It has been a crazy week of ups and downs. I injured my left thumb. I think it was opening a can of sparkling water that had a pop top. It hurt a lot, like when you get a hang nail, and I thought it would just heal.
By Friday afternoon it had started looking bad. I did a lot of searching online and found out that it was called a paronychia and it could be caused by or helped by a manicure - no one seemed to know. There was no mention of a pop top. I kept thinking it was no big deal and it would go away, but then I noticed something disconcerting. There were some red streaks on my hand and arm and the ones on my arm felt warm. In the back of my mind, I remember that as being a bad sign that an infection was spreading.
I went to Kaiser urgent care and a nice doctor confirmed that I had an infection and gave me antibiotics. I’m not a big fan of medicine, but I knew this time I needed the drug. It’s actually the first time I’ve taken an antibiotic in around 30 years.
My birthday and Easter coincided on Sunday. In the morning as I was drinking my coffee and looking out the kitchen window at my yard, I saw something in the far corner. When I got closer I saw that it was a duck couple. They were sitting next to each other and seemed quite content. I assured them they were welcome and I would leave them alone.
Eventually they flew away, but the female has been coming back to visit all week. My yard is filled with all sorts of birds and they come up to my back door.
My choice of events for my birthday was to go to Huntington Gardens. The technical name is The Huntington. It is around a hundred and ten acres of paradise. There are a number of different gardens, but we go there late so just went to the Chinese garden. It just makes me happy to be there. It is very serene with a small lake and a tea house. There is also a mansion from the time that Henry Huntington lived there, art galleries and a library that has a Gutenberg bible.
By then I had been taking the antibiotics for a couple of days, but my thumb seemed worse. It was covered with a blistery looking thing and it still hurt a lot. I had trouble sleeping because I couldn’t find a comfortable place for my arm. I would say no more pop tops but I had just gotten two big packs of cans of sparkling water from Costco. So I figured out a way to by pass using my fingers and use a screw driver to open the cans instead.
My editor sent me some more notes on my manuscript and asked if I could turn in the changes by the end of the week. I didn’t get any of the terrible side effects the paper that came with the antibiotics threatened, but they made me feel queasy and a little off.
The good news was the pain in my arm and hand went away and I had no trouble sleeping, but there was still this big bubble on my thumb. It was white and then it began to change colors and had a blackish outline. I was doing all the soaking they’d told me to do, but it didn’t seem to be helping.
I was feeling a little uneasy that my thumb didn’t look more healed and decided to go back to urgent care just to make sure. Well, my family was on my case about it. I managed to hit my thumb before I went and some stuff oozed out, but it still was puffy and now was a terrible color - like a muddy brick red.
It turned out it was all just for show. The thumb is healing and the doctor squeezed some ucky stuff out of the blister as she called it. It started to hurt a little from being messed with, but I know it is on the mend. I can’t wait to finish with the meds
I finished the changes to my manuscript and hit send.
And then as I was sitting on the couch talking on the phone we had an earthquake. The couch moved and a picture on the wall swung. It wasn’t right under us, but it’s been a while since we’ve had that strong an earthquake. It’s a feeling you never get used to or like.
4 comments:
Ugh. Good thing you got the messy thumb to the doctor. I didn't even notice the earthquake here in Anaheim, though the cats did get up from their naps at that time, glaring at me. They forgave me and were back to sleep in a few minutes. Did Jake have fun on Easter ? We haven't heard much about him lately !
Belated happy birthday! I suppose it was a good thing your injury was to your thumb since it's not used as much as other fingers to type while writing, but I doubt you could have gotten a lot done while your thumb was at its worst. Glad it's improving. And your comment on Facebook was the first time I even heard about the earthquake, which I didn't feel.
Linda Osborn, interesting that your cats noticed the earthquake. I felt it sitting on the couch. My husband was standing nearby and didn't feel it at all. I actually spent the afternoon with Jakey while his mother got her hair done. He has begun to walk and is turning into a little boy. He liked Easter at Huntington Gardens, but will probably enjoy it more when he can take part in an Easter egg hunt.
Linda O. Johnston, you are right about being able to type with a problem thumb. But buttoning clothes is a whole other thing. Thank heavens for leggings and t-shirts.
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