they say it's an infection

I went to the skin clinic today. Everybody there was very brisk. The lady at the front desk initially told me I'd have to wait thirty minutes to see a specialist, but I waited for only three minutes after filling out a patient form that required my name, phone number, and alien-registration number. The dermatologist, as brisk as everyone else, asked me to sit down and explain my problem. I showed her my nape warts and told her that that wasn't the issue: the huge swelling was. She gave a knowing "Oh!" upon seeing the swelling, palpated it once with her index finger, and when I ventured that it might be an infection, she flatly said, "Yes, you've got an infection." She asked me whether I'd been scratching the back of my neck, and I said yes, so I think we both agreed that scratching should be considered a proximate cause of infection. She asked me about what other meds I'm on, so I told her about the blood-pressure and diabetes meds. She then prescribed an antibiotic, an anti-inflammatory, and an antacid, reassuring me that there wouldn't be any problems with drug interactions. My prescription would be for three days' worth of medicine, and I'd have to come back to get reassessed. If I show a lot of improvement by Thursday, I won't need any more meds. Otherwise, I guess the doc will prescribe another three or so days' worth of pills.

It was then just a matter of paying for the consult (about $4) and taking my prescription over to the pharmacy down the hall. My meds ended up costing me only $5, so all in all, this was a painless experience. The cute girl at the pharmacy could speak and write English pretty well; I told her so in Korean, thus startling her and making her giggle. I really was impressed that she knew terms like "antibiotics," "anti-inflammatory," and "gastric agent." I learned the Korean terms right there on the spot when I looked at my paper bag filled with meds.

So I'm all pilled up and curious to see whether there's any improvement over the next few days. I'm glad to hear that it's an infection and not anything worse, although I'm still a bit leery about how quickly the consult occurred.

More news as it happens.