Inupiaq word of the day - Puvit

*DISCLAIMER* Do NOT read the following post if you're prone to a light gag reflex! It's pretty graphic.

Puvit (poo-vit) Swollen.



My foot is puvit. Really, really PUVIT!

So, I went to the ER yesterday with my friend, and FINALLY saw a doctor who really tried to understand what was happening. I told her of the numerous times that I saw doctors and what they said. All four had four different diagnosis.

The problem is EXACTLY what we thought it was. Apparently a small percentage of people are allergic to the athlete's foot fungus. Guess what!? If you guessed that I was one of them. Then you GUESSED RIGHT! Ding, Ding, Ding, you get a prize. Free fungus.

Those people develop a severe reaction, in the form of blisters, and the sort to the fungus. Oral anti-fungal usually do the trick.

WELL, let me just tell you. When you live in the bush, and no one listens to you, you don't get oral anti-fungal medications until after your foot looks like THIS:



Yes. Seriously. My foot is twice the size of its co-conspirator, mister lefty. Righty over there, has grown a NEW toe. Actually, its just a blister that's under the skin, but close enough. We are measuring the blister with the pinky toe, and right now, the blister is larger...hence...a sixth toe! I also have a couple of secondary infections...or reactions. I have blisters on my hands and arms, which is just a reaction to the fungus in my bloodstream. I was just happy to find out its not contagious. (My hands and arms aren't...my foot, IS!)

So, after plenty of research and a doctor who listened, we figured it out. But only after a doctor decided to give me some topical steroids, in the highest form. For those of you who don't know what that does. Let me just give you a picture.

My foot was sort of normal. I could walk, it was a gimpy walk, but I was walking nonetheless. Then I went to Anchorage to see a dermatologist, who looked at my foot for a mere three seconds and decided it was eczema. She then prescribed me Halobetasol, a very strong steroid to LATHER on my foot and cover with a tefla pad. So I did as I was told.

Turns out, that a strong steriod like that, will QUADRUPLE the fungus and grow it to sizes unknown. Covering it, will make it ten times more potent. So, for THREE days, I grew that infection on my foot. And the blisters are the result of that. Thank you Dr. Forsythe. Ugh.



I am on couch rest. Oral meds, and Dun, Dun Daaaah - Vicodin. This foot hurts more than childbirth did...and I have a high pain tolerance. Ugh. Burrow's compresses are helping, and ice. But other than that, its a constant burning pain that never goes away.

But you know what?! I am just happy that we figured it out. I am sorry if I haven't sent the prizes out quite yet. I'm sort of cripple and out of commission, and have been this way for a few weeks thanks to my foot. I'll get to it, I promise!

I am thankful to have the diagnosis that is correct (I think), and be able to move on from here.

Yay. Right now, my friends (who are the GREATEST FRIENDS ON THE EARTH) are cleaning my house. I feel sort of helpless and emotional. I am so not a person to allow help. I am a do-it-all sort of girl. I am feeling a couple of things. I have physical pain, but the feeling of being so blessed totally overshadows that pain. So, thank you all for your help. I really, really appreciate it.