Itchy Toe

I have decided that itchy toe sounds funny but is a terrible thing to have.

This story describes medical information that I feel a little weird about sharing, but at the same time, I want to tell what happened on Friday/Saturday. My urge to tell my story won out over my reluctance to divulge such information.

Last Wednesday, I could not shake the itchy feeling I had in my right foot’s middle toe. I took a Benadryl (we did not have any cortisone cream) and went to bed. Everything was fine until the next evening. I scratched it a bit, but it didn’t help, so I took a Benadryl. My toe was bothering me so much that I couldn’t sleep, so I got a bag of ice and left it on my foot so that it would dull the itch (actually the feeling in my foot) so I could sleep. Friday it was bothering me off and on.

Late Friday afternoon, I was at the Shopette at the kaserne about 15 minutes from our apartment and was talking with the alcohol/liquor buyer about getting Shiner Bock and Leinenkuegel in stock. All of a sudden, the itchiness intensified, so I wrapped up the conversation and hurried to the car. I drove down the street to the commissary to pick up cortisone cream. By the time I had driven there, I was fighting back tears because my foot hurt so bad from the itching.

The cortisone cream didn’t help, and I didn’t have any other option but to drive the 10-15 minutes toward home/John’s office. I called him and was bawling by this point, because the pain was pretty bad. John left work early and took me to the acute care clinic (on another post down the street). They are only open until 7 PM, so I’m glad we made it there before closing. They saw me almost right away because I was so uncomfortable.

After examining me and taking blood, they came back with not 1, not 2, but 4 prescriptions. Seriously. I took all but 1 because it was a strong painkiller that I did not want to take. (I prefer to only take what’s necessary to get better, and I did not consider myself in enough pain to warrant something strong like that.) Anyway, I took an antibiotic, something that would stop the itch (but was also for anxiety), and a painkiller (but like I said, not the uber strong one).

By the time we got home (8 PM), I was so out of it that I only managed to scarf down two slices of pizza before passing out on the couch until 11:30 when I finally managed to move myself to bed. I woke up at 1 AM with the chills and extremely nauseous. I finally managed to get back to sleep and slept basically until 10:30 the next morning.

Bottom line: Itchy toe is not cool.

I’m better now though. The antibiotics seem to be doing their job!