Off topic, but hey, since I'm stuck here at Baylor Medical Center for at least another day or so, I thought I'd post this message about my funny little story.
It started on Father's Day a few weeks ago when my wife decided to get me a cat. So we go off that day out into the country....this is EAST TEXAS you understand so there are dirt roads and trailer houses involved......to pick a kitten from a lady who worked for our school district, but lived out in the country.
Here is where an experienced cat person would have turned and gone the other way, but we being "city folk" who've never owned a cat...... Anyway, the mother was an "outside cat" who NEVER interacted with people (in the country that means "mouser" and probably had any number of physical things wrong with it). So, after observing the kittens for 30 minutes I picked an orange tabby who actually wanted to play with people. So we took him home and I named him Indy (eg. Indiana Cat).
So the typical kitten type things occurred over the next several weeks. We (my wife) spent a great deal of money buying it toys, collars and a fancy litter box (it litter trained in 2 days), everybody got scratches. However, I got the more serious ones since I got to "put the cat up" when the time came (usually after the kids had riled it up). I didn't think a lot about it until I noticed that one scratch wasn't healing like the rest. We went the extra mile and ripped it open, washed it good, poured alcohol on it, slathered it with anti-bacterial cream and bandaged it. And finally early last week (after about a week), it started to get better.
That night I felt like I was coming down with the flu, so I took stuff and went to bed early. That was Wednesday night. Thursday (my day off), I spent in bed. Friday I felt a little better and thought I'd turned the corner on a little bug. Saturday, I woke up worse than before, so went willingly down to the urgent care place and they looked me over, listened to my story and with a straight-face, the Doctor says: "you have Cat Scratch Fever", to which I respond....."I thought that was just a an old Ted Nugent song! Oh I forgot to tell you that my fever was so high (103.2 and rising) that they gave me 800mg of Ibuprophen BEFORE the Dr. ever came in!!! :o
So I go home armed with my 2 prescriptions, and slightly amusing story about my ailment. I took the prescriptions and generally lay around all day, just to make certain I'd be good to go by Sunday night (July 4th) to start our little family mini-vacation. This is were the story gets good.
I wake up Sunday morning feeling pretty good, but my right eye feels a little funny, so I look in the mirror and see that I look like Phantom of the Opera; except that instead of that half-mask he has....the right side of my face diagonally down from my forehead to below my right ear is swollen and red. But hey; since I felt pretty good, I just thought that it was the lymph nodes clearing out the junk and it would go away. My wife looked dubious (I think she was really starting to feel guilty now). Later the doctor's office call to follow up and I mention this condition to which there is awkward silence followed by putting me on hold, then a doctor gets on to tell me she's calling the other doctor and finally telling me that they "strongly ENCOURAGE" (I really love how proper Indian doctors are) me to come in to be checked...immediately!
So I go, and on the afternoon of July 4th, I'm the only person there. She takes one look at me, tells me that she needs me to take MORE anti-biotics and go get a CT of my right eye area. The cute nurse from the day before comes in and ask me to pull my shorts down: that she was giving me 2 shots. One in each hip- 5 minutes apart "BECAUSE THEY ARE SO STRONG YOU ARE GOING TO FEEL LIKE YOU'RE PASSING OUT"!!! So I get my shots, she walks me out looking concerned. I go home, gather up the family in the car already packed to go on vacation and we go to a hospital to get my CT. On the way, we stop 3 times for me to make noise out the door and I almost pass out just inside the emergency room doors. After I'm able to get up and get through admitting, the person who has been waiting for me from CT had to take someone from emergency and we end up waiting another hour.
So, 5 minute CT later, after the tech sent the results to the doctor and tells me that everything looks pretty good and I can leave, we head out to get across Dallas to check into our hotel and go to the ballgame late, but hey, we really want to see the fireworks afterward. On the way, as we're stopped to pick up something we can eat in the car when the doctor calls and says that she want me to go to the downtown Baylor Medical facility emergency room and have blood work done and be started on IV antibiotics!
So that's how I ended up here. Yeah, we got to the ER, waited a minimum of time, but was in a room getting stuff done (4 vials of blood), and 3 bags of IV meds till 12:30am at which time they tell us that they're going "to admit me and keep me a few days". Around 2:30 July 5th, I get to my room, more nurse/hospital stuff for an hour or so, then I sleep till 5:30 at which time somebody comes in to get 2 MORE vials of blood from me.
....and you know what, I don't really feel sick at all; I just have that swollen half-a-face thing going on. There really is no such thing as a "Free Pet"!!!
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