Spider Bite Update:

Well, Friday night it had been 24 hours and I was debating whether or not to go to the ER. I just knew it would cost a ton and was hoping that if i could just wait one more night, maybe the medicine would kick in and start working on the infection. but by 10:00, i was in a lot of pain and the redness had gone beyond the markings the doctor made by about a half inch. So i went to the ER and I've never been treated so fast before. it was awesome. i saw the doctor within 7 minutes of pulling in the parking lot!! at the ER!! on a Friday night!! amazing.... so the doctor comes in and says "so you have an abscess?" and i said yes, and while i was explaining all the details of my doctors visit the day before, i pulled up my skirt and showed it to him. it is on the back of my leg. and he said "Whoa!" then he asked when it had started. i had already told him but he asked in the way that made it seem like he hadn't heard correctly the first time because there was no way it could have gotten this big in just a few short days. so i told him that i felt the first itch and i thought i had been bitten at about 9 or 10 Tuesday night. he was pretty shocked at how fast the infection had spread in just a few short days. so he said he was going to lance it and also not to go back to the original doctor that asked me to wait 24 hours. he said that he would send me somewhere else for my follow up and to not go back to the doctor. he said that he was surprised that he didn't handle this thing when i went to see him and that that doctor had advised me to wait 24 hours. so he was a little annoyed with that first doctor. so here's what happened and sorry. i will leave out most of the truly yucky details. it freaking hurt so bad. I was trying so hard to be tough and not cuss or have the other patients hear me since i was only separated by a thin curtain. so he checks it out and seriously just the slightest touch made me want to hit
the ceiling. so he numbed it and that hurt like a bad word and then made an incision 1 inch in length. he told me that there "Was no easy way of doing this. it's going to really hurt" fun huh? the numbing only helps the top layer of skin and doesn't do much for the inside which is where everything is that he has to get to. but it helped with when he made the incision. so he told me to take a deep breath and then he pushed on my leg and it hurt so bad!!!! like i said i was trying not to cuss or disturb the other patients and so i was gritting my teeth and whispering stuff like "aye mamasita!!!" and "holy ja-moly carrumba!" the doctor said i did pretty good and that he "felt sorry for me" because he knew "it hurt bad". then he had to take these loooong strings of something (looked like a ribbon) and put them into the incision so that it could remain open and the infection could drain. (sorry- that part is gross) that hurt pretty badly. having something stuck into an open wound is not the funnest thing in the world. he gave me a prescription for vicodin and told me to take 2 of them for the pain (yes, two!! i wish i could take three though) so i came home and it hurt so bad to walk on it and getting up stairs into bed was really hard to do. i have to stay off of it as much as possible because if i move it, the infection can spread.
so this morning, i had to go to my follow up appointment with the doctor that the ER referred me to and he was great! it hurt so much when they unpacked and took all the bandages off. he put some numbing solution in it and then had to repack it. he said he would most likely repack it again on Tuesday and hopefully that will be the last time. then he put a big bandage on it and sent me home with an additional antibiotic to take. so now I'm on three different antibiotics and vicodin for the pain. I'm just resting in bed all weekend so that i can stay off of it. tomorrow my dear sister is going to come and take moma for me so that i can try and keep off my leg as much as possible. I'll go back in on Tuesday for another appointment and get the results from my tests on what this thing is. the only thing I'm concerned with is that the doctor had to put me on that extra antibiotic because it was really red and swollen still. so it appeared to be getting worse or staying the same which means it's not getting better. hopefully this new antibiotic in addition to the others will kick this thing. this is really not a lot of fun. though laying in bed watching my TV shows is kind of fun. i have to admit!! it would be a lot more fun if i weren't in pain though. anyways... the medical freak-a-zoid is signing off. I'll be back with any updates on Tuesday! peace out!