Update

A few friends have been texting me on this, so here's a brief update.

The foot has responded to treatment, and seems nearly healed.

The reactive arthritis - whether a reaction to my foot infection or to something vile I ate a few weeks ago I cannot say with certainty - is not getting better at all. My hands and wrists, in particular, are swollen, red and sore, I have a weird red lump in my right arm near my elbow, and I presently cannot touch the tips of my last two fingers to my thumb.

All that - particularly in my right arm - was not so bad last Saturday, when I took a powerful NSAID, related to  Advil, called Indomethacin (or Indocin) on the advice of a doctor. It SEEMED to cause my right arm to double in size from the elbow down, which I posted a pic of a few days ago (at that point, my IV was in that arm).

No one was prepared to sign off on it being a medical reaction, mind you. I've taken Advil for years to no noticeable ill effect. (I haven't been taking it for this condition because I was under the mistaken belief you shouldn't mix it with Tylenol, and I've been having T3's a-plenty.) I stopped all use of it, though, on Saturday, and my arm returned to nearly normal by Monday, when I had quite a burst of energy - welcome, but vaguely manic, wrong.

But Monday I saw my GP, and he really didn't think that Advil (or Indomethacin, or what-have-you) was the culprit. If I was having an allergic reaction, why had I never had one before? Why hadn't the reaction affected me everywhere, instead of primarily my right arm? Besides, clearly I needed an anti-inflammatory (they ARE standard treatment in the case of reactive arthritis, it seems).

So I took his advice, popped one Ibuprofen Monday night, two on Tuesday morning, and then a final one Tuesday afternoon. An hour after taking that pill, boom: the right arm swelled up again, even redder and more painful than before. The odd lump near my elbow became much more pronounced and redder, too, and the swelling increased on my left side, as well. There's clearly something wrong going on.

My foot is nearly healed, but not the rest of me. I can actually make it around okay - getting up from lying down is challenging, but once I'm up, I can Tim Conway my way along well enough, even if I look a bit funny doing so. But typing hurts. Not sure I could hold a pen. And, like I say, it's very uncomfortable.

Plus I sure am peeing a lot.

That's all for now. Ready for this chapter to be over. In other news, I might get to talk to Tad.