Good news, Bad news

The culture results came in and turns out that my leg is infected with a rare strain of strep. I forgot to write the name down when the doctor showed it to me, but the recommended treatment is augmentin so I get to stop taking the nasty sulfa drug and switch over to that. She said I might still feel pretty crappy tomorrow, but by Friday I should be feeling much better and it will no longer be contagious. It had spread to another spot yesterday evening so she also prescribed an antiseptic/antimicrobacterial skin cleaner to use to keep it from spreading further until the antibiotics kick in. So that's the good news.

The bad news is that I found out this afternoon that my dad has a cancerous mass on one of his kidneys and the VA says it's not treatable due to his age and other medical conditions. My family has heard that one before, most notably with his heart valve replacement where no doctor in town would do it, but we found one in Houston that wasn't afraid of the challenge. This may be a similar situation where we just have to find the right doctor and/or treatment. Or not, as the case may be. My family is believes in optimism and researching the options when faced with things like this, but we also know that sometimes there's not a solution.