I have a smaller wound next to the… largest wound.

Since I had been preparing for that likelihood, taking oral antibiotics in addition to using antibiotic cream on the infected areas, I was quickly able to find it. This one formed a bit more painfully than that one, although that one formed slightly painfully as well (and was misattributed to “chub rub”). It formed almost like a burn would have, and it certainly looked like one, although now I know what the most likely cause of these are.

With my third stimulus check, I bought an indoor bicycle since that is more my “style” and can easily be put together and stored in my room. If I can keep this at bay with exercise, I fully intend to do so, although I also know that I have an extensive family history of early-onset type two diabetes… so I may not be able to outrun this. Not entirely. I can see me needing to be put on some kind of medication for it in the (near) future.

To be honest, I did expect cellulitis to be a diagnosis because of how some of these wounds formed. To know that there is a specific cause behind them connected with family history has been a bit depressing, though.

But in case it needs to be said, I also spent a portion of my third stimulus check on exercise equipment.

So I made an appointment with my primary care physician over a wound that would not heal. I began taking 60mg of prednisone to break a migraine that persisted in coming back in spite of my medication regimen for it with the intent to stop taking said prednisone once it had broken for twenty-four hours… you know, standard operating procedure here. Within a few days, I had noticed a wound beginning to form on my left leg that I thought was “chub rub”, as it certainly looked like it. I began to bandage and medicate it with Neosporin four times a day just to see another, smaller wound appear on my right leg. So I began to bandage and medicate that one as well, curious as to why they had appeared — and why, as a friend that saw them had stated, they looked like burn marks. Four weeks came and went without them healing at all. They didn’t get any worse, but they didn’t get any better, either. And frankly, they were kind of weird…

I had enough foresight to take pictures of them and save them on my phone, which I showed my doctor in lieu of having to take my yoga pants off since they were on the insides of my thighs. He became concerned that I had begun to develop steroid-dependent diabetes as a result of the nine years that I’ve done taking prednisone as needed and started me on some antibiotics in an attempt to help these wounds heal up. If they don’t, or if they heal very minimally, we’ll be talking wound care to the tune of having a skin graft placed on the worse one since it is causing me significant pain and is impairing my ability to sit normally. It’s weird.

I did some blood work for my doctor and will be getting the results of that (diabetes? no?) at my next visit.