my excuse for not posting

no, the dog didn't eat my work. much more creative: I was in the hospital for nine days and at home in bed for two weeks after that. I've finally got enough strength to get back into the groove -- tried a few days of work last week part time but was too tired and sick to really make a go of it. anyway, here's what happened...

what you're lookin' at there is a healed up case of "severe cellulitus". starting at my elbow, most of my arm swelled up to twice normal size. I was running a fever of usually 102, but it peaked at 105. when I eventually went to the ER, they admitted me into the hospital and said "you're not going home tonight". cause was unknown - I didn't get bit or scratched. suspicion was that it was MRSA and for a while, possibly flesh eating bacteria. luckily, whatever it was slowly was defeated by some heavy duty IV antibiotics: vancomycin and about four other expensive brews.

the good news is I seem to be making a complete recovery (just taking a long time). the bad news (for you) is that these nasty germs are out in the community now and there's not much you can do to prevent the same thing from happening to you.
apparently these infections are occurring quite frequently now...