This Week...Painful in Three Stories
Story 1.
So some folks might have seen my facebook update this morning about me coming home from the ER. Here's what happened:
Around Wednesday or Thursday of last week, I woke up to see a bug bite on my left leg. At first I thought it was a mosquito bite, so I left it alone like I would any other bite. The next day I noticed the bite get bigger, so I figured it must've been some kind of spider bite. Still, I decided to leave it alone.
Fast forward to Sunday. I start feeling a small bit of pain from the bump. My parents gave me some neosporin to protect it from infection and some motrin in case I would get any pain. I applied some that night and called it a day.
Monday. The bump has gotten a tad darker. Also, the small bit of pain that was there before was replaced by a shitload of pain that wrapped around my entire calf area. I'm not sure if it was because of the neosporin or because of the amount of time that has elapsed. I got some calamine lotion from Jenny's recommendation. However, late that night, while changing pants my fingernail dragged across the bite area. The bite burst. I decided to do my best to drain it, since I saw that the blood was mixed with pus. I drained as much as I could, and did my best to clean it.
Tuesday. I finally decided to see a doctor, especially since the wound was bleeding on and off throughout the night. I visited a Sutter Express Care location to have it checked. The doctor suggested I get an IND, a procedure where they would numb up my leg, slice the wound open, and drain it. She pointed out (after she drained some herself) that there was an abscess that built up behind the bite and suggested I treat it at a larger clinic asap. She recommended me some clinics, but 1) I had a work shift in a couple hours and 2) since I didn't have health insurance the treatment would've been expensive for me at those clinics. So my mom found a community clinic that caters to those with no health insurance. The time I had available prevented me from going in time, so I decided to go the next day.
Wednesday. My left leg, everything below the knee, was swollen upon waking up. Also, the pain was just as unbearable. At this point, what started off as a small scab, because I use a bath sponge in the shower to help clean it (and it did a good job at peeling away dead skin), it grew to a huge scab about the size of the bite itself. After work, I hit up the clinic. After $30 and 2 hours of waiting, I was finally seen by a doctor, only to be told that they couldn't do anything because of the state of my infected leg (WTF?!). The doctor told me to go to the UC Davis Med Center on Stockton immediately to have it taken care of by the on-hand specialists. The doctor's words made me panic, so I rushed over to the hospital's emergency room.
After hours of waiting, I finally was given my hospital bed at midnight. At first I was kind of irritated for waiting so long, but then when I entered the emergency area I noticed all the extremely sick patients lined up on the wall on their beds. I immediately lost all my irritation. The doctor examined the wound and said that the infection was probably caused by bacteria, so they hooked up the IV and loaded me with antibiotics. They took my blood to make sure my body as a whole was okay. They were originally just going to do the antibiotics as the main treatment, but decided to perform the IND just incase there was more build-up (there wasn't a whole lot of blood / pus when they tried squeezing it earlier). The numbing process hurt like hell. The med student must've poked me 3 times, but I guess whenever she poked me I started bleeding and it would spit the medicine back out, so she called the supervising doctor for assitance. The sup probably poked me 5 more times. What I thought was cool about this part was that their conversations at this point were like coach-to-athlete.
"See! His body is communicating with you, which means he needs to be more numbing. Inject the medicine in a more box-like pattern."
Afterwards it was totally numb. They started scrubbing the scab, sliced open the wound with a scalpel, and then they squeezed the leg. What they thought was going to be a little bit turned out to be a lot! Aparently the abscess was huge! Also, it built up a little bit behind the actual wound. The doc pointed out that my leg wouldn't have healed if I didn't come tonight.
So after the painful procedure, I was given perscriptions to some antibiotics and vicadin. They also stuffed a long piece of gauze in the pocket with a little bit hanging out. The goal of ths was to keep the wound open and the gauze would basically absorb anything that would build up. The doctors instructed me to, after 24-48 hours, every morning pull out a few inches and cut it off. So basically if you were to look at my leg right now, there is some bloody gauze hanging out of a hole in my leg HAHA! I was out of the hospital by 330.
Today. The leg is still kind of swollen, a little more red, but the pain is noticably less. I guess before it gets better as a whole, it will get a little worse.
Story 2.
I know I probably should've called in sick today, but it was my last day to be on site and to say goodbye to all the kids. At the end of the day, I went up to all the kids and got my last hugs from them, fighting back tears as they all smiled and hugged me. These kids were my life for the past year. I learned so much from this job too, from autism awareness to strong teaching techniques. Also, my way of talking to kids has changed a lot too.
Because of confidentiality, I can't name any names, but I will say these tidbits:
I will always remember my first major client, who's team I was constantly on from day one. I became his pre-school aid from the moment he started. I saw and helped him grow from a kid with huge tantrum meltdowns and a big I-hate-school mentality to a chill cool kid who loved going to school and seeing his friends. He still tries to escape from instructions (I call him the Big Escape Artist), but he does it in such a funny, sly, and just cool way. He was my favorite, and he helped me grow as an instructor the most.
I will always remember the small, extremely chubby asian kid. He was so chubby I just had to grab his tummy and give him tickles every time I passed him! He had the funniest behaviors, like taking his shirts off in mid play, just so he can remove his undershirt and put back on his mickey mouse shirt. When he learned how to "Shake It" it was the cutest thing ever and to this day picks me up everytime I'm having a down mood.
I will always remember the site's (well second to newest now) client. He doesn't talk much because of his jumbled language, but when I first was placed on his team I learned just how fun he was. He was a small ball of energy and would constantly climb everything, from shelves to me. Everytime I passed him in the hallway I would always jump at him and scare him and he would give smile and a "WOAH!" So everytime he passed by me even when I was sitting down, he'd give me a smile and a look like he was preparing for me to jump out. So funny!
It would take forever to write about all the kids, but these three were probably my favorite ones to work with.
I said goodbye to my coworkers. I worked closely with a lot of them with our clients. It was so sad to say farewell to them! Some of them were urging me not to go to Japan hahaha!
Then I left, fighting back tears. I really loved this job, the kids, and my coworkers (hey, who wouldn't love working with hot girls ^_~). It helped me grow as a person, prepped me with skills I could use as a teacher, and even broadened my range of acceptance for folks with disabilities. I used to be one of those people who kind of looked at them funny. Not anymore.
Story 3.
Just like everyone else has posted.
Michael Jackson. RIP.
You were my hero growing up and I even had a punk leather jacket as a kid so I can mimic you in Bad.
So some folks might have seen my facebook update this morning about me coming home from the ER. Here's what happened:
Around Wednesday or Thursday of last week, I woke up to see a bug bite on my left leg. At first I thought it was a mosquito bite, so I left it alone like I would any other bite. The next day I noticed the bite get bigger, so I figured it must've been some kind of spider bite. Still, I decided to leave it alone.
Fast forward to Sunday. I start feeling a small bit of pain from the bump. My parents gave me some neosporin to protect it from infection and some motrin in case I would get any pain. I applied some that night and called it a day.
Monday. The bump has gotten a tad darker. Also, the small bit of pain that was there before was replaced by a shitload of pain that wrapped around my entire calf area. I'm not sure if it was because of the neosporin or because of the amount of time that has elapsed. I got some calamine lotion from Jenny's recommendation. However, late that night, while changing pants my fingernail dragged across the bite area. The bite burst. I decided to do my best to drain it, since I saw that the blood was mixed with pus. I drained as much as I could, and did my best to clean it.
Tuesday. I finally decided to see a doctor, especially since the wound was bleeding on and off throughout the night. I visited a Sutter Express Care location to have it checked. The doctor suggested I get an IND, a procedure where they would numb up my leg, slice the wound open, and drain it. She pointed out (after she drained some herself) that there was an abscess that built up behind the bite and suggested I treat it at a larger clinic asap. She recommended me some clinics, but 1) I had a work shift in a couple hours and 2) since I didn't have health insurance the treatment would've been expensive for me at those clinics. So my mom found a community clinic that caters to those with no health insurance. The time I had available prevented me from going in time, so I decided to go the next day.
Wednesday. My left leg, everything below the knee, was swollen upon waking up. Also, the pain was just as unbearable. At this point, what started off as a small scab, because I use a bath sponge in the shower to help clean it (and it did a good job at peeling away dead skin), it grew to a huge scab about the size of the bite itself. After work, I hit up the clinic. After $30 and 2 hours of waiting, I was finally seen by a doctor, only to be told that they couldn't do anything because of the state of my infected leg (WTF?!). The doctor told me to go to the UC Davis Med Center on Stockton immediately to have it taken care of by the on-hand specialists. The doctor's words made me panic, so I rushed over to the hospital's emergency room.
After hours of waiting, I finally was given my hospital bed at midnight. At first I was kind of irritated for waiting so long, but then when I entered the emergency area I noticed all the extremely sick patients lined up on the wall on their beds. I immediately lost all my irritation. The doctor examined the wound and said that the infection was probably caused by bacteria, so they hooked up the IV and loaded me with antibiotics. They took my blood to make sure my body as a whole was okay. They were originally just going to do the antibiotics as the main treatment, but decided to perform the IND just incase there was more build-up (there wasn't a whole lot of blood / pus when they tried squeezing it earlier). The numbing process hurt like hell. The med student must've poked me 3 times, but I guess whenever she poked me I started bleeding and it would spit the medicine back out, so she called the supervising doctor for assitance. The sup probably poked me 5 more times. What I thought was cool about this part was that their conversations at this point were like coach-to-athlete.
"See! His body is communicating with you, which means he needs to be more numbing. Inject the medicine in a more box-like pattern."
Afterwards it was totally numb. They started scrubbing the scab, sliced open the wound with a scalpel, and then they squeezed the leg. What they thought was going to be a little bit turned out to be a lot! Aparently the abscess was huge! Also, it built up a little bit behind the actual wound. The doc pointed out that my leg wouldn't have healed if I didn't come tonight.
So after the painful procedure, I was given perscriptions to some antibiotics and vicadin. They also stuffed a long piece of gauze in the pocket with a little bit hanging out. The goal of ths was to keep the wound open and the gauze would basically absorb anything that would build up. The doctors instructed me to, after 24-48 hours, every morning pull out a few inches and cut it off. So basically if you were to look at my leg right now, there is some bloody gauze hanging out of a hole in my leg HAHA! I was out of the hospital by 330.
Today. The leg is still kind of swollen, a little more red, but the pain is noticably less. I guess before it gets better as a whole, it will get a little worse.
Story 2.
I know I probably should've called in sick today, but it was my last day to be on site and to say goodbye to all the kids. At the end of the day, I went up to all the kids and got my last hugs from them, fighting back tears as they all smiled and hugged me. These kids were my life for the past year. I learned so much from this job too, from autism awareness to strong teaching techniques. Also, my way of talking to kids has changed a lot too.
Because of confidentiality, I can't name any names, but I will say these tidbits:
I will always remember my first major client, who's team I was constantly on from day one. I became his pre-school aid from the moment he started. I saw and helped him grow from a kid with huge tantrum meltdowns and a big I-hate-school mentality to a chill cool kid who loved going to school and seeing his friends. He still tries to escape from instructions (I call him the Big Escape Artist), but he does it in such a funny, sly, and just cool way. He was my favorite, and he helped me grow as an instructor the most.
I will always remember the small, extremely chubby asian kid. He was so chubby I just had to grab his tummy and give him tickles every time I passed him! He had the funniest behaviors, like taking his shirts off in mid play, just so he can remove his undershirt and put back on his mickey mouse shirt. When he learned how to "Shake It" it was the cutest thing ever and to this day picks me up everytime I'm having a down mood.
I will always remember the site's (well second to newest now) client. He doesn't talk much because of his jumbled language, but when I first was placed on his team I learned just how fun he was. He was a small ball of energy and would constantly climb everything, from shelves to me. Everytime I passed him in the hallway I would always jump at him and scare him and he would give smile and a "WOAH!" So everytime he passed by me even when I was sitting down, he'd give me a smile and a look like he was preparing for me to jump out. So funny!
It would take forever to write about all the kids, but these three were probably my favorite ones to work with.
I said goodbye to my coworkers. I worked closely with a lot of them with our clients. It was so sad to say farewell to them! Some of them were urging me not to go to Japan hahaha!
Then I left, fighting back tears. I really loved this job, the kids, and my coworkers (hey, who wouldn't love working with hot girls ^_~). It helped me grow as a person, prepped me with skills I could use as a teacher, and even broadened my range of acceptance for folks with disabilities. I used to be one of those people who kind of looked at them funny. Not anymore.
Story 3.
Just like everyone else has posted.
Michael Jackson. RIP.
You were my hero growing up and I even had a punk leather jacket as a kid so I can mimic you in Bad.