This picture looks disgusting because the cream was still partially on my neck... and in my hair. My infection appeared to have begun climbing up into my scalp. I pretty much washed my hair with the anti-everything cream and hoped it didn't all fall out. You can see that more pustule-y things have developed at the bottom of my neck. They ended up conglomerating into one large raised crusty bit.

Day 7

Got my hair braided today! And the poor ladies go to look at this. It's starting to look better though and it is now crusting over, big time!

Day 8

 And it began peeling off on day 8. Bye bye infection!!

Day 12

Day 12. Gone??? Lizard skin. My skin was dry and reptile-esque, but not flaky. It felt like it needed to peel, but it wouldn't.

Day 18

Definitely moving up into my hair. I forgot about it for a couple days and it got a little out of hand. I was so thankful for my braids because they allowed me to put my cream all throughout my scalp. Itchy, itchy, itchy! Not lice though (praise the Lord!). The thought did cross my mind. I remember praying that the infection didn't migrate to my face. Could you imagine??? Those ugly, painful, zitty, pustules all over my face??? No thanks.

Day 19

This is my hair with cream throughout it. You can see my skin finally did peel, but it left the same kind of leathery, reptile skin underneath. I hope it isn't a large ugly scar. My shoulder and the spot on my back look the same.

So now on day 30 something I still have leathery, reptile skin that makes it look like I have a huge scar across my neck and I sometimes think I feel infection bumps in my hair, but I am hoping it's just psychological. Praying my infection is gone for good and that I will soon turn back into a human.