A stye, a finger infxn, face, and something else, and a stye

Thank God for the discovery of antibiotics.....as i stated to my sister yesterday. For some reason, I feel that i've become really bacteria-infested. And I'm reluctant to attribute it to my personal hygiene problem because nothing has changed, and my room is not that disgusting. I attribute it to the chronic stress and the lowered immune system. Its making me susceptible to all kinds of bacteria caused diseases that are otherwise preventable if i actually have a functioning immune system to fight them off.

So yes, without the invention of various antibiotics i would truely be in a horrible state right now, with pimples all over my face, styes that crowd my eyelids most days of the year, and really bad infections everywhere. I have been having about 4 styes this past month, and i'm getting over the last one, which is humongous, on my lower right eyelid. It got so bad i had to stop wearing contacts for a week and just warm-compress it with hot towel, wash my eyes out, and got Bacitracin eye ointment from my optometrist at lenscrafters (which turned out to be totally cool cuz i had no idea they could prescribe you antibiotics as well. in my mind i was dreading having to make a trip to school clinics just to get that one prescription). Still my both eyes itch from something, and i'm trying the hardest not to scratch them in fear of spreading to the other eye. But yes, recurrent styes SUCK...they take turns torturing you and make you look like a freak with a bump in your eye. -_-

Then it was a mild finger cut that felt really itchy. all of a sudden my middle finger was having a red patch that was super itchy, and this happened right after the exam. I didn't pay much attention because i had assumed it to be a paper cut. I didn't put any meds on it or take extra care of it, and just took a shower when i got home. Then yesterday the same finger (middle finger) had some throbbing, intense pain at the tip of the finger right beneath the nail bed. It was so bothersome that i had to press on it to distract myself. At which point i sort of realized what had happened. it didn't go away at all so before i went to bed i put some antibiotic cream all around the tip and some bandaid over it. and then i finally got some relif (which proved my theory to be right, it's not just a finger pain from typing).

so my point is, there are naturally colonizing bacteria in/on our body everywhere, and under normal circumstances, but we never feel the inconvenience or discomfort, until you're somewhat immunocompromised. I am actually not sure any more when my stress will REALLY go away, because i think it only goes downhill from here (with rotations, residency/fellowship, a real job...). i always fear the consequences of stress because of everything we've learned at school. at this point i can only be thankful that i'm getting the MANAGEABLE stress-related diseases, not the big guns (like cancer)....