Good gracious.

 Now, I'm not one to overreact, but...I'm going to die!

Yesterday I had a bit of swelling on the corner of my eyelid, near the bridge of my nose.  I also had a spot on the bridge of my nose so I figured the latter was pressing on the former, and squeezed it.  Lots of puss, all rather disgusting, but not out of the ordinary.

This morning I woke up and couldn't open my eye, the eyelid was so swollen it was forced closed.  Made my way to work and phoned NHS direct.  The advisor took my details as normal and told me call back time was 4 hours and maybe I should just go to the pharmacy and talk to the pharmacist, I said I'd rather go to the NHS drop in clinic if I didn't get a call back from them before my lunch.  A couple of hours later a NHS direct nurse phoned me.  She asked lots of questions about my eye and told me to go the NHS drop in clinic.  I asked if I should hurry there or wait an hour until my lunch break began, she said an hours wait would be fine.

My lunch break began and and I walked up to the NHS drop in clinic where I discover...they are no longer a drop in clinic - registered patients and emergencies only.  They tell me to call my doctors for the out of hours service, which I do.  I talk to an advisor again who tells me a GP will call me back.  15 minutes later a GP calls, we go through all the same questions as I did with the NHS direct nurse (is it bruised? Is there discharge? does it itch? have you sustained any injuries to the eye recently?) and got the exact same non answer - "doesn't sound too serious but someone should really have a look at it".  So she booked me in at A&E for a GP appointment for 5pm, after I'd finished work, some 4 hours later.

After work I grudgingly went along to A&E, my eye was much less swollen and almost fully open although it ached, I really truly almost didn't go.  Was seen by a doctor, whipped my glasses off and as I was saying "it's my eye" she said "oh my god", which really isn't what you ever want to hear from a healthcare professional.  I explained that it was hugely swollen this morning and was now as it was, I thought that was quite good, she said "and it's taken until 5pm so go down to this level?!" with incredulity.  Again, not what you want to hear.  And then she pointed to my burst spot which was a bit crusty and ugly looking where it had dried and asked "what's that?",
"oh, just a spot" I reply.  
"But is it? Is it just a spot?"
"err...yeah." I reply with absolutely no confidence in my tone.  The cancer buzzer was ringing loudly in my head at this moment.
"what did it look like?"
"just...a lump.  Normal spot"
"and has it always looked like that, with the golden crust?"
"no, yesterday I squeezed it because I thought it was pressing on my eyelid, there was loads of puss but....just a normal spot."
"hmmm...."

She presses and prods my eye and the fleshy bits around it. Usual questions (does that hurt? No. That? No).

"Right, you have an infection"
"Ok!" I say cheerfully.
"But the problem is, under your eyelid, you have your eye"
"Yup!" I giggle, obvious statement is obvious.
"And this part of your eye," she gestures to the area below the eyebrow and above the eyelid, which is swollen on me "is about this [indicates a space of about 2 cms, no more] far away from your brain tissue."
"Right..." getting worried again, whole other set of warning bells warming up
"I think the infection has travelled under the skin [i.e. from the spot] to the eye area. And what you have is a Very Serious infection"
"...right..." Loud bells of terror now blaring in my head
"So I'm going to give you an incredibly high dose of antibiotics"
"ok"
"2 tablets, 4 times a day"
"....right..."
"And if it's worse tomorrow morning you need to come back tomorrow morning"
"Ok.  Is there anything I shouldn't do...like tomorrow I was going to go to the beach and sit in the sun all day"
"Wear a hat and don't put suncream on your face because if it gets in then it'll be a really...tricky..situation"
"Right"
"And we'd have to take you in and put you on IV antibiotics"
"Right"

So then I took my prescription, left the building, got my bike, started shaking and FREAKED OUT for a little while.

Seriously? A 'serious' infection centimetres away from my brain? NOT COOL.

Anyway, I'm home on the sofa watching trash tv, eating fruit and realising the stiff neck I've had for the last two days is LYMPH GLAND POWER!

Go team lymph gland.  Seriously.  Go!