Warning: Gross armpit photos ahead.

For those who are curious (and I think there may be a few of you), I decided to take photos of my armpits tonight (after many painkillers…I’m not joking when I say it really hurts to move my arm because of the location of the largest abscess), so that you’d have an idea of what I’m talking about.

I DID do you all the courtesy of shaving them first.  I used surgical soap to shave with a fresh, clean razor, and then immediately applied antibiotic ointment to the area…hence the shiny skin in a couple of these.  I was extremely careful not to irritate the skin.  I did fairly well…nothing in the photos is new from the shaving…it’s all been there for a few days.

Shaving allowed me to see that the skin is, in fact, turning yellow around the larger abscess – a sign that it needs to be expressed ASAP.  So I’m calling the doctor in a few hours to see about getting that done, or at least getting some antibiotics called in.

I stopped myself from draining the damned things myself last night.  Just barely.  I have all of the materials, and then some, to do it.  I’m just afraid of co-infection from the open wound.

Anyway, here they are, in all of their, erm, glory.

(I’m self-conscious about the stretch marks.  My type of skin means that even though I got those while still married, they’re not fading any time soon.  I just wanted to point that out.)

First, a frontal view, with visual commentary:

Click to embiggenate, with this and all of the other photos.

Second, we have a close-up, followed by a close-up with the abscesses circled:

You can see the shape of the largest abscess here. It's about 1" tall, 1.5" across, and if I had to wager a guess, it's about 1" deep, with about 1/4" sticking out from the skin. Lovely.

The other red spots are just irritation for now.

Now a side view, so you can see how far the largest abscess sticks out.

Those things toward the bottom of the skin, near the shirt? Are stretch marks, not infection lines. So don't freak. But yeah, the abscess is pretty huge.

So, you see…I was right to be worried and go to the doc.  Unfortunately, I have to do more, because I’m quickly moving from the early stage to the advanced stage, and that’s where things get bursty and goopy and nasty.  I’d rather draw the stuff out with a needle than have it explode.  Just sayin’.

There you have it.  My diagnostic skills at work.  And it wasn’t nearly this bad when I went to the doctor…this has happened in the past two days, where the main abscess has decided to cop an attitude and try to take over the ‘hood.  I caught it in the right stage, but unfortunately, I didn’t catch it in time for the treatment I was given to do anything useful…so I’ll have to deal with the side effects of antibiotics, instead.  O GOD MY LIFE?  Or LOLWUT?