Alyssa's Finger Infection

So sometime during the first week of November I cut myself on a butter knife. It had a little piece on the handle that had a sharp edge and I cut my finger on it. We bandaged it up and I went on with life. On Nov 8th I took the first picture of my finger documenting that it was getting infected. It hurt a lot.

The infection just kept growing. Eventually we called teledoc and they prescribed me some antibiotics,  Which I took. I went to the InstaCare two days later, because the infection was growing and spreading and it was hurting. The nurse at the InstaCare couldn't believe that I would come in after getting antibiotics just a couple days ago. The dr had no clue what it was. And refereed me to a hand surgeon just in case. She also told me to soak my finger in Epsom Salt. So I did. 5 days after my InstaCare visit I went to see the hand surgeon. I begged Jake to come with me. We found ourselves at the center for breast health, which is where they do breast surgeries. So the surgeons just have their other patients come there too.  I so really scared. I thought they were gonna have to do some cutting on my finger. But the Physicians Assistant (PA) came in and looked at my finger and then came back with the dr who confirmed his diagnosis as Herpetic Whitlow. Which is an infection created by the herpes simplex virus. The infection produces a painful wound called a whitlow on the fingers. From start to finish it took about a month. I was told to email the dr a picture at Thanksgiving (which was a week away), but by then I could see the improvement and didn't bother. The dr was rude, I was shocked, and he basically was like...yep, its this, deal with and tried to leave, but I was able to ask him a couple questions which amounted to him telling me there wasn't anything for me to do but wait. So now me, Sydney, and Lizzy all have herpes. The pustules turned to blood pools under my skin, and only a little leakage from the biggest area (where my initial cut was) had any leakage. At the end it was like where all the infection was turned to a scab, and then fell off. When the biggest area fell off it was like I lost 3 layers of skin. And even now as the skin grows back, my finger still hurts when touching certain things or doing things that didn't use to hurt (like opening stubborn jar lids).

November 8th

 November 9th

 November 10th

 November 14th

November 15th. 

November 23rd. The pus turned to blood pools under my skin. But no leakage.

 December 3rd.

 December 4th.