So we took the kitties to the vet yesterday. Astro's fine, Princess has a small cyst in her ear, I have a hole in my hand that's oozing pus and the doctor's put me on antibiotics. $#%^ing cat bit me when I was putting her her carrier.

Trivial Fact of the Day: did you know cat bites can be as dangerous as snake bites? Turns out their long skinny teeth push all sorts of nasty stuff into your flesh, but the puncture is narrow enough that it seals up almost as soon as the tooth comes out of your skin. :shake:

Poor MJ! Yes, I did know that. I had to bathe Bat once, and she bit me under my thumbnail. I put peroxide on it and forgot about it. Until the next morning when my arm was so big I couldn't get a long-sleeved shirt over it. I went to the doctor in January wearing a tank top. I got IV antibiotics for that day and was sent home with a shopping bag of drugs. Ugh. I hope you're feeling better now.

Is Princess's ear ok?

Luckily, only my hand is swollen, starting with the palm side of the base of my first finger and radiating out about an inch in all directions.

Yeah, her ear's fine, nothing serious or painful, can be removed or just monitored. Damned cat.

Owie! I think I might encourage hubby not to play with Claude anymore when he starts getting nippy!

Cindy

I think I'm gonna make Stranger start gargling with Listerine.

Yep, Garf bit me in the leg once when he was pissed because I'd left him home for the weekend. Still have a scar. I remember it was so painful that I had trouble walking...never went to the doc and should have.

I didn't know the WHY behind the infection though. Interesting in a nasty sort of way.

http://familydoctor.org/024.xml

I love how prevention includes AVOIDING CATS. Der.

Ouch! Poor MJ.
Yep - cat bites can be icky and dangerous. Sorry! Hope it's better real soon! Do you still call her Princess?

Cindy - did you have cat scratch fever? I used to think that was a joke, but its quite serious.

MJ - if the lymph nodes under your arm swell - go to the MD immediately - though with all those meds you're probably ok except for the bad boo boo.

I call her all sorts of things now, not just Princess.

Cat-scratch disease generally doesn't show up until a few days after being bitten, shows up as a small sore, and has a variety of other symptoms. The #$^&ing cat in question stays indoors, no kittens, no fleas, so is not likely for cat-scratch. This is just a good old-fashioned pus-filled, inflamed and swollen infection of a nice, deep puncture wound, probably staph or strep according to the doc. (from the same site - http://familydoctor.org/203.xml)

Yay.

One of my friends thought she had cancer because her lymph nodes were swelling up. She had a scary time of it until the doctor's figured out she had cat-scratch fever.

Feel better, MJ!

my doctor laughed at me when I came in to have the huge cat scratches on my face treated. I'd fallen asleep on the couch, Meowlth was chasing Grace-then he chased her across my face, I got startled, sat up just as meowlth was running across my face, sat up, got a scratch that went from my upper lit across my nose-deep but not deep enough for stitches, I got a tentus shot, bandaids, a batch of heavy duty antibiotics and was made the butt of the jokes both at work and at the doctors office.

I hope you feel better soon, I rememeber my mom having to go to the ER for a cat bite, she tried to break up a fight-she should have known better. At least that time they didn't try to have her admitted to the loony ward like the time she cut her hand butchering rabbits and they thought she'd tried to cut her wrist, until a doctor who was also a hunter told them it's a fairly normal injury for someone doing butchering.

oh and yes, we ate rabbit-we were poor and it was a renewable food source and it really does explain why my brother is a vegitarian. I knew we were eating rabbit, my mom told my brother's it was chicken.

My mom once got bitten in the hand. Some thing - balloon hand. That was my first day to cook.

And did you know you can get "cat scratch" fever from something besides cat scratches? It's basically just an infection that gets up into your lymph nodes. I once got a bad spot burn on my hand from trying to make doughnuts, and a few days later, there was a red streak up my wrist and part of my arm, and my lymph nodes under my arm on that side were swollen. Doc said it was cat scratch fever, basically just an infection.

I visited my sister this weekend. They had just shaved all three cats. I'm wondering how they have not been in the hospital after accomplishing that feat.

Hope you are feeling better, MJ.

Update: despite taking every precaution (eating yogurt, drinking a full glass of water with each dose, etc...), the antibiotics hit my stomach on Wednesday night, got worse on Thursday, and haven't stopped causing problems since. I took the last dose on Thursday night. When the @#$^ are these drugs going to leave my system already?!

mj
"tired of toast"

Acidopholus (sp.??) tablets, the good kind you get in the cooler at health food stores. And dark beer- think 'Guinness'.

I'm not doing the beer - remember, I can't burp. Carbonation is Not My Friend right now.

You can't burp? Like, ever, or just right now?

Ever. At all.

OMG! I never knew that you couldn't burp. We should have an EA talent show.

"And for our next act, watch MJ drink a lot of soda and NOT BURP! Watch as she writhes with awful gas pressure under her sturnum, exacerbated by hiccups! Her next act will follow a couple hours later, as she 'plays' the trombone part from Carmen without moving her lips! (Note: noseplugs encouraged for the second half of her act.)"

Wow! Why can't you burp?

Damned if I know. But man, it's a PITA sometimes.

I understand your pain, MJ. I had the same problem when I tried taking Zantec. Ever get really frustrated at work to the point where you're hiccuping and nearly crying? That's a fun day.

You've never been able to burp? Or did you have a fundoplication done?

Burped as a baby, with a lot of work from Mom (so I've been told). Can't burp as long as I can remember and never heard of a fundowhatever but I'm pretty sure it wasn't done on me.

edited to add: no, no fundoplication!

don't make me google it.

ok - I googled.
No biggie

LOL. WHY do you guys assume everything I know is horrifying?

MJ, that's just odd, but kinda cool! I'm guessing you don't have to worry about heartburn ever. The boys might like to trade places with you. How about puking? Can you ?

pippadaisy Wrote:LOL. WHY do you guys assume everything I know is horrifying?

MJ, that's just odd, but kinda cool! I'm guessing you don't have to worry about heartburn ever. The boys might like to trade places with you. How about puking? Can you ?

No, I still get heartburn, but there's no place for it to go so it hurts like hell. I can puke but haven't in years (thank God).

pippadaisy Wrote:LOL. WHY do you guys assume everything I know is horrifying?

Because we KNOW you.

:tongue001

So you'll never guess what happened to me tonight.

You burped?

You had kittens!

you got injured?

DINO bit me while I was giving him HIS antibiotic tablets. Flushed the wound, squeezed out blood a lot, dumped some antibiotic ointment on it and wrapped it up. I really don't want to go back on those killer antibiotics again

Oh no!!
I'm sorry. Sounds bad - does it hurt a lot?
Can you hide the pills in food, or does he spit it out?

Doesn't hurt, and it's at the end of my middle finger - last one was in my palm at the base of my index finger, which made it harder to get cleaned out I think. So I'm crossing my fingers (on my other hand) that no bad bugs are in there and I don't have to call the doc tomorrow.

watch it carefully. Sounds like you cleaned it well.
Oh Dino. I know you don't like taking your pills, but mommy loves you!

Watch it very closely and you know better than to put off seing the doctor if it starts to look the least little bit funny.