From the "It's Funny NOW" files:
I mentioned my mom vs. the brown recluse in my last post, but I realized I hadn't blogged about the details. I tend not to blog about Serious Business while it's going on, but now that everything is fine I'll talk about it because it is kinda funny. A little teeny bit funny. And shalanna, having included a spider bite in fiction, was curious.
My mom has severe degenerative disc disease, is semi-invalid and on enough pain killers daily to put Courtney Love in the hospital. I say that so you realize she does not get out much. A little over a month ago she noticed a tiny blood blister on the tip of her index finger on a Wednesday or Thursday. By Monday her finger was swollen, blackening at the tip and she was feverish. Tuesday she called her doctor who told her to go straight to the emergency room. While at the ER her fever skyrocketed and her finger got huge and some kind of infection was clearly moving up her arm.
For several hours no one knew what to do until an ER staff person originally from Texas took a look and identified it as a brown recluse spider bite. No one else recognized it because brown recluse spiders aren't native to Massachusetts.
She was raced to the ICU where she was feverish and delirious for most of the night. A resident declared that she would have to lose the finger. The surgeon came along after the toxins had cleared and said that she would need physical therapy and skin graft surgery but she would keep the finger. She was in ICU for a few more days before moving to a regular room where she was for a few more days.
On the heels of the spider bite she got a serious infection, MRSA. It is a staph infection that is resistant to all but the strongest antibiotics.
Apparently on the levels of seriousness this is the one right next to the one that is 100% resistant to antibiotics. She didn't get it from the hospital: it is a staph that has a long incubation time: she could have had it in her system for month or years and somehow the spider bite kicked it into action. She has a nurse coming in once a day to change her dressings and she's seeing both an infectious disease specialist and a plastic surgeon.
No one can figure out where the spider came from. Possibly a house plant, possibly fruit. I suggested that since she was bitten on the fingertip the spider was probably hidden in her nostril. I'm the funny daughter.
She's going to be fine...or at least back to as fine as she was before the evil spider crawled up north and bit her.
My mom has severe degenerative disc disease, is semi-invalid and on enough pain killers daily to put Courtney Love in the hospital. I say that so you realize she does not get out much. A little over a month ago she noticed a tiny blood blister on the tip of her index finger on a Wednesday or Thursday. By Monday her finger was swollen, blackening at the tip and she was feverish. Tuesday she called her doctor who told her to go straight to the emergency room. While at the ER her fever skyrocketed and her finger got huge and some kind of infection was clearly moving up her arm.
For several hours no one knew what to do until an ER staff person originally from Texas took a look and identified it as a brown recluse spider bite. No one else recognized it because brown recluse spiders aren't native to Massachusetts.
She was raced to the ICU where she was feverish and delirious for most of the night. A resident declared that she would have to lose the finger. The surgeon came along after the toxins had cleared and said that she would need physical therapy and skin graft surgery but she would keep the finger. She was in ICU for a few more days before moving to a regular room where she was for a few more days.
On the heels of the spider bite she got a serious infection, MRSA. It is a staph infection that is resistant to all but the strongest antibiotics.
Apparently on the levels of seriousness this is the one right next to the one that is 100% resistant to antibiotics. She didn't get it from the hospital: it is a staph that has a long incubation time: she could have had it in her system for month or years and somehow the spider bite kicked it into action. She has a nurse coming in once a day to change her dressings and she's seeing both an infectious disease specialist and a plastic surgeon.
No one can figure out where the spider came from. Possibly a house plant, possibly fruit. I suggested that since she was bitten on the fingertip the spider was probably hidden in her nostril. I'm the funny daughter.
She's going to be fine...or at least back to as fine as she was before the evil spider crawled up north and bit her.