Skin Care News

Here's a story from a blogger suffering from a skin boil. It's not hard to take care of, but you probably should see a dermatologist or your family doctor.

Until this morning I only had a vague idea about what exactly a boil is. I think I thought it was a blister kind of thing. It’s turns out, though, no. It’s not blistery at all. For starters, boils are caused by staph infections, not some sort of skin irritation. Also, they’re HUGE. And red. And painful. And they make you really, really kvetchy. The raised part of mine is about the size of an olive, but that’s not the showstopper. The part of the boil that is under the skin is about the size of an egg. It feels like I’m holding an orange in my armpit.

Now, “lump” and “armpit” are not concepts that sit peacefully in a girl’s head; we’ve all been poking around for lumps there for decades already. I knew it wasn’t a lump though—it’s a bump (or it was, before it became a grapefruit) and that’s an important distinction. It’s the difference between a quick lancing and so long boobs, hello chemo. I was definitely in the territory of the former.

I called my very cool internist at 9 this morning and she told me to come in at 2. She really is awfully cool. She poked at it, confirmed that it was a boil, and pronounced that it was too “immature” to be lanced just yet. This was good news because I am even less clear about what “lancing” entails than I was about what a boil is, but I am pretty damn sure that it would hurt. Instead, I’ve got 10 days of antibiotics and loads of hot compresses—a bargain by any standards.

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