Damn cat

Well i had a scare this week, may be off the bike for a while. My cat decided to chomp down on my wrist in the middle of the night last Friday. I didnt think much of it at the time, shes playyfully nipped me many times in the past . By the next afternoon my wrist started to hurt and swell up a bit,;still stupid male me figred itd be fine. Really started hurting saturday night; the pain was unbelievable. Went to urgent care early sunday morning, wrist and hand looked like this: the orange line was a felt tip pen to trace the extent of the redness/swelling.

You can barely see the punctures. Very red swollen and painful, and a red streak going up my arm. Definitely infected, that red streak is very bad news. However, no fever or swollen lymph nodes, hand function and strength mostly normal, cat has had a rabies vacc and my tetanus shot was up to date; so doc decided to prescribe a ten day course of oral antibitotics (augmentin) instead of iv ab/hospitalization. Later that day i terrified myself by reading all kinds of horror stories online about infected cat bites, people losing the use of their hands, amputations, flesh eating bacteria, etc. However,It responded well to the antibiotics, red line gone in a few hours, marked decrease in redness within a day or two. Every day the swelling is a bit less, and today looks like this, much better almost normal. No more reness/heat.


However, since the infection was near the joint and probably damaged the dorsal carpal ligament, it still hurts, like a sprained wrist; getting a bit better every day but judging from past experience with injured ligaments its gonna take some time. Hurts to ride, cant put too much weight on it on the bars so probably off the bike for a while, and not gonna hit any rough still its completely healed. Cant lift weights either, except leg stuff. Aaargh. Antibiotics making me a bit fatigued too. Lesson learned; dont let cat break my skin again, and go to doc immediately if it does. Shes actually a really gentle friendly cat, I think i just rolled over onto her on the bed and freaked her out.


Needless to say i have not exercised at all this week, probly not much this coming week either. Back to square one with pedaling running and lifting. . At least i treated it in time.

 

Glad to hear you feeling better...we have a little dog and sometimes bites my little one...time to get the rabies vac. just in case.....

 

The "red line" is blood poisoning traveling up the vein. As you noted it's no joke. Definitely a reminder to not be macho about injuries.

Best of luck and hope you're back to normal soon. Whatever your particular normal may be.

And just maybe the cat needs to have its own bed. Somewhere else.

 

thats the plan. She usually doesnt sleep om the bed.

 

I'm a cat person, and yours is so cute!

 

Yeowwww - sorry to hear about this. Sounds like it could have been really bad, but I'm glad to hear you are responding to the anti-biotics. No fun having to go back to square one due to a domestic accident. Hopefully, no more cat in the bed.

AND, we now all have your address and phone number - Thanks Boo!

 

Glad it's getting better. Hope you heal quickly.

 

They'll steal your soul!

 

Are you sure? Check again

 

That she is. Cant tell from pic, shes also huge. 20 lbs. Maine coon/domestic shorthair mix.
er, I mean, yuuge.

 

on a lighter note, in the middle of all this I sold one of my big paintings to a guy from Bahrain. (Im an exhibitor in the laguna beach festival of arts). Met him on Wednesday at his hotel, the Pelican Hill resort in newport, to finalize. Man, next time i negotiate a sale i want to be in agony again, it made me kind of a shark. i was basically like, thats the price, shipping to bahrain is a thousand bucks (true), gimme your credit card, see ya. (but nicely).
got some extra cash for bike stuff and cant ride!

 

Ahh, photoshop. That's hilarious.

 

well, i just did "leg day" at the gym, kept it mellow. Felt a little weak but not too bad. I think if i was still infected i wouldve felt real crappy after ten minutes or so. Gonna be sore tomorrow, usually my leg work is all pedaling or running.

 

Ho man, bummer in the crashalot house. Sorry to hear about the misunderstanding. She didn't mean anything malicious. Summer is a good time to be laid up; get well soon. Thank her for helping you sell that painting...

 

True dat. Id be way bummed if it was primo riding season. Late summer riding...meh. Remember last year i didnt ride july-nov.

 

I'm not registered...

 

Yet!
Seriously, thanks for mentioning i did that. Oops!

 

Bad looking hand...good looking cat. I wonder what it is with cat bites? I've gotten nipped before when playing with my GF's cats. Don't remember if they broke skin though.

Hope you get back soon!

 

Man, cougars are dangerous in bed, but a house cat; who knew?