All For Nothing

According to sources such as the Texas Childrens' Hospital, The University of Michigan Pediatric Advisor, and The Children's Hospital of St Louis I'm spent the last eight days home for virtually NO reason.

There are more sites that say the same thing, but I'm too lazy to list more than that because there are LOTS!

Let me sum it up for those of you that care though...

They all seem to agree that the incubation period (the time before it symptoms become apparent) for ringworm is typically between 10 and 14 days.

They all also agree that ringworm isn't contagious after 48 hours of treatment.

Let me repeat that...

Ringworm is NOT contagious after 2 days of treatment.

Which means I went through hell and took almost all of my sick time for NO reason. (For almost three weeks I was under constant treatment, topically for two weeks and orally for one, before I took all my sick time.)
At least now I can go back to work on Monday with a clear conscience and a little bit of ammunition if needed.

Oh, and just in case you don't believe me look for yourself... Just google ringworm "not contagious"

Don't get me wrong, I'm not really that upset that I wasted all my sick time since I probably would've never used it anyways, but I'm sure as hell not going to worry about taking anymore now.

My Angels

The girls who gave me the nickname Karma are all together at the Rainbow Bridge now. They may be gone but they will live on in my heart forever.

Fungus Among Us

Namely, me.

For those few who don't know I've been trying to get rid of ringworm on my arms for going on a month now. (Ringworm is caused by a fungus, NOT a worm, and I most likely got it from a dog at work)

After the prescription cream made it worse, the doc prescribed oral antibiotics in case it was infected and an oral antifungal, Diflucan. I have to take the Diflucan once a week for four weeks. I just took my second one this past Sunday, so I still have like 2.5 weeks to go.

Thankfully, the Diflucan actually seems to be doing the trick. The areas on my arms affected by the ringworm are still discolored, but not raised or oozing any more and not nearly as pissed off looking. I wish I had pictures of my arms at their worst because even the nearly blind would be able to see a difference :-P

Anyways, this experience with ringworm has probably been one of the worst experiences of my life! I never even knew I could be so itchy! I also never suspected other's around me would turn retarded because of ringworm on my arms! It's ringworm, not leprosy! (Yeah, I know leprosy isn't really that contagious, but that's not that point) The point is that despite what some people seem to think, I was pretty careful to greatly minimize the risk of anyone else getting ringworm from me after I found out exactly what it was. Yes it's contagious, but its not as if it can go fucking airborn like the flu. To flip out on me because you had your hand in the trash and accidentally touched the vetwrap that held the gauze on my arm is pretty ridiculous. To think that a glove I used to try to keep my arm dry might give you ringworm is even more ridiculous since the damn glove never even remotely came in contact with the fungus since it was ALWAYS covered when I using the gloves. That was the whole point of the gloves... To keep what was covering the ringworm affected area dry!

*sigh*

So yeah, this hasn't been the worst experience of my life just because of the fungus itself. It's been the worst experience of my life because it taught me a lesson I didn't want to learn. A lesson about what people are really like. Funny how something so stupid as ringworm can show you who really gives a damn about you.

Lesson Learned.