Owies

Here is what I learned over the weekend: If you get a bad cat bite (like a puncture wound, not just a scape), call your doctor and have them put you on antibiotics or go to the ER. Here's why:

Saturday I took my Callie to Connie's and stayed with her a while so she could relax a bit. The whole ordeal proved too stressful though and she went from purring one moment to lunging at Connie. I smacked the cat and pulled her away, only to have her purr then savage my hand. I received some little scrapes and one nasty, deep puncture which bled a lot.

Now I know from my school days that cat bites have an 80% infection rate so I knew I'd be calling my doctor on Monday regardless. We flushed out the wound with peroxide and I did it again when I got home and kept an eye on it for signs of infection.

By Saturday night it was swollen, hot, and I couldn't make a fist. Forget touching it, I screamed. Frank had to take the emergency brake off for me because it hurt to much to squeeze. This did not bode well. Since I could wiggle my fingers I knew she didn't hurt a tendon, but thought she might have caused a little muscle damage. By morning it felt a bit better so my muscle theory seemed right.

Monday morning there was puss...I won't go into details. I made a 9:15 drs appointment and got a short lecture on how I should have gone to the ER or called the office and have had one of the doctors paged. There followed a discussion about the last time I did this and got yelled at by the other doctor, which in turn sparked a "well if it happens again you tell him I said..." so that was interesting. He squished out more gross stuff and I got a prescription for heavy antibiotics and was sent to sit in the waiting room while they got a rush appointment with a hand specialist for me. Wasn't expecting that.

So off I went to the hand woman who was in the same office as the wonderful Dr. Star who fixed my back. She took a look at my hand, told me all about cellulitus (the redness, heat, swelling and horrible pain I was having) and took an x-ray just to make sure nothing was broken. Nothing was and the tendons were fine so she wanted to see me again next week just to make sure things were going right. Of course, if it got worse I was to call immediately.

I asked if I really needed a hand specialist to look at my hand, couldn't my primary take care of the infection? Her response was yes, but if it wasn't healing right they might have to do surgery and that is when you REALLY want a hand specialist. We don't anticipate this being a possibility.

I am happy to report that after a day and a half of antibiotics the swelling is almost gone, redness is gone, it isn't too much warmer than the other one and though still a little stiff my hand doesn't really hurt. I can make a fist! Of course this is my right hand...so it gets tired writing and typing makes it a little more sore. The funny thing is that the wound itself is so small...

Anyhow, that is my cautionary tale for the day.

And if you are wondering what would have happened had I waited to have it looked at...5 days minimum in the hospital on an IV antibiotic drip. Yeah, I'll pass on that one.