The Ouch Continues
Free to a good home: 17.5 year old angry, fat badger disguised as a mild mannered house cat.
It’s irrational, but I’ve been avoiding Claws since she bit me Monday night. Chris has at least been giving her attention and her other needs are seen to by a watering device, automatic feeder and self-cleaning litter box. She’s practically the kitty of the future.
The night that she bit me, I swore up and down that I would get rid of her the next day, etc. The rant was brought on by the severe pain that I was in and I needed to vent. I would much rather vent by babbling and screaming like a loon than by causing injury to the creature that bit me. Yes, she got a little smack on her posterior but it was carefully done because of her age and health issues. I’m still avoiding her. I’m still in pain, but she will remain a beloved member of my household, naturally.
From http://www.galactanet.com/comic/615.htm :
That comic really seems to fit the cat-human(owner) relationship and what happened that night. Out of nowhere, she sank her teeth into me. Up until the time that I tried to disengage her claws from my sweater to put her down on the floor, we were having a merry cuddle time. Now, I feel as though I've made excuses in my head about her about, "Oh, she didn't mean it" or "Yes, that hurt, but I still love her" and so on.
Being without good health insurance is a misfortunate problem. Granted, I have my school insurance until August, but I am hesitant to use it for certain things, such as emergency room visits. After reading various bits of information online, it’s possible that my injury was unpleasant enough that I might have better benefited from visiting the emergency room. Instead, I waited about 16 hours to see my family physician because I knew that my school insurance would definitely cover the whole visit.
A picture from Tuesday:
Yes, it's blurry. I soon learned that it is rather difficult to take a picture of my right hand while trying to use my camera in my left hand.
Right now, I strongly feel that my decision to seek medical treatment was a correct action. As mentioned in a previous entry, the finger that had been bitten had swollen up some time during the night and I could barely move my finger at all around 5am on Tuesday morning. I started taking the amoxicillin-clav at 8pm on Tuesday. When I woke up at 8am on Wednesday, the area of redness had spread down into the next joint in my hand. This area had also become somewhat swollen. So, the infection was spreading.
A picture from Wednesday:
Today, the mobility of my finger is still limited. The swelling has decreased some, but it is not completely gone. The wounds are still warm and sore. The area of my hand to which the infection seemed to have spread yesterday is not as red or puffy as it was but it is still tender and slightly reddened. This makes me think that the antibiotics are definitely having a positive effect on fighting the infection.
A picture from Thursday:
In all seriousness, I never knew how severe a cat bite could be. I am glad that I did not take a wait and see approach, though I’m still watching the wound in case it does require surgical draining. So, all is not perfect yet but I am going to try to be optimistic. I hope that she did not hit bone or any other important structures in my finger. The doctor and I didn’t even discuss x-rays. Without decent health insurance, I’m loathe to opt for x-rays and other similarly expensive diagnostic procedures. I wish that I had decent enough insurance coverage to have felt comfortable enough to go to an emergency room that night considering how serious a cat bite can become.
It’s irrational, but I’ve been avoiding Claws since she bit me Monday night. Chris has at least been giving her attention and her other needs are seen to by a watering device, automatic feeder and self-cleaning litter box. She’s practically the kitty of the future.
The night that she bit me, I swore up and down that I would get rid of her the next day, etc. The rant was brought on by the severe pain that I was in and I needed to vent. I would much rather vent by babbling and screaming like a loon than by causing injury to the creature that bit me. Yes, she got a little smack on her posterior but it was carefully done because of her age and health issues. I’m still avoiding her. I’m still in pain, but she will remain a beloved member of my household, naturally.
From http://www.galactanet.com/comic/615.htm :
That comic really seems to fit the cat-human(owner) relationship and what happened that night. Out of nowhere, she sank her teeth into me. Up until the time that I tried to disengage her claws from my sweater to put her down on the floor, we were having a merry cuddle time. Now, I feel as though I've made excuses in my head about her about, "Oh, she didn't mean it" or "Yes, that hurt, but I still love her" and so on.
Being without good health insurance is a misfortunate problem. Granted, I have my school insurance until August, but I am hesitant to use it for certain things, such as emergency room visits. After reading various bits of information online, it’s possible that my injury was unpleasant enough that I might have better benefited from visiting the emergency room. Instead, I waited about 16 hours to see my family physician because I knew that my school insurance would definitely cover the whole visit.
A picture from Tuesday:
Yes, it's blurry. I soon learned that it is rather difficult to take a picture of my right hand while trying to use my camera in my left hand.
Right now, I strongly feel that my decision to seek medical treatment was a correct action. As mentioned in a previous entry, the finger that had been bitten had swollen up some time during the night and I could barely move my finger at all around 5am on Tuesday morning. I started taking the amoxicillin-clav at 8pm on Tuesday. When I woke up at 8am on Wednesday, the area of redness had spread down into the next joint in my hand. This area had also become somewhat swollen. So, the infection was spreading.
A picture from Wednesday:
Today, the mobility of my finger is still limited. The swelling has decreased some, but it is not completely gone. The wounds are still warm and sore. The area of my hand to which the infection seemed to have spread yesterday is not as red or puffy as it was but it is still tender and slightly reddened. This makes me think that the antibiotics are definitely having a positive effect on fighting the infection.
A picture from Thursday:
In all seriousness, I never knew how severe a cat bite could be. I am glad that I did not take a wait and see approach, though I’m still watching the wound in case it does require surgical draining. So, all is not perfect yet but I am going to try to be optimistic. I hope that she did not hit bone or any other important structures in my finger. The doctor and I didn’t even discuss x-rays. Without decent health insurance, I’m loathe to opt for x-rays and other similarly expensive diagnostic procedures. I wish that I had decent enough insurance coverage to have felt comfortable enough to go to an emergency room that night considering how serious a cat bite can become.