Erythema Nodosum? Suspected Illness Decides to Drop-In on Life

I wake up one day in my bed wondering randomly, “Okay what is today going to have in store for me?” Instinctively, I must have just known something was wrong.

It was a Thursday.  I was in my backyard cleaning up pine, branches, trimmed up the lilacs and raked the yard. Like any other day I do any yard work, I took my allergy medicine.  I was okay with the exception of the regular hot shower needed afterword. Friday progressed as any other day but I started to feel achy, more than normal.  Maybe it was the cold from Autumn setting in.   Who knows?!  Get some rest and maybe Saturday will be better.

When my days turned excruciating began when standing on my feet.  When a person lives daily with extreme amounts of pain, pain really doesn’t have very many levels of severity anymore.  But oh my knees. They just hurt but I just figured maybe because of the cold.

Picture for effect

“erythema nodosum”

The day went on. I like many others enjoy a good cup of Joe so while doing the dishes I had a 12 cup pot brewing.  I had no intention of sitting with a cup of coffee alone.  Dishes were done and loaded in the dishwasher because like much of America- I wash the dishes before washing the dishes.  Really the point is sanitation.  I used to work in a restaurant years ago and actually had demonstrations of germ transmissions.  Totally gross.  Here I am serving my cup of coffee, pour another cup for a family member and as I start walking over to sit down to enjoy this scrumptious smelling peppermint coffee I just made, this feeling of itchiness and soreness came over my knees.  

I sit down and pull up my pajama legs and what on earth would I find except a bunch of wierd solid bumps.  Whoa is me.  One looks like a bite, but not really.  What did I do?  What had I come in contact with? I actually didn’t know.

But the aches started the day before so maybe it was something in the yard on Thursday?  Or was it?  Had to be something that bit me.  Not really abnormal for me in the past.  But this wasn’t the same.  

Within an hour, my legs just from around the knees down to my ankles and the sides of my feet would get little red bumps and nodules.  They itched like crazy and were so sore to touch it hurt to step at all without feeling like fluid in my knees could have popped like a balloon.

When something impacts my ability to walk, this is concerning to me.  I call in and am lucky enough to get an Urgent Care visit rather than being told to go to the nearest ER where I would likely sit for multiple hours.  Time to get cleaned up and dressed to head to the doctor’s office- on a Saturday. 

The doctor wasn’t only shocked to see me on a Saturday because he is almost never in Saturday clinic but he knew that meant red flags as it takes a lot for me to cry “Uncle” to go in. Rash maybe?  Not really?  Hives?  No way. Joint pain? Definitely!  Swelling in knees and lower legs down to my feet- oh yes! 

No fever, no chills, no further spreading.  Thankfully I wore shorts, as if the whiteness of my legs wasn’t red flag enough to dear doc that something was wrong to begin with aside from my sheer presence.  Everything else was the same finicky me but this was new and it was concerning.  He pulls out his phone, looks some things up and decides to take some pictures and send off for a consult.  He assumes some steroids will help so 5 days it is and try taking some motrin snd maybe some benadryl for any allergy reactions that might have occurred.   The Doctor gave some written instructions but he also said “suspected Erythema Nodosum”.

So for five days, I’m a good little patient waiting and hoping this will go away while waiting for some labs and a chest x-ray to come back clean.  I swear I was a good patient because even that Friday I had gone in for my regular exam and it was clear- just the day before I had to go in.  What in the world?

Day 6 wasn’t very different than day 5 of taking any medicine, where most of the symptoms of ache and itch subsided but I was left with bruise like marks brownish purple with some grey mixed in.  Steroids have always helped my random issues so I did not question this.  I just crossed my fingers hoping it would all subside.  But day 7 I woke up and the knees blew up like Cankles and OH MY GOD THEY ARE ALL BACK AND BRIGHT RED.

What did he say this probably was?  So I look up Erythema Nodosum on Hopkins Medical Site.  Oh good heavens

“Erythema nodosum is characterized by tender, red bumps, usually found symmetrically on the shins. Up to 55 percent of cases have no clear identifiable cause. Sometimes, erythema nodosum is not a separate disease. Rather, it is a sign of some other infection, disease, or of a sensitivity to a drug.”

Well it is not Streptococcus because I have actually never had it and my labwork proves it. It is not a reaction to a new medication because I am not taking a “new medication”.  That leaves disease or other infection.  But everything comes back negative I am told, so what is it?

I do have a rare condition called Dermatographia like  my kids but this is not some crazy reaction from contact while cleaning the house as some suspected.  This is something else, but what?  It is now over a week later and no solutions or answers, almost a month of excruciating pain.  They still assume it is this wierd condition but I am offered no solutions.  

The other day was suddenly an odd feeling that I decided to share this incidence on the slight chance just maybe someone in the future might have a similar scenario.  My left knee felt like it had popped out from where my knee was.  I tried to restrict my actions while standing, but it actually hurt to even push a grocery shopping cart, hobbling around. I got some rest last night and upon waking and trying to sit down in, my knee popped. What felt like fluid around my knee suddenly rushed to my ankles in an awkward gush.  The pain and pressure relieving from my knee.  Okay, at this point this is all just wierd.  

People really have no clue unless you tell them.  But how do you hide it when now you cannot walk on your ankle because now that same ankle is where yesterday’s pain was.  

I’m having to accomplish tasks where I can sit and not really stand much.  Hmmmm, since when do I ever sit still.  This is not humbling but instead very frustrating as I have a toddler running around, a teenager requesting my assistance and overall a family that I’m usually the glue to. I have too much to do.  

But how?

My mother at this point, whom I usually am taking care of her because of her health looks to me hobbling and I couldn’t help but stubbornly cry and say thank you.  She has the teenager in my kitchen making her yummy homemade creamy lasagna and I don’t have to cook tonight is all I was told.  At this point, I get to sit on my couch and look at a pile of clean clothes that I truly intended to fold and now I am looking to myself thinking, no I am not going to do that right now.  

There are things that happen each day to run a home that most people forget and pay no mind to.  Because it all just takes care of itself, right?  The moment Mom or maybe that Mr Mom out there has something happen, the house falls apart.  Right now, I am appreciating my moments of little things to appreciate.  I’m sitting here wondering, how much longer is this going to happen because I am not a person that can stay off my feet for 6 weeks or more.  Holidays and home weathering for the incoming cold? No way!  I sure hope this just goes away but something tells me that isn’t happening.  

When mother nature throws a monkey wrench is when I feel at my worst.  I’m not easy to knock down and even then I cannot sit still because the world doesn’t operate itself alone.  The home doesn’t run itself.  The reality is that if mother nature feels a need to kick in and stop you dead in your tracks, there must be something more serious going on that needs attending to.  

This is just the beginning of this mystery skin condition/illness but I am crossing fingers there is nothing more sinister at bay over what all I am already dealing with and my recent diagnoses of which I may talk about another time.  It truly is about finding balance.  Although I am trying to find a new normal “balance” I find myself with more problems than solutions trying to adjust my days and my various symptoms.  Trying to keep a positive mind can be mind boggling.  I look to my kids and they are my motivation every day.  I think everyone can agree that life always somehow knows how to throw a wrench in your days.  One day and sometimes even one hour at a time is the very best we can do when life hits us at its worst.