SO asked me to look at something on his thigh, right below his butt cheek, on Friday after work. He said it felt like chafing or something, but he didn't know how he would have chafed there. It just looked like a red area to me, so we decided we'd keep an eye on it.

Saturday the red area had spread a bit and he said it was tender to touch and the area felt "tight." It was also very warm to touch. We were visiting a friend and showed it to her mom, who is a nurse, and she said it looked like cellulitis and he should see a doctor because he might need antibiotics. We decided he'd see a doctor Monday morning.

Sunday afternoon he became very lethargic and said he had the chills and felt feverish. We had run a 9.3 mile race that morning and it was hot, so I thought maybe he was just reacting to the heat, but I asked if I could look at the "cellulitis." Well it had spread by about 2 inches in length and an inch in width, developed a sort of ring appearance, AND had a few boils/pustules on it.

I called all the urgent care clinics I knew of in our area but they had all closed for the night since it was past 8 p.m. I made SO promise to call the doctor first thing Monday morning.

He did call the doctor, and got into to see a PA yesterday morning. He said she looked at it briefly, said it looked like an infected bug bite, and gave him a prescription for antibiotics.

Last night he came home from work and said he felt so miserable with chills and a horrible headache that he had to go straight to bed. I gave him some Benadryl and a cold compress to put on the "bite" or "cellulitis" and 3 motrin for the headache. An hour later he was still shivering in bed so I took his temperature and it was about 100 degrees - an hour after taking 3 motrin.

This morning he said he felt less feverish and headed off to work, but not before I asked to look at the area. The boils were spreading and it seemed like some of the skin was turning dark. He said it burned and itched.

I just heard from him at work and he said he feels miserably ill. It's been 24 hours since he started antibiotics so I asked him to please go back and ask to see our regular doctor. But he's a man, and he's refusing. He says he wants to wait and see if the antibiotics clear it up.

I'm paranoid that it's a skin infection that's going to spread.

Help! What could it be? What would you do? Kidnap him and drive him to urgent care??

These photos are from last night: