And the hand saga continues...

My hand is a lot better than it was even Friday. But still, the doctor said for a small puncture/not very serious bite (the puncture wasn't bad, it was the subsequent infection that landed me in the hospital...even though I cleaned it immediately after it happened, used neosporin, etc.), he was not crazy about seeing ANY redness or swelling at this point. (Even though the red area is about the size of a dime, down from Tuesday when it took up my entire hand all the way to my wrist.) I do wonder how much of this is that he is first and foremost a surgeon (a plastic surgeon, to be specific), so obviously he may be more inclined to operate then someone who doesn't do surgery (and often elective surgeries) all the time.

Anyway, he picked the scab off and took a look inside which did not hurt too badly actually. Not exactly a fun time but I've had a lot worse. We are hoping that will help get out anything that needs to drain out. I have until next Tuesday for it to get better, when I have yet another follow up for this dumb drama. By then, I will be done with the antibiotics and he's already looked and seen what he could see from the surface/immediate wound, so if it's not totally better by then aside from the scab/scar, the only option left will be surgery for them to dig into it. I am pretty confident that it will be better by then, it has already improved each day. And I would probably get a second opinion before I went for the surgery option, because I'm difficult like that, and what's another $60 copay at this point?  But hopefully it will be normal except the scab/scar by then and surgery will be a moot point.

By the way, just a helpful FYI so everyone reading this can learn from my fabulous experience: always go to the ER/Urgent Care/doctor *immediately (*as in, not the next morning, even if it happens at 9pm at night and everything is closed except the ER and you have a $250 copay and it doesn't need stitches), for animal bites, especially cat/dogs. I have been told that smaller punctures are actually worse in some ways as far as infection because sometimes the bad stuff can be pushed in instead of for a larger wound there is more area for it to go out. I did the normal things, washed it IMMEDIATELY, applied antibiotic cream, kept pressure on it. I think part of my downfall was because of my blood thinners it bled a lot and I kept it covered/pressure on it all night to try to stop the blood flow. They usually try not to stitch animal bites (seals any bacteria in) and especially not on the hands which is one of the worst places to get injured, infection wise, so pretty much the immediate medical care is for antibiotics. And FYI, it can go from bleeding to severely infected in just a few hours, if you are special like me, so waiting till the next morning is not particularly a great idea unless you are hoping to skip your ER copay by getting admitted.

I usually have some kind of injury every few years. Broken jaw in 2nd grade (bike, long story). Broken wrist in 5th (roller hockey). Broken nose in high school (softball). I thought that HELLP syndrome with Olivia had taken care of my "injuries" for awhile, but that was almost 3 years ago and maybe it didn't count as an injury, since it wasn't really. Aside from HELLP, this was by far the worst, the only time I've even been admitted for non-pregnancy stuff.

The meds are a pain. One I have to take every 12 hours with food. The other I have to take every 8 hours with a lot of water (and I hate drinking water.) Add in my lovenox, prenatals, extra calcium, and aspirin and it seems like I am taking something or have to take something soon, all day and night. I was supposed to start keeping an eye on my blood pressure at home after my OB appointment on Monday. (Everything was fine though my blood pressure was around 130/80 which for me is pretty high.) The entire week I was in the hospital they took my blood pressure pretty regularly and it was really good, like 100's/60's, so I am going to hold off on worrying about that for now.

The rest of this week will hopefully be pretty mellow. I have a ton I need to get done around the house before summer school starts in a couple weeks.