Just curious... (last post for the night, I swear!)

[Deja Q]

When I saw the doc about the infection in my arm, I mentioned that there was a pain in my right arm. (unfortunately, there is no visible abscess on the surface.)

He did prescribe an antibiotic but he essentially ignored my comment of the pain.

I've also noticed that where I've lanced the small abscesses that formed on my arms, they are healing and the surface pain is going away.

What are the chances I have an abscess inside my arm? If so, is there anything he would have done if he could?

Thanks!

[Avalux]

1. Give me a few more specifics

were your abscesses cultured - if so, what was the organism and what antibiotic were you given? Describe the pain in your arm.

[Deja Q]

2. Thx!

No culture done. He glimpsed at the area, which I did not hold up to the light. The main area is red and there's a wide pink area surrounding. It's a very light pink, though, and not puffy. (last year I had an abscess which got to be a golfball in size and my whole upper arm became pink and puffy. What I have now is nothing by comparison.)

Cephalexin is the drug given. 4 a day for 10 days.

The pain is like a stabbing pain which felt it came from deep within the arm. I tried using a heat compress, but that only made the pain worse. Unbearably worse. (the Dr mentioned using a heat compress, but I told him the heat made it hurt.)

There was no bump originally (though touching the red area was tender), though a pea-sized bump has now formed. I did try lancing it (which was oddly not painful), but only blood came out. Maybe I didn't poke deep enough? Touching the bump hurts, but isn't the stabbing pain I mentioned earlier. This pain seems to be more at the surface than deep within the arm.

Strange, new development: Earlier if I squeezed my arm there was pain - just as I had mentioned two paragraphs ago. I just squeezed my arm and there is no pain. Maybe I was wrong in what I originally felt or I felt the pain incorrectly... that's probably it, though I'd swear the pain was worse 3 days ago because it interfered with my ability to sleep that night. But then again, the expanding pink area didn't exist at the time either... I dunno. Doing the antibiotic is probably a good thing regardless, this bout of eczema which started the whole situation was pretty bad and I've had numerous small abscesses develop, which I was able to drain on my own - and subsequently healed on their own...