I have to admit that I have always been a bit proud of my legs, I feel that they are one of my best features. Unfortunately the Lord has decided to humble me yet again (I am REALLY prideful) and has stricken my legs with a horrible skin condition called erythema nodosum. It is a side effect of my ulcerative colitis, my GI told me that I really have the worst luck because most people don't have to worry about this after having the colon removed, yeah for me! So what has happened is the inflammation effecting my guts has moved to my legs and caused these nodules to form, when they first started coming they just looked like little bruises that hurt like crazy, that's what I thought they were until I started getting them all over both of the lower portions of my legs. The one on my right leg is the worst and is almost 4in in diameter. So besides looking like I have been beat up the problem with this skin condition is that the nodes hurt really bad and after being on my feet all day I can just feel the heat coming from my legs, plus you can't tell too much in these pictures by my ankles swell up to atleast twice their regular size, I feel like an elephant! Plus, it also causes arthritis, so usually my joints take turns hurting which is good because it doesn't totally leave me unable to do things like it would if they hurt all at once. Today is my ankles, elbows, and left wrist, but it has effected my shoulders, SI joint, and especially my knees. My knees don't hurt to much anymore though, only if I am trying to stand up or sit down. So all in all the arthritis is much worse than anything else and somedays I can hardly walk. I do feel fortunate though because the GI also said that if I had a colon it would be totally inflamed now, well since my colon was never not inflamed I count this as a blessing because I have no doubt it would have gotten even worse. So what do we do for this? Steroids, they are the answer to everything it seems like. I just hope it won't take to high of a dose before the inflammation goes away because if this is anything like my colon than I am going to be on 40mg before I even begin to get relief, and we all know how I love steroids!
So the pictures really don't do it justice, it looks ten times worse than this in real life, I am just so happy that the weather is getting cooler so that I can wear pants and long skirts, there is no way I am walking around showing people my red/purple bruises and my elephant ankles!
