Got to Admit: That Hurt!
Last week started off with a bang and did not get much better. My new kitty, Jolie Fille, who had come home the previous Friday, was freaked out when I tried to grab her and return her to her cage…so she bit me Sunday evening. I knew she had been at the vet for several months, so there was no danger of rabies; and I had a tetanus shot four years ago. I did place a call to a walk-in clinic, and someone there suggested I call my doctor Monday morning, which I did.
Having heard nothing back from the doctor by mid-afternoon and with redness and swelling proceeding from my right hand partway up my arm, I decided to visit the closest walk-in clinic. After waiting for some time to see someone, I was told that they could not help me. I would have to go to the ER.
Got Admitted: to Beaumont Hospital
Reluctantly I headed to the ER. There they marked the red and swollen area(s) on my right hand and arm up to the elbow with purple semi-permanent marker and informed me that I would have to spend the night getting IV antibiotics. Had I known I would be staying, I would have cared for the cats before I went…and I would have brought a cord to charge my smartphone.
The medical personnel seemed in no hurry to start my treatment after I was situated in my room. It was at least an hour before someone started the first IV antibiotic of the two I was administered. I finally got a meal of sorts: huge broccoli spears, sickly looking mac and cheese, and some sort of barely palatable vegetable soup. The apple crisp (if that is what it was) was the only halfway decent offering.
Coincidentally, this was the night of the deluge in the Detroit metro area. I was moved from one observation room to another early in the evening because the outside windows were leaking. At least I could observe the outside world from my original vantage point. My new room had no view and was straight across the hall from the fire alarm (siren AND bright flashing light), which chose to go off around 8:00 PM while I was trying to talk my cousin MJ through the evening’s cat care. It took several minutes to cut off the siren; the flashing light took longer.
I admit I was pretty tired Monday night, so I gave up on the TV (the reception via satellite was spotty at best) and tried to get some sleep. Promptly at 11:00 PM, the fire alarm sounded and continued to sound for 8 long minutes. The flashing light disturbed me for some time longer. The hospital is no place to get rest. Every two hours, someone woke me up to get my blood pressure. The person who hooked up the second round of each of my antibiotics thought it was necessary to tell me what was happening. And did I mention that no one offered me a hospital gown, so I slept in my dress on the uncomfortable “cot?”
Got to Go: Home
I had been told that I could be released as early as 7:00 AM and, indeed, a physician stopped in on her morning rounds about that time. I was going to be released. While waiting, I watched Law & Order SVU reruns on TV. Boring! Finally 9:00 AM came, and I was still waiting. I approached the nurses’ station and asked about my discharge. Sure enough, the papers were there, including two prescriptions for the oral form of the antibiotics I had been given via IV. What were they waiting for???
On the way home, I filled the prescriptions and started taking them that day as instructed. By the end of the week I had concluded that the cure was FAR worse than the disease, because I could barely sleep, felt nauseated all the time, had completely loose stool and an overactive bladder, and was a wreck. By Sunday morning I could take it no more. A call to the doctor’s answering service and a return call from the doctor brought good news: I could quit the Cipro and Flagyl.
Got to Admit: It’s Getting Better
This week has been relaxing by comparison: my usual work at church afternoons from Monday through Thursday, Bible study Monday evening, a church finance committee meeting Tuesday evening, prayer meeting Wednesday evening, and rheumatologist appointment today before work. My new kitty is even showing her face a bit more often (the cage was stowed away a couple days after my hospital nightmare).