About a week and a half ago, I noticed that the pinky finger on my right hand looked a bit irritated--red and slightly puffy. I thought at first that it was just my usual dry, wintry-old-lady hands. But then I noticed that even when the rest of my fingers looked normal, this one did not. After checking with several websites and JLR, I decided to pay a visit to a doctor. Just in case. Not that I thought there was anything really wrong, but, you know, I didn't want to lose a finger because I thought the problem would go away on its own and left it untreated. Mistakenly thinking a medical problem is getting better (when it most definitely is not) is more JLR's thing.
But as it turns out, my finger was infected. I don't know how or when it happened. I didn't have any stuff oozing out of my finger, but infected it was just the same. So the doctor put me on antibiotics and a steroid. She offered me an antibiotics shot to get treatment off to a big start, which I declined. I didn't want to overdo it on the medication, you see. I guess I forgot that one should never take lightly an infection...but the doctor didn't. And when I came back a couple of days later for a follow-up visit, I was given another antibiotic to take, since I hadn't taken the shot. I don't know if it was one the medicines or the combination, but something did not sit well. So during the next week I had alternating bouts of nausea and shakiness and exhaustion.
At work I acted like EVERYTHING IS OKAY, NO NEED TO FEEL SORRY FOR ME, and so, of course, no one did. And so of course I didn't feel like I could take any sick time, especially since someone else would have had to take over a project that was due on Friday.
Yuck.
The point of this post is simply this: when the doctor offers, take the shot.
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