Cellulitis (warning, graphic photos in this post)

I just had the misfortune of coming down with what my Dr. called a "Serious case of Cellulitis".  I am going to share the experience with photos documenting the progression of the infection.

Warning - this post contains graphic photos documenting the progression of the infection in my leg.

Oct 20 - started as any other day...I got up and went to work.  About an hour after arriving I felt really cold, to the point where I was wearing 2 hoodies!  A few hours after that I started encountering body pain and what can best be described as "flu-like symptoms".  By home time I had no energy, was sore all over and generally felt really bad.  I had to walk 4 blocks and literally had to stop 3 times to rest and catch my breath.  I don't recall ever feeling that bad.

Oct 21 - I called in sick to work and noticed a round red mark on my shin.  It was sore and warm to the touch, which indicated to me that there was an infection.  I went to the Dr.  He listened to my symptoms, looked at my leg and made the diagnosis.  He prescribed some antibiotics and pain killers and said it generally clears up in 10 - 14 days.

Oct 22 - I again called in sick as the pain had worsened and the "rash" had spread a bit.

Oct 23 - I awoke with a huge amount of pain and the redness had spread to about 3/4 of my lower leg.  I made the decision to go the the ER as this did not seem right.  I spent the afternoon in the ER and they put me on IV antibiotics with at least 5 sessions.  This meant a trip to the IV Clinic once a day for the sessions.  Also, at this point the pain was intense and they gave me Percocet for the pain.  Here are some photos of the leg at this point:

Oct 24 - I went for an Ultrasound on the leg to rule out any clot of some kind.  Results were negative which is good!

Oct 25 - the leg looks brutal!  The swelling and redness has consumed a large portion of the lower leg and has started to cover my tattoo.  Everything that is red is HOT and sore to the touch.

Oct 26 - I was awoken by the ER Dr calling me to say she wanted to see me due to some abnormal blood work results.  I spent the next 7 hours in ER.  More blood work, a chest xray and a new IV antibiotic - this one 3x a day.

Oct 27 - I saw the Dr. of Internal Medicine who checked me out.  The infection had spread and blisters were forming.  They tested for MRSA to rule that out and wrapped the leg in bandages to protect it.  At this point they wanted to change my IV spot but were unable to establish one so the decision was made to go with a PICC line.  That was scheduled for Oct 28.  I was also able to get on their Home IV program which allowed me to administer my own antibiotics at home rather than coming into the IV Clinic 3x a day.

Here are the photos before they bandaged me up.

Oct 28 - I came in for my PICC line and that was not too bad...way easier than worrying about the IV.

Oct 29 - Not much today...rest and IV's and painkillers...

Oct 30 - Saw the Dr. again today...continuing the 3x a day IV antibiotics, and he also put me on a new oral one for 10 days...says the infection is resistant and wants to see if this will help.  The pain has started to subside and T3's seem to be enough now.  All the blistered skin has turned a nasty shade of green with infection.  While changing the bandage you can see where some of the skin stuck and tore off.

Nov 3 - Weekend was more of the same...forgot to take photos of leg after bandage change on Saturday...  Met with Dr. this morning and he is worried about the lack of progress with the infection.  Has put me on yet another IV antibiotic, this time a stronger more expensive one.  This one is only once a day, but I can do it myself at home so that is good.  As you can see, the infection is still running wild.  The nurse took a gauze sponge and tried to get as much moisture out of the leg as she could...this was NOT fun.  This is probably the worst it looked the whole time.

Nov 4 - Went in to Home Care to get my PICC dressing changed, and they changed my leg bandages too.  What a difference!  With most of the liquid squeezed out yesterday, most of it had a chance to actually dry out a bit and scab over.  It's almost like I can see a light at the end finally!

Nov 8 - A few days passed with not many changes and no pictures...here are some from todays bandage change.  All scabbed over now and dead skin peeling off.  We peeled some of the scab off that was easily removed...

Nov 10 - Met with the Dr. again today...he is keeping me on the expensive IV for another week.  He and the nurse spent some time peeling dead skin and scab from the leg...looks significantly different now.

Nov 12 - next bandage change I went to town and peeled pretty much all the scab off.  There are a few spots that are still raw and will scab over again, but over all it is healing.  Still really red and swollen, but not like before.  The tattoo looks to be mostly intact, so once everything heals it might not be as bad as we feared.

Nov 14 - The leg is really drying out now...lots of dry skin to peel off, and the raw spots did scab over like I expected.  Going to have to start with some moisturizing cream to see if that helps.

Nov 17 - Met with the Dr. this morning and he says it looks like I am good to go.  He stopped the IV antibiotic and prescribed one last week of a new oral one.  They removed the PICC line and fitted me with a "tubey grip" compression stocking to help with the swelling.  The Dr. says the discoloration may stick around for months still.  Lots of dry skin, still a bit tender to the touch, but back to work tomorrow!

I may update with new photos as it continues to heal...This has been a BRUTAL experience and I am so glad it is almost over.


EDIT - Nov 24 - Here are some photos from Nov 23...almost a week and you can see there is a difference.  It is still red, still a bit swollen and tender to the touch, but is definitely on the mend.

EDIT - Dec 15 - Here are some photos from November 30.  Not much difference I don't think...

And here are some photos from December 14: The redness looks to be calming down...

Update from January 12, 2016 - 13 months after the last set of photos were taken.  I am amazed as to the amount of discoloration still present in my leg more than a year later.  

Update from October 2016 - These photos are from 2 years after the infection.  There is still a LOT of discoloration, and I expect it will last forever now.

Update from December 2018 - 4 years post infection.

There is still discoloration in the leg...here are some recent photos.

It has faded a bit, and perhaps even gotten smaller, but it is still there.

New Tattoo

They say that tattoos are addictive.  I used to think this was impossible simply because of the pain involved...I mean you are literally getting stabbed thousands of times in the same area...how can that be addictive?

I can say that in some strange perverse way, they are indeed addictive.  After I got my first tattoo it didn't take me long before I was thinking about getting another one.

This time I thought "why not get a couples tattoo with my wife?"  For the record, her name is Michelle and my parents started calling us M&M early on in our relationship.  We even had custom M&M's made for our wedding so I thought we should do something with the M&M characters from the commercials.  I suggested it to Michelle and she said it was a good idea.

I started looking around for an artist who specialized in cartoon type work.  I didn't want to go with my last artist as his specialty was Celtic art, not cartoon.  A friend at work pointed me in the direction of his friend who worked out of Crimson Empire.  His name is Chris Labrenz and I checked out his gallery and liked what I saw.

We went in for a consultation and he seemed excited about what we wanted, and we liked what he had to say.  We booked our appointment for July 19.  It was about a week before our appointment before we got the first example and with a few changes we had our tattoo designed.  The premise was the green character for Michelle with a nurse hat (as she is an RN) and the red character for me with a motorcycle helmet.  I am an IT guy but couldn't think of anything work related that I wanted so the helmet would work!

Ink day came and we arrived at 2pm for what promised to be a LONG day.  Michelle went first as she was a bit nervous and wanted to get it over with.  At just over 3 hours she was done and what a trooper!  Here is her finished tattoo just before the bandage went on.

Next up - me!  Michelle was such a trooper that I had to ensure I was a better canvas.  I joked that I was probably going to fall asleep.  The funny part...during the line-work, I probably could have fallen asleep...barely felt the outline at all.  Now the colour and shading was a different story.  However, I managed to not cry like a baby and Chris remarked that we were his best clients as far as not moving while he worked.    Here is my finished tattoo just before the bandage went on.

Up next?  I mentioned to my kids that I would like to get tattoos with them, kinda like a bonding experience that will last a lifetime.  Not sure what we will be getting, but I'm sure something will come to me!

First Trip on the new bike

OK...so I have had the new bike for almost 4 months now and just finished my first long trip.  We did 3200km in the mountains.  The hard part was the first day when we did just over 900km in one day.

What a fun bike to ride in the mountains!!!  The seat does need a bit of work and a friend had his seat fixed by a lady in Calgary so I will probably take it to her to fix.  After a few hours it becomes very uncomfortable...almost as if there is a bit of a hump in the middle and the foam all compresses after time which means you are sitting on that hump.

Rain!

Our first day was a long one...we rode Edmonton to Toad Rock in one day, which had a TON of rain.  Not my idea of a good day but we were kinda committed to it.  There was a 2 hour stretch from Radium to Creston where we didn't have any rain, but the rest of the day was very wet.

From Creston we head north to the Kootenay Lake Ferry.  This is Hwy 3a and is rated one of Canada's best motorcycle roads.  As I have ridden this road multiple times I can agree that it is hella fun, but not on this day.  As we headed north it was starting to get dark and we could see a storm coming.  I have uploaded a video of the ride so you can see how it went from really nice to really ugly.  The total time of the ride was just over an hour but I have sped it up to be only 8 minutes.  Check it out!

About an hour after we got to Toad Rock the rain stopped so we were able to get our tents setup.  The rest of the week was super nice, with temperatures hovering around 30c.

Hit a bird!

One one of the rides, I actually got hit by (or I hit) a bird!  I have had plenty of close calls with birds in the past, but this was the first time I actually hit one.  Here is the video!

Kokanee Glacier Road

During a number of our rides I saw a sign for the Kokanee Glacier with what looked like a gravel road.  Now, they market my bike as an Adventure Touring bike which means that I should be able to handle gravel and even some dirt roads with little problem.  As a result we decided to check it out.  It was quite rough but the scenery was spectacular and it was a LOT of fun.  We only made it about 6km up the Forestry Road when Pat's bike was running hot so we decided to turn back.  Nothing worse than having bike troubles in an area with no cell service.  I took video of the ride back down the mountain to show what it was like.  As the camera was on my helmet it does not really show how rough the road was, but still awesome!

I will totally do that again as it was a lot of fun.

Flat Tire

The only bad thing that happened to me was a flat tire.  I woke up on Canada Day to the flat and as nothing was open it meant a day of no riding.  The tire would hold air for a while but had a slow leak.
The next day I filled it up and rode it (slowly) into Nelson to get it fixed...or so I thought.  They told me they won't repair tires and I would have to buy a new one.  $360 later I had a new tire.  All that work on my chicken strips was gone and I would have to start over!  LOL

My bike now has over 7700km on it and I still really like it.  It could use a bigger windscreen and a center stand...some work on the seat...maybe heated grips and handguards for the cold days.  Other than that I am quite happy with it.  Did I mention it is a LOT of fun in the twistys?  I look forward to my next big trip...hopefully in August if the finances allow...

Until next time...

New bike!

So I put the Shadow away for the winter on October 31 and the snows came November 1 so I timed it just right.  It was going to be another long winter...I could tell.

January brings the annual Motorcycle Show which I have gone to for the last number of years.  This year was a little different as I was actually in the market for a new (or used) bike.  I had done some research and was hoping to like the new 2014 Suzuki V-Strom 1000 as it had taken a year off for a redesign.

Unlike last year the Kawasaki booth was the first one inside the main doors, while last year it was Harley Davidson.  My friends and I were going to sit on as many bikes as we could and one of the first ones I sat on was a 2014 Versys 1000.  I really liked the way it felt but had no hope of affording the $14000 price tag.  Here is where the skies opened for me!  The salesman mentions that he has 4 of the 2013 models in the Burnt Orange color left and that they are going for $9000.  The first thing I said was "My wife would kill me if I came home with a new bike!"

We carried on checking the other booths out and my friends kept bugging me about it...after all, I was in the market.  Michelle texted me to see what was happening and I mentioned the deal and she shocked me by saying "Go for it!".  When I asked for clarification she said "You have been looking for a new bike, if it is a good deal and you can make it happen, go for it!"  Now I didn't know what to do...

I walked around the rest of the show in a daze wondering what I should do and trying to figure out if it was even possible.  

By this time my friends were done and leaving so I wandered back to the Kawasaki booth.  Part of me hoped the 4 bikes would be gone so I wouldn't have to make a decision, but a big part of me hoped they would have one left.

I found the salesman and asked him if they had any left...he said "we have 2 left."  I said "you only have 1 left now!"  I filled out the loan application and signed the deal, all the time wondering what I had just done!

When I got home, Michelle asked me if I got the bike and when I told her I did she said "Good for you!"  

Once the loan was approved I went in and signed all the paperwork and then scheduled my pickup day...With 60 people scheduled to pick up in March I needed to pick a day soon...I selected March 15 and hoped I would be able to ride it home, but made arrangements for a truck and trailer if the weather was bad.

As the day got closer I was like a kid counting down to Christmas!  I'm sure I annoyed my friends and co-workers...

The day was finally here and the weather was on my side!  6c and no snow on the roads!  I picked her up and got some riding in and it was glorious!  Of course I was nervous as hell...it was my first ride of the season, on a style of bike I have only ridden once, on a bike I have never ridden...but everything went well.  I even recorded my inaugural ride and have posted it to YouTube...if anyone cares.  LOL  

So far, I have only put 150km or so on the bike but am really liking it...I can't wait for the warm weather to get here and stick around for a while! 

Here is the bike with my top-box installed.

Bike crash!

So, they say there are two kinds of bikers - those who have crashed, and those who have not crashed YET.  I am sad to say that I am now the kind of biker who has crashed.

Sunday Sept 29 2013 will forever be in my memories as the day I crashed.  The 30th annual Santas Anonymous Toy Run was this day and I was participating as usual.  About 9am it decided it was going to start raining, but not a good rain...mostly a mist kinda cloud like rain.  This is quite a distinction to anyone who is a biker.  A good rain will wash away the oil and grease on the road...a mist will not.

After dropping the toys off at Hawrelak park, me and 2 other friends decided to go for some food.  As we were approaching an intersection the light turned yellow.  Normally I would have simply gone through but as I was leading some friends I elected to brake.

With the rain, the road was wet with some standing water...and as it wasn't a hard rain it never washed away any of the oil and grease.  I locked up my rear brake and caused the bike to fishtail.  First to the left and I managed to control it somewhat, but it then went out to the right which is when the bike threw me.

I landed on my right hip/back area and apparently just tucked my arms and rolled.  (don't remember)  I lay there for what seemed like only a few seconds, but which was probably closer to 10 minutes not saying anything only to have my first words be "is my bike ok?".  The paramedics were there and put me on a spine board and neck brace and brought me to the hospital.

I spent the next 3 1/2 hours on the damn board as they did their xrays and tests.  Nothing was broken so they sent me home.  Nothing was broken but MAN was I in pain!

My friends had my bike towed home for me so I got a look at it the following day.  Handlebars were slightly bent (just the risers out of position), windshield scratched, mirror broken, highway peg and saddlebag took the majority of the damage.  Everything was fixable!

The following Saturday I replaced the mirror, straightened everything and got back on it for a ride.  I was still really sore and the bruising was horrible, but I really wanted to get back in the saddle ASAP.  I'm glad I did!

It has been 9 days and I am still really sore and walk with a limp but it is getting better.  I got off SO lucky that nothing bad happened.  I could have hit something or someone.  If you have to crash your bike, this was probably the best way to do it.

Ride safe out there people...beware those dangers that you ignore after a while.  Wet roads, gravel patches, all can be really bad.  After 65000km in 4 seasons it happened to me...  It can happen to you in an instant so respect the bike!

Solo Trip 2013

With an extra week and a half off after Fragapalooza I decided to do another solo trip.  Last year I went to Yellowknife which was fun.  Wasn't sure where to go this year but in the end decided to go back to BC.

My original plan was to go as far as Penticton maybe and come back a different route.  Unlike previous trips I had nothing planned in advance...would basically plan each day the night before.

Wednesday was day 1 of my trip and I decided to camp in Lake Louise the first night.  When I got to the campground the sign said FULL...not a great start.  However I asked if they had any tent spots and was in luck...they had one.  They asked me if I would be willing to share with another biker if one showed up.  Of course I said yes.

After I had setup I went into town for supper.  When I got back and was thinking about starting a fire, 2 bikes showed up.  Some brothers were travelling to Alaska and needed a place to tent.  I welcomed them in and began to setup the fire.  One was from North Dakota, the other from Wisconsin.  We shared a fire, some beers and good stories.  We talked about their trip and I gave them some route ideas for their return trip.  Was a good evening!

The next day I made my way to Toad Rock.  You may have heard me mention it a number of times...it seems to be smack in the middle of some of the best riding around so I really liked it there.

Unlike previous trips when I would just hang out with my friends at the campsite, I wandered down to the social area.  I met some great people and had a great time!  In fact, I had such a good time that I decided to just stay at Toad Rock instead of going to Penticton.  There are enough roads to ride that I was sure I would not be bored.

Friday I decided to ride to Revelstoke for lunch.  It is about a 250km trip each way with 1 ferry ride.  I figured that would be a really nice day.  I didn't take into account an hour and a half wait for the ferry so any goofing around in Revelstoke was not in the cards.  While waiting for the ferry I met some bikers from Vernon and we shared a few beers and stories.  After lunch I headed back to Toad Rock and managed to get back about 8pm...little later than I intended but still in daylight - barely.

Went to the social area again and the people I met the night before had BBQ chicken and pasta for me...was a nice surprise.  I then met some people who were having their wedding reception in the campground the following day...they were just there setting up.  Nice people.

Saturday I went into Kaslo for lunch and just happened to run into everyone from the wedding.  Kinda funny!  I then rode down to Nelson to get some supplies and then back to Toad Rock for about 4pm.  Made some supper and it decided to rain.  I went and visited with some other people I met and proceeded to get really drunk.  About 9:30 the rain was stopping so we went and crashed the wedding.  $2 drinks made for a fun but bad night for me...got SO DRUNK, but had a really great time.

The plan for Sunday was to head to Radium and hang out with my brother and his family at their campsite and then head for home on Monday.  None of that happened...I was SO hungover that I never even started my bike that day...just kinda slept and vegged all day too sick to move.

I had told my wife I would be home Monday so I decided to get up and on the road bright and early.  I got the 8am ferry at Balfour and started the 900km trip home.  I knew it would be a long day but I was quite rested and have done long days before.

I strolled into the house about 8pm Monday night after a long day of riding...tired but feeling pretty good.

I had SUCH a good time on this solo trip that I am planning to do it again at least once next summer.  Maybe one where I stick around Toad Rock again, and maybe one where I go somewhere else.  Only time will tell.  :)