Monday, November 07, 2005

Eeeeeeewww, Grooooossssss!

I HAVE RINGWORM! AAAAHHHH!
This morning when I got out of the shower, I felt a sudden itchiness on my arm. I went to scratch it and noticed two bright red rings. I've also noticed this weird round red patch of scaley skin on my left hip. After consulting WebMD, I made the official diagnosis: tinea corporis (ringworm in laymen's terms). I've never had this before and it's making me cringe everytime I think about it (cringe!). I don't really know how I got it. You have to come in contact with it to catch it (cringe!). Blue doens't have it. I'm thinking it came from Mozart (cringe!), but he doesn't have any of the signs of canine ringworm. The kind that you get from animals tends to be more severe(cringe!), so hopefully he's not the culprit. I did learn that the name is a misnomer. It's not actually a worm at all. It's a type of fungus (cringe!) that lives on the surface of the skin and according to some of the pictures that were shown, if you don't treat it, it can get pretty icky. I thought about posting a photo of mine (cringe!), but I figured it might make some of you out there gag (mine's really not that bad). Anyway, as soon as I got out of class today, I went straight to the store to purchase some super-duper strength antifungal cream which I will be applying for the next two weeks (it's supposed to go away in a few days, but you have to keep treating the infected areas so that it doesn't come back). Grossola!!! (cringe!)

3 comments:

Unknown said...

leah!!! i had a dream/nightmare that I HAD RINGWORM TOO! i woke up at 5:30 worried that it was true and i had to turn on the lights. i had a thought that fleas caused ringworm, but then i remembered that it's tapeworm, and you have to ingest them (bluckah). sorry you've got the itch...

Susan said...

People used to eat tapeworms as a form of dieting. Of course that was back in the old days before they realized the negative effects weren't worth being skinny!

Elizabeth Spann said...

I want a tapeworm! Just imagine... eating and eating all day and none of the nutrients being absorbed. Wonderful!
Ringworm? Delicious. :)