A few days after Desert Winds, I pulled a cactus needle out the side of my foot where there was an apparent blister. I had run on it and everything and had not felt a thing. Two days after that, my foot started to get red, swollen and infected. After getting in my morning kayak, I went to the doctor, who proscribed me Septra DS (or Bactrim) and told me that if "you see red lines going up your leg, go to the emergency room". I took the antibiotic over the weekend and kept my leg elevated. On Monday, it was not any better, so I went back to the doctor who sent me to a foot/ankle specialist. The foot/ankle specialist looked at it and sent me to the hospital, where I received good antibiotics and had a minor surgery to clean out the infection.
Then I spent a couple more days sitting around the hospital waiting while they figured out whether the bacteria that caused it was MRSA staph or not (it wasn't). In the meantime, people that came into my hospital room were asked to wear gowns and gloves to avoid spreading anything to other, more sensitive patients at the hospital. In the end, I was sent home with two weeks of oral antibiotics and a warning not to do any exercise/training for the next two weeks. That two week period ends tomorrow. I've decided to call this phase of my
Primal Quest training "advanced tapering". Now to get rid of that beer gut before the race in two and a half weeks.
