As a general rule, and I mean her no disrespect, but, I never listen to Kathryn Barrett's stories.
In fact, I'm so busy every day just getting my own stories together, I never really much listen to any other reporters. I'm not proud of that, of course, but it's the way it is.
In recent days, though, I've come to learn, if there's one person I should've listened to it was Barrett, Hampton Roads' only medical editor.
Here's the deal. I was flying back from Africa, spending 21-hours total, in the air. And it was during the second leg, from Paris to Atlanta, 48-thousand feet high over Canada, when I was stuck down by something mighty, and something I was altogether unready for. It was a little thing called Cellulitis.
There I was, stuck in a cramped Delta jet, and suddenly my lower legs swelled up like balloons, became super-hot to the touch, and a shade somewhere between purple and black. I couldn't stand, my legs couldn't bear much weight, I could hardly walk, and it was, in a word, miserable.
Well, I eventually made it back to Norfolk, and to my own doctor, and found out it was this dreaded disease. How I got this way, the physicians and I know not. But what we do know about Cellulitis is that's it's a spreading bacteria of the skin and tissues immediately below the surface of the skin. It could be strepotococus, or it could be staphyloccocus, but it's a bacteria of some sort that maybe I picked up in Djibouti, which got into my bloodstream, and manifested itself in the pressurized cabin of the airplane when I was basically unable to get up and walk around.
I went form chills, to sweating like a pig, and back, with a real severe headache. Things didn't get better until I started taking my prescribed antibiotics and Vicodin. I'm about seven days into a 12 day regiment, and I do appear to be on the mend. Finally.
Of course the thing that bothers me is that I got a bunch of shots before I went: Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Yellow Fever, Rabies and the Flu, plus I've faithfully taken my Doxycycline to protect against Malaria. So I should've been good to go.
Except, I didn't listen to Barrett, who has done a number of stories in recent years about these exotic kinds of maladies, most recently, MRSA. Bottom line is, Kathryn has issued numerous warnings about the dangers of long airline flights and the need for passengers to get up every so often and walk around. I didn't pay any attention.
Maybe from now on, I should. And so should you.
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