Some of you might know the game ultimate frisbee, it's played a lot on college campuses as well as here in The Gambia amongst the volunteers and other NGO employees. It's a really fun game so I like to get out there and play also. There's usually a lot of running involved and normally I wear shoes but last time I forgot my shoes back in village (we play in Kombo) so like many of the other players I just went in bare feet.
To no ones surprise me feet weren't really that tough and about half way through the game were covered in blisters. The blisters didn't hurt to bad so of course I kept playing, making them worse I'm sure. I figured a thorough washing with soap and water would be enough to stave off infection. This worked up until the time when my feet became infected.
It was nothing to serious at first, just a little tenderness, I figured my body could fight it off. Next thing I know my left big toe is starting to throb! Yeah, it didn't feel to good but still I was optimistic I could handle this annoying little infection. Up until this point I had never needed to go into our medical office here and I wanted to keep it that way. Since I had gone so long without help I was starting to pride myself on how healthy and strong my body was.
Nonetheless this infection on the bottom of my big toe started is hurt pretty badly. Its kind of weird though because the skin was relatively clear in the sensitive area under my toe which got me thinking that maybe my blister was deeper under the skin that I'd thought. This happened to be the case, unlucky for me because it was just festering the whole time. So I proceeded to do surgery on my foot with scissors from my Letterman and needles from my sowing kit. After much time and pain from probing and cutting I was able to get in there and puncture the blister/infected area. Quite a bit of puss came out which I thought was a great sign. I'd released the pressure, removed the puss, cleaned and bandaged the wound. To my dismay the healing process didn't begin like I though it would.
This entire ordeal was taking place in my village. Luckily I had work to do in Kombo so I traveled into town the next day after draining the wound. I'm glad I did because the infection actually got worse, go figure. Everything became sore and sensitive again and my toe started to swell up. This was the straw that broke my dreams of curing this thing on my own. That same day I called the Peace Corps Medical Officer, PCMO, and told her the situation. Now I'm taking antibiotics, eurithromyacin. The infection isn't beaten but I think the odds are with me now. I'm going into see my PCMO tomorrow also, maybe she will give me per diem or something.
So that was kind of a long story. I'd like to say that the story is finished, but I'm not going to speak to soon.
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