The Killer Zit

My mother lied to me.  She said the hormonal, pre-menstrual acne I had as a teenager would go away by the time I was 20.  Try about age 35 - or longer; I really don't remember.  Once in a while I'll get a toxic eruption, but learned over the years the best thing to do is nothing.  Leave it alone, and it will eventually back off.  Mess with it, and the revenge belongs to the zit.  When a mountain developed from a tiny molehill right between my eyes as a result of unibrow maintenance, I followed my own advice and left it alone.  That was two weeks ago.  This monster turned into an active volcano that finally erupted with no provocation from me last Saturday.  OK, that's a good thing right?  

I woke up Sunday morning and did my usual fumbling around on the nightstand for my glasses before my feet hit the floor.  Why can't I see?  Did someone switch my glasses out in the middle of the night?  No, they're sitting ****-eyed on my face.  Must be a frame problem.  Wrong again.  I can't see squat because my right eye is swollen nearly shut from top to bottom, into my cheekbone, up my forehead and down my nose.  The left eye didn't look too great either.  Looking into the mirror confirmed that I looked like the Creature from the Black Lagoon.  (Yes, I'm severely dating myself with that particular reference.)  I even scared Hubby when he finally opened his own eyes enough to glare at me for waking him up.

I've been feeling kind of "off" for a few days with a headache (rare for me) and more lethargic than usual.  By Sunday, all that was far worse with the addition of my right eye feeling like it was going to explode from the socket in much the same manner as the eruption on the bridge of my nose.  OK, I know by now I need antibiotics, but it's a Sunday.  I'm NOT going to the ER for a freakin' zit!

Yesterday afternoon I dragged myself into my family doctor's office where I learned exactly how serious this infection is.  I have preseptal cellulitis, which basically means in my doc's words, "a very dangerous infection."  He is pumping me up with massive amounts of keflex and I have to go back in a couple of days.  If it's not noticeably better, he threatens me with hospital IV antibiotics.  Why?  Because any infection in the eye area can go directly to the brain.  Nothing like a little meningitis to add to my already disabled body.  Here's a good link that describes the condition, and compares it to the immediately more life-threatening, but related condition called orbital cellulitis.  

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0BJI/is_4_30/ai_60579711

Next time you get a zit on your face, and your eye swells up, don't let it go as long as I did.  I swear this thing was sent by Beelzebub himself.  You have been warned!