Staph Infection

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Last weekend I had the opportunity to visit Hoskins briefly on the back flight for the Malango students to attend Spiritual Emphasis Weekend up at Interface in the highlands.

On Monday we flew back to Goroka, and the next day at lunch time I started feeling sick. I spent the afternoon sleeping hoping Panadol and some sleep will be all that is needed. It was not until now that I realised a little scratch on a mosquito bite on my left leg was infected. And I still felt rather sick so I went to see the doctor.

The doctor said it was a staph infection with swelling within a 5cm radius of the ulcer. So I was given antibiotics and some dressing to keep it clean. However the infection continued to get worse and by Friday the swelling has advanced to over 35cm in length from the ankle to almost the knee. So the doctor gave me more antibiotics and a blood sample was taken for a white blood count, which returned a rather low count of 8000 considered the agressiveness of the infection. At one stage, there were two doctors, three nurses and two students attending me - I felt rather special:P

I'll need to continue monitoring it, and if the infection continues to spread, I'll need to be given intravenous antibiotics, hopefully that will not be required.

It seems like every time I leave the Islands region, I'll carry some friends over:) I guess it's the joy of living in the tropics...

21 Nov 2008

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