Or, more accurately, a hole in a foot. We showed up at East Carolina Foot & Ankle at 0930 this morning as ordered, got examination and X-rays and questions on exactly what I'd done and when. The consensus was that I did indeed have an abscess, that I'd done exactly the right thing as regards how I'd lanced it (and in doing so in the first place) and subsequently dressed it, and that while I'd done an excellent job of getting most of the gorp out, it required immediate surgery to finish cleaning it out. (And I use the word "gorp" advisedly. I can't recall the last time I saw anything as nasty as this come out of a wound, including when RainMan got the huge abscess in his back. He has me beat on volume, but my gorp beats his in sheer nastiness.)
So, three hours after arriving, I left again on loaned crutches (not having brought mine) with a fresh, open, thoroughly irrigated and disinfected incision in my foot, packed full of iodoform ribbon. The abscess was narrow, but deep - probably about 7mm to 8mm wide by about 15mm deep, running laterally across my toe. I have a fresh pack of azithromycin, a follow-up appointment for 1100 Tuesday unless they decide to call me in on Monday, and a culture swab on the way to the microbiology lab to see what was growing in there. If it turns out to be something azithromycin-resistant, they'll switch me to a different antibiotic.
(Dr. Roman asked me at one point, "How come you know all this? Have you studied medicine?" I told her I try to maintain educated-layman status in a lot of different things, and that I've had five years' practice learning the ins and outs of what's going on with my foot.... Dr. Roman rocks. She let me sit up so I could watch everything she was doing.)
