I said there was going to be a review next, and I know you’re asking “Where have you been?” The hospital. I’ve been there for some time now. A while back I got bit. I didn’t see what did it, but I assumed it was one of three types of mosquito in our area. One of them makes a lovely giant red disc when it bites me, and if I scratch it, the disc swells until it’s hard as a stone and turns purple. So when the bite turned red and swelled up my ring finger in a few seconds, I thought, “Mosquito” and applied some cream that’s both antihistamine and antibiotic.
A few hours later, despite not scratching it, the finger was purple, and I had trouble making a fist. The next day, my hand was red and swollen so bad it looked like a Disney character’s mitt. My neighbor applied more ointment and wrapped the finger in gauze, and I tried not to worry too much. But it wasn’t until I was doing work in the office and noticed I couldn’t feel my fingertip that I unwrapped the gauze to find a massive new purple nipple in the middle of my finger. Then the tip split open, and it started oozing a combination of pus and blood. I went to hubby and said, “I’m not an expert by any means, but I think this means I need to go to the emergency room.” He agreed, and away we went.
I was given prescriptions for cortisone and antibiotics and sent home. My hand went back to normal as I finished the antibiotics first, but I still had two days of cortisone left when I noticed a burning pain in my ankles. By the last day of my medicine, that pain had spread to my feet, knees, and hips, so I went back to the emergency room. While I waited in patient intake, the pain spread to my upper body. During the transfer to triage, I dropped to the floor, so luckily that meant I skipped triage and went straight to a room for assessment.
The next day, a doctor arrived from Rheumatology. He said my case was unique, and they wanted to take over my treatment so the students could study me. Folks, I could not be happier to hear that. It meant a nice room with only one neighbor, plus guaranteed exams to find exactly what I had. I didn’t bother mentioning that from the age of nineteen, I’ve had a lot of illnesses, and not once has anyone ever nailed down what’s wrong with me. But I figured, hey, I’ll get a full checkup, so I can at least find out if my internals are still in decent shape.
I’ve gone through x-rays, several blood tests, had a urine sample collected, did sonograms, bone mineral scan, physicals, the works. The internals are fine, and the closest answer we could find is that I had, “a reaction” to being bit. Which is an understatement, to be sure, but it’s more than I expected.
I got home on my birthday, and I’m definitely not going to lament that. I immediately made an aglio, olio, and peperoncino for lunch to make up for all the bland meals, and for dinner, I got a bacon cheeseburger with fries from a nearby restaurant. All in all, a pretty good birthday.
I am still not 100%, and I will need to be on meds for at least a month to treat the pain, inflamed joints, and sensitive skin. (It feels like a sunburn when my legs are touched.) I get tired real easy just from walking a bit, and when I do lay down, I crash hard.
But I’m home, and I’m grateful to the doctors and nurses who got me back on my feet. When I first arrived, a walk across the room seemed impossible. Yesterday, I managed about a half a kilometer walking the department’s hallway back and forth. Yes, I needed a nap right after, but that’s a lot of progress, and I couldn’t have got there without a LOT of help.
Anywho, that’s the report, and barring complications, I promise, the next post will be a review. I’d apologize for the delays, but as you can see, I wasn’t procrastinating this time. No, I was vegetating.
See you next time, folks.