cellulitis--darn it!

[Jolt]

cellulitis?
I thought that was bumpy fat that ladies hate in their thighs?
It's painful and can mess up your toe?

Can someone explain?

You're thinking of cellulite, which although the words are similar is a totally different thing. Cellulitis is an infection of the skin, generally caused by staph or strep bacteria.

[mimitabby]

oh. Hm, not what i'd expect in an athlete. take care and get better!

[kat_h]

My husband had a bad cellulitis infection last year. His left leg from the knee down was swollen and purple, plus he had a fever and a super high heart rate by the time we went to the emergency room. He couldn't even walk and he lost 40 lbs in two days. He was in the hospital for a couple of days and on IV antibiotics for two weeks, then oral antibiotics for another two.

Good on you for getting this checked out so quickly. Keep that up by taking extra good care of it now. Hopefully you're back to 100% soon.

[Crankin]

Take care of yourself, Jolt. My son had cellulitis after he joined the Marines, from living out in "the field." I had never heard of it, either, but apparently it's more common than we think.

[OakLeaf]

Ouch, hope you feel better real soon.

In my decidedly non-expert opinion it seems to me that you would want to exercise just enough to increase the circulation and not enough to suppress your immune system (or risk endocarditis which is always a small but present danger) - and running in particular might cause some tissue trauma which you wouldn't want. Move, but take it easy.

[Jolt]

My husband had a bad cellulitis infection last year. His left leg from the knee down was swollen and purple, plus he had a fever and a super high heart rate by the time we went to the emergency room. He couldn't even walk and he lost 40 lbs in two days. He was in the hospital for a couple of days and on IV antibiotics for two weeks, then oral antibiotics for another two.

Good on you for getting this checked out so quickly. Keep that up by taking extra good care of it now. Hopefully you're back to 100% soon.

Yikes! That is exactly the kind of situation I wanted to avoid by getting it checked out promptly. Sounds like he was even starting to get septic--that's scary. I'm already seeing significant improvement--the area is still red, but less swollen and much less painful, so obviously the bug that caused it is susceptible to the Keflex.