The Adventures of Balloon Hand

On Monday morning I got bit on the thumb by a gigantic black hornet. It hurt like the dickens! Honestly, it felt how I imagine a small animal bite would feel. Overnight, my thumb swelled and swelled like big fat sausage. In the morning, it was hot, red, and puffy.  By afternoon half of the hand was hot, red, and puffy too. Dr. Alyson told me to go to the doctor because it might be cellulitis. I skipped the beginning of YW (yippee!) and headed to Instacare. The doctor came in, saw the burning hand and the red streaks that were making their way up my arm. He agreed there was an infection, so he ordered one shot of antibiotics in my butt and then a prescription of oral antibiotics for me to take. His first words when he saw my hand were, "Oh wow, that's worse than I thought." I think that phrase is probably filed somewhere in Med School under "Things Not to Say to Your Patients".

The next morning, the swelling and burning was WORSE and I now officially had a balloon hand. Some of the area was so swollen that the skin was blistering and breaking to let out fluid, gross. It looked so disgusting. It really looked like someone had taken a surgical glove and blown it up with air. I started slightly panicking. Why hadn't the antibiotics at least stopped the spread? Was it a mutant flesh-eating bacteria that was immune to most antibiotics? Approximately how many hours do I have until it reaches my brain and/or my arm falls off? By afternoon, Dr. Alyson thought I should go to the ER (If she charged for all the telephone advice she gives, she could probably retire by now). So, I went to the ER, had a typical annoying wait and tried to shelter myself away from other sicklier people.

The result? The doctor looked my arm, felt my hand, and told me that instead of a flesh-eating bacteria, he thought it was probably just an allergic reaction to the sting. So, it was a bum trip to the ER and I'm annoyed at myself for going. Though, Ryan points out that if they had actually found something and I had been admitted to the hospital, it would have been a much more annoying (and scary) result. In my further defense, it was getting worse and it was REALLY painful. On the happy and ironic side, that evening I looked down and realized that the swelling was going down and that I could almost close my thumb again! Today it's even better, just a hint of puffiness left.

Here's a picture I took of my hands to send to Alyson, it's actually before a lot of the swelling, but it's still bad. It's an ugly picture of me frowning and an even uglier one of the hands, so squeamish stomachs beware.