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This Doesn't Bode Well for our Hero(ine)
May. 28th, 2007 03:48 pmSo, David's been out of town this weekend, so I've had nights off, which is a good thing. Generally, when they're gone, the girl living in the basement apartment takes care of their cat, but this time, she was gone for a few days, too, so they asked me to look after their cat - and her cat, too, of course.
I'm familiar with both these animals, for quite some time now. Their cat is blind, and old, and constantly surprises me that she's still plugging on. Her cat is younger, and huge, and very beautiful - even the new lion cut he sports looks good on him. So, the other night, I'm downstairs feeding Fuzz, and he's rubbing all up against me, being very affectionate, and doesn't seem to want me to go, so I picked him up to cuddle him. I've picked him up lots of times before, no problem. He's been at my house before, in fact, and I've had no problems with him. This time, however, for whatever reason, he flipped out. He out of the blue just bit me, hard, and clawed me. I was really surprised, but I pride myself on being calm in situations like this, and rather than screaming and flinging him off me, I made sure he was away from my face, and started to slowly lower him to the ground.
I think I would have been better off flinging him.
At this point, he flipped out even worse, clamping his teeth into my arm and biting down and just squeezing, harder and harder, while at the same time digging all four of his pointy-ended extremities into me. I got him down and was trying to assess the situation, trying to get a look at my arm, which didn't look like it was bleeding that much, and trying to look at him to see what the hell was up with him, until I realized that my arm really WAS bleeding that much, so I went to the sink to run some cold water over it to slow the bleeding. The cat, I think, was fine at this point. It was hard to tell, it all happened so fast.
Anyway, prior to this happening, my plan had been to feed/water the cats, then take Toggle (the upstairs cat) into the living room with me, and cuddle on her while I watched something on their TiVo; I had even stopped for food to eat while I was there. I was still considering doing this, but I kept thinking how bad animal bites could get. It's not my specialty, but I know there's some medical truth behind the term "cat scratch fever", and I thought it might be a good idea to get it looked at. The thing that clinched it for me was the fact that I'm allergic to cats, and one of the things that really makes it obvious is that any time the skin gets broken by a cat, which, prior to this, had been very superficial, I welt up. I wondered how much stronger an allergic reaction I might have with this type of injury, so I made my way over to the emergency room.
Believe it or not, they got me in very quickly (not 'cause I was bad, but apparently, they weren't very busy). I had done a half-assed one-handed job of bandaging it at the house, but theirs looked much better when it was done. The doctor seemed like he couldn't decide if he should do more with it. In the end, they bandaged me and sent me out with a prescription for antibiotics and Lortab. When the nurse gave me the 'script for the Lortab, I was confused. The doctor hadn't mentioned it, and at that point, I was at about a 4 on the pain scale (which goes to 10), so I really didn't think it was necessary, which I mentioned to her, but I figured it's always good to have some high-powered painkillers in the house, so I just went with it.
I have to say, though, that I am SOOOOOO grateful he did that. I couldn't get the prescription filled that late at night, but I found out pretty quickly that there was a big difference in sitting in the ER, not moving my arm and otherwise not doing anything, and leaving and actually trying to use it. Plus, the endorphins wore off. I couldn't even type the first night, and moving the mouse was painful. (Hence, no entry then, when I had lots of time and it was fresh in my mind.) The Beastie had some Vicodin from the dentist left over, so I took that, and it helped some. I got my prescription filled the next day, and I've been taking the Lortab with my antibiotics ever since. It still aches, is still swollen, and I still have a bit of a decrease in range of motion in my hand/wrist. I've been doing hot salt-water soaks 3 times a day as prescribed (actually, they prescribed soapy water soaks, but salt is so good for things like that...), and it's helping some, as far as letting some of the infection ooze out - it's definitely infected, based on the pus coming out of the two worst wounds, and the swelling and heat in the area. I hope it gets better soon, and I don't have to do anything else with it.
So, the great animal communicator gets mauled. Lovely.
I did try to connect with Fuzz the next day when I went to feed him, to see why he did that. I was trying to figure it out, and remembered that he'd had surgery for a blocked intesting a while back, and I had wondered if that had somehow gotten aggravated when I picked him up. From what I could gather, though, that wasn't it. The impression I got is that something had pinched him painfully near his front leg, and my trying to put him down had made it worse, so he attacked. I got the impression he was sorry, and I can appreciate that, but I'm still a bit wary around him. He's otherwise such a good cat.
Anyway, that's my great excitement. Got a couple of less melodramatic things to type out, if I get around to it today.
I'm familiar with both these animals, for quite some time now. Their cat is blind, and old, and constantly surprises me that she's still plugging on. Her cat is younger, and huge, and very beautiful - even the new lion cut he sports looks good on him. So, the other night, I'm downstairs feeding Fuzz, and he's rubbing all up against me, being very affectionate, and doesn't seem to want me to go, so I picked him up to cuddle him. I've picked him up lots of times before, no problem. He's been at my house before, in fact, and I've had no problems with him. This time, however, for whatever reason, he flipped out. He out of the blue just bit me, hard, and clawed me. I was really surprised, but I pride myself on being calm in situations like this, and rather than screaming and flinging him off me, I made sure he was away from my face, and started to slowly lower him to the ground.
I think I would have been better off flinging him.
At this point, he flipped out even worse, clamping his teeth into my arm and biting down and just squeezing, harder and harder, while at the same time digging all four of his pointy-ended extremities into me. I got him down and was trying to assess the situation, trying to get a look at my arm, which didn't look like it was bleeding that much, and trying to look at him to see what the hell was up with him, until I realized that my arm really WAS bleeding that much, so I went to the sink to run some cold water over it to slow the bleeding. The cat, I think, was fine at this point. It was hard to tell, it all happened so fast.
Anyway, prior to this happening, my plan had been to feed/water the cats, then take Toggle (the upstairs cat) into the living room with me, and cuddle on her while I watched something on their TiVo; I had even stopped for food to eat while I was there. I was still considering doing this, but I kept thinking how bad animal bites could get. It's not my specialty, but I know there's some medical truth behind the term "cat scratch fever", and I thought it might be a good idea to get it looked at. The thing that clinched it for me was the fact that I'm allergic to cats, and one of the things that really makes it obvious is that any time the skin gets broken by a cat, which, prior to this, had been very superficial, I welt up. I wondered how much stronger an allergic reaction I might have with this type of injury, so I made my way over to the emergency room.
Believe it or not, they got me in very quickly (not 'cause I was bad, but apparently, they weren't very busy). I had done a half-assed one-handed job of bandaging it at the house, but theirs looked much better when it was done. The doctor seemed like he couldn't decide if he should do more with it. In the end, they bandaged me and sent me out with a prescription for antibiotics and Lortab. When the nurse gave me the 'script for the Lortab, I was confused. The doctor hadn't mentioned it, and at that point, I was at about a 4 on the pain scale (which goes to 10), so I really didn't think it was necessary, which I mentioned to her, but I figured it's always good to have some high-powered painkillers in the house, so I just went with it.
I have to say, though, that I am SOOOOOO grateful he did that. I couldn't get the prescription filled that late at night, but I found out pretty quickly that there was a big difference in sitting in the ER, not moving my arm and otherwise not doing anything, and leaving and actually trying to use it. Plus, the endorphins wore off. I couldn't even type the first night, and moving the mouse was painful. (Hence, no entry then, when I had lots of time and it was fresh in my mind.) The Beastie had some Vicodin from the dentist left over, so I took that, and it helped some. I got my prescription filled the next day, and I've been taking the Lortab with my antibiotics ever since. It still aches, is still swollen, and I still have a bit of a decrease in range of motion in my hand/wrist. I've been doing hot salt-water soaks 3 times a day as prescribed (actually, they prescribed soapy water soaks, but salt is so good for things like that...), and it's helping some, as far as letting some of the infection ooze out - it's definitely infected, based on the pus coming out of the two worst wounds, and the swelling and heat in the area. I hope it gets better soon, and I don't have to do anything else with it.
So, the great animal communicator gets mauled. Lovely.
I did try to connect with Fuzz the next day when I went to feed him, to see why he did that. I was trying to figure it out, and remembered that he'd had surgery for a blocked intesting a while back, and I had wondered if that had somehow gotten aggravated when I picked him up. From what I could gather, though, that wasn't it. The impression I got is that something had pinched him painfully near his front leg, and my trying to put him down had made it worse, so he attacked. I got the impression he was sorry, and I can appreciate that, but I'm still a bit wary around him. He's otherwise such a good cat.
Anyway, that's my great excitement. Got a couple of less melodramatic things to type out, if I get around to it today.
