" What's this? A kiss? To tell me something I missed?" Randi McMatthew

Randi is my favorite songwriter.

Maybe I missed the kiss of a spider? Woke up yesterday with a welt on my chest. When I prepared for bed last night, it had grown 2 jagged lines extending in opposite directions, like spider legs or lightning bolts.

To me that means lymphangitis. An infection from a bacteria in the fangs of the filthy mouthed arthropod or maybe on my colonized skin that the creature injected as it bit me. Now it's careening through my lymphatic system on its way to creating septic havoc on my immunocompromised body. I can get pretty dramatic.

Do I call City of Hope more than 4o miles away? The thought of what germs I might encounter in a local ER on a Saturday night scares me more than my rash so that isn't in the cards.

Instead I decide to smother it with Bactroban ointment (a very good topical antibiotic) and positive affirmations and wait to see what the morning brings.

It's better. Not gone, but better.  I am deeply relieved.  My immune system is still working, albeit somewhat sluggishly. Dr Forman can pronounce judgement on my red mark tomorrow.

Since there was no trip to the hospital, I had the chance to work all day on the Zoster paper. There I found a surprise with a big CLL connection which I will share as soon as get a few more facts.  Who would have though a paper on shingles would  push all my CLL buttons.  In a good way.