"We are Lepers"

For those of you who found Edd’s foot infestation story of Edd's particularly disturbing, I'd sit this one out too.

The Becoming

Day 1

So as I mentioned in my previous blog, on the day we left Biombo, swellings started to form on both sides of my face. By the time the evening came the two swellings (one just below the left side of my mouth on my chin and the other just below by jaw line on the other side) formed 2 enormous heads. They very quickly started to look like rather enormous spots, unrivalled by any I had had in the past. At this point, still believing I had had a serious hormonal imbalance this month I tried to go to work on them in the loo on the boat. This was before I started throwing up. The activity was completely unsatisfying and unsuccessfully. I couldn't sleep – they too were painful

Day 2

By the time the end of the boat trip came they had turned in to what can only be described as gigantic boils (or carbuncles as Edd would say). Protruding approx 2cm from the surface of the skin at the peaks and covering a round area of approx 5cm in circumference around. The surrounding area being bright red and the top having a mixture of scab and bright white pussy head (approx 1cm round)

On leaving the boat I used my bandanna to cover the legions. I couldn’t bear the thought of being looked at, especially in the close quarters of the passenger queues to leave the ship.

As soon as we arrived in Dakar, we headed to the chemist to get some antibiotic cream. The chemists winced in a disgusted way when they saw my face and agreed antibiotic cream may help after cleaning the area well.

Back in the hotel I tried once again to extricate some of the poison, but to no avail. Again, they were too painful to sleep even after a dose of Ibuprofen..

Day 3

We flew 8hrs to Addis Ababa. I could feel the movement of the poison inside the boils moving around with the changing air pressure of the cabin. I had wondered if they might explode and cover the entire cabin in some budget film style custard ooze. They were so very painful

I made the transition from my bandanna to my larger white scarf as the area to hide needed more coverage

The legions grew larger to approx 3-4cm protruding from my face. The puss started to oozing from the sides of the scabby heads like molten magma from a volcano. All this time we had no access to our luggage so I had no more pain killers and there had been no chemist. I had been pretty brave and jovial about the whole experience until we got to the hotel in Addis Ababa. We tried again to extricate some fluid with hot presses. It had absolutely no effect at all other than to slightly alleviate the pressure of the stretched skin. I had a bit of a tantrum at this point. The lumps were so huge that they looked like giant horns growing from the bottom half of my face. I could see the look on people's faces if my scarf accidentally slipped below them and they caught a glimpse. It was a look of fear and horror with wide eyes and even a slight jerk backwards was sometimes obvious. I could also see the same look in my loyal and loving husband's eyes. He would never admit it, but I could sense that he was seriously worried I might stay like that and I couldn’t help but wonder what would happen if they did. The thought of our family seeing me the next day in Kenya and my issue taking over everyone’s holiday was filling me with utter disappointment and dread.

Day 4

We arrive in Nairobi. It was an emotional reunion for Edd and I. Not least because we had missed them a lot in the last 4.5 months and had an emotional ending to the charity work, but also because of the worry of my hideous face. I warn everyone I have an infection on my face. Asking if I they were ready to see it I pulled the scarf below my chin. It reminded me of the film Ben Hur when Mirum and Teasa announce "we are lepers" and they pull their scarves from their faces to reveal the boils and legions caused by leprosy on the bottom half of their faces. But there was no valley of the lepers for me to hide in. We discussed going to the doctor. but as we were flying to Malindi first thing in the morning we all agreed to start on the penicillin Edd's mum had brought with her.

Day 5

Fly to Malindi continue with cream and penicillin.

We decided to try another hot press and extrication. It was unsuccessful again. Pleasantly after the scab was removed from the left boil it now formed a large droplet of puss every 20 minutes of so, which had to be wiped away. Like s tap with a worn washer. It this hadn't happened to me I would never have believed it. I wanted to take photos to remember the magnitude of it, but Edd didn’t agree so I don’t have any visuals for you I’m afraid!

Day 6

The lumps were going nowhere. We decide to go to the hospital in Malindi. I had a feeling of dread that: a) They wouldn't know what it was or b) It would need referral to a specialist c) It would cost us a new mortgage d) There was nothing that could be done and the lumps would heal over permanently like this.

We quickly get to see an authoritative Kenyan doctor who explains the following:

'You have two abscesses. You would call them boils. We have them a lot here and yours are actually very small (I found it very hard to imagine how they could get any bigger considering they were both the size of planets by now) The infection has come from the bacteria stappholoicci (which is on everyone) and entered through a small wound on your skin. The infection is too deep to be fixed with cream and the penicillin is not strong enough cure it. The reason the basic penicillin is ineffective here because penicillin is available to everyone in Africa without prescription. Everyone takes them which makes the bacteria that has adapted here immune to the penicillin treatment. Therefore we need to use a different antibiotic treatment. What we need to do is get the puss out and then treat you with antibiotics'. I wondered how he would extract it as I tried to explain I had already attempted to extricate it several times. His confident reply was 'we will just gently squeeze it out.’ It sounded so easy so I tried to relax.

We went in to the surgery room, Joey came with me. Her motherly instinct insisted that she came and supportingly held my hand throughout the process (and perhaps a little morbid curiosity as well). The doctor adorned his new sterile rubber gloves and prepared some iodine soaked cloths.

His big hands then advanced towards be and he clamped the first boil between the two cloths, shifted his weight to get his whole body strength behind and squeezed with all his might. I'm afraid at this point I was incredibly overcome with the pain and the shock of the force he was using that I blubbed and found it difficult to control. He continued to push with a large amount of force until all the mass was extracted. I think he might have been fibbing when he said that we would "gently push the puss out". Just before he began the second one, which was larger and had two “cavities”, apparently, I with a shaky voice asked if he didn't have any anaesthetic he could use. He said it didn't usually work very well on areas where there was puss, but gave me the injection anyway. For the second one I managed to compose myself a little more. It was definitely less excruciating. I don't know if it was actually less painful area or the anaesthetic had worked. Joey continued to provide support, encouragement and a running commentary about the spectacular operation. She said that enough puss came out to fill nearly an entire egg cup. It was also a very viscous pale mass, like blancmange. After the poison was out, the doctor then filled a needleless syringe with saline solution. I guessed what he was going to do before he did but was praying that it wasn't going to be the case. I closed my eyes and he then proceeded to fill the empty pockets in my face (where thee puss had been) with the saline contents of the syringe. As the pockets filled up and unfilled the pockets were cleaned out. He did this 4 times on each side. This was also excruciating. When this part of the traumatic process had finished I looked at Joey and her face was dripping with sweat. I suddenly realized that is must have been nearly as traumatic for my poor mother in law as it had been for me. The whole gruelling process had taken around 45 minutes.

Anyway positively, when we left the hospital, my face was almost entirely back to the original shape. It was incredible. I have 2 plasters over the wounds which are leaking the last dregs of the saline solution from inside. We have instructions for the concoction of antibiotics to take and the whole visit including drugs only cost around £44.

Edd admitted afterwards that he had seen everyone staring at me. You could even see the huge lumps through the white scarf and they were the largest carbuncles he had ever seen.

We were all elated after being told that there should be no permanent scarring and that I was able to leave the hospital looking considerably better than when I walked in.

After that we all thought we deserved a good gin and tonic!

Perhaps it is a good thing for everyone to experience feeling utterly repulsive and hideous to to the outside world at some point in their lives. Perhaps it can go towards giving you a sense of empathy for some others who have more permanent disfigurements.

It is incredible to think how serious a problem can be caused from bacteria on your own body!

Thank you Edd, Joey, Max and Ade's parents for all the support and encouragement throughout the horrific experience.