our happy day with IHC.

it has taken me quite some time to get around to posting this, so i apologize that i now lack in enthusiasm retelling the story. *this story invlolves blood and pus, so if that bothers you, you probably won't want to read this. i will try to keep it clean.*

around the very end of march, jeff noticed a large bump in his right leg after church one day. it wasn't visible but we could feel it - it felt like a big knot high on his shin, right below his knee. i tried rubbing it out (assuming it was a knot) as jeff screamed. the next day, the bump had made its way to the surface of jeff's leg and was swollen and red. we took it for a spider bite and decided we'd look into it some more if it got much worse. other than that, we were going to leave it alone and let it heal itself. after a few days, jeff's leg was looking worse. it was bright red and lifted from the leg, it looked like a huge, fist-sized pimple. it was really firm and sensitive to the touch.

we decided it would be best to go to the doctor. jeff went and was given some antibiotics but they didn't help so we went back in. the doctor said it was cellulitis, "an inflammation of subcutaneous or connective tissue caused by a bacterial infection". if we had waiting longer, the infection would eat the rest of the tissue and would eventually spill into jeff's bloodstream, killing off all his good blood cells and there would be a possibility that i could become a widow at 6 months. we were told jeff could go home and soak it to see if it would drain itself, or we could just drain it there. we decided to drain it at the hospital since we were already there. the doctor cleaned the area and stuck it with a syringe, to see if any infection would come out. sure enough, it did. after draining the pustule, the doctor proceeded to do something i was NOT prepared for. he took a scalpel (yes, a blade to cut the skin open) and made a pretty good-sized incision on jeff's leg (jeff was numb, no worries!). i guess the point of this was to literally cut out the infected area on jeff's leg. next, the wound was cleansed with water and a wick of gauze about 4 inches in length was stuffed into the open wound with some very long, bent-nosed tweezers/scissors...

i thought we would only have to get the abcess drained so when all of this "surgery" was going on, i was getting sick to my stomach. i stuffed my face into jeff's jacket i was holding on my lap and tried to breathe deeply. (those of you who know me pretty well, you know that i DO NOT do blood or needles. i get light-headed and queazy, and i've blacked out a couple times in the past.) the doctor was finished with his operation and was now dressing jeff's leg in gauze and bandages. i remember thinking how glad i was that we were done and i finally got to leave the cold, empty-smelling, sterile hospital room and go back to work, when the white fuzzies took over my vision...

the next thing i knew, i was on the floor of that so-called operation room and there were people all around me. the doctor had his hands under my head, a nurse was patting sweat off my forehead, the assistant had both of my feet in the air (which was unsettling because one of my shoes was missing, and i was very self-conscious of my smelly feet. we found the missing shoe on the other side of the room...) and probably 5 other nurses were huddled around me, jeff was looking down at my from the examination table with his leg in the air, patting my hand. i was really confused and at first i didn't recognize anyone, not even jeff. the nurse shoved a boxed juice straw in my mouth and ordered me to sip.

apparently (according to the doctor), while they were wrapping jeff's leg they heard my chair slide across the floor and into the wall. i had a seizure that was trauma-induced due to seeing jeff's leg being worked on. during this seizure, i slammed myself against the wall and then fell to the floor, hitting my arm and throat violently on the empty chair next to me on my way to the ground. the doctor caught me under my arms just before i hit my face on the floor. exciting, right!!? i was left with a lovely HUGE bruise under my arm with a little bit of rug-burn feeling. i had to fill out some paperwork and convince the doctor and assistant that i hadn't had previous seizures that i was aware of. they finally let us go home after i laid on the floor for about ten or fifteen minutes. jeff had to go back in for the next 4 days to get his leg checked, and i guess we were a pretty popular couple. people kept asking him why i decided to stay home.... there is more to the story but i'm trying to keep it simpler!

this is the bruise healing several days after the incident - the whole underside of my arm was purple.