08/22/2026
DEJA VU…✌🏻
Four years later, and I am going through the same exact medical emergency while in Paris. Never would I have imagined this could ever happen again. But it did.
It started as a faint pink area on my shin, and while I was alarmed, there was no way I thought it was another infection. After a day of chills, warm skin, and fever, it grew more red and I knew I was in trouble.
Went to a clinic where they prescribed Amoxicillin, but the next day it grew significantly worse and the realization that I had another bacterial infection was becoming quite evident.
Follow up at the clinic led to an order to go to the emergency room at Hopital Saint-Louis. After 7 hours of tests, consultations, nurses, doctors, and dermatologists, I was put on a powerful antibiotic.
Then it was off to another clinic for radiology to conduct a CT scan of my leg. I was in the thick of it now. Navigating the French health care system on my own with my passable, but sometimes questionable, ability to speak French.
Blood tests came back normal. CT scan results were clear. No sign of bacterial infection in the blood or body. Definitely a surface infection. THANKFULLY there was no indication of necrosis again. The thought of going through another surgery was too much to think about.
After another follow up visit to the hospital and meeting with the dermatology team, it seems I am now on the other side of it and beginning to heal.
So, this is how I end my summer in Europe. All remaining classes cancelled, no physical activity at the gym, and spending the past 10 days in bed, with my leg elevated looking at the ceiling.
I’ve lost a tremendous amount of weight, but grateful that I am alive, healthy, and on the mend. I am so incredibly indebted to the French health care system which takes care of foreigners with no questions asked. Merci, merci, merci!!!
And what was it? Why the same exact leg? Why the same exact spot? Why four years (almost to the day) later? Theories abound, but still no definitive answers.
Will be happy to return home.
PARIS, FRANCE 🇫🇷
