Southwestern Activities
Including an unexpected late night visit to the ER!
Yesterday was spent in the car, and at the end, in the ER. Yeah. Sucks, don’t it? Let’s do a recap, shall we?
I started early driving north out of Flagstaff, with St. George, Utah as the destination. Leaving town was easy, and there was a McD open early, so I could get a coffee for the road. Don’t hate me, but I don’t mind McD coffee, and at $1.39 for a large, it was hard to say no to. Northward I went.
The weather was atypical: low clouds and actual rain in the desert. Some of the washes were full and running as well. Pretty cool, but the clouds were low enough that the tops of the bluffs were obscured. The lack of sunlight also dimmed the colors. Not optimal, but still quite pretty. It’s a lovely and easy drive: set the cruise to 67 and let the speed demons pass me by.
A couple of hours out of Flaggo is Horseshoe Bend. I’d seen photos here and there, and decided it’d be a good stop. From the car park ($10) it’s about a kilometer walk to the overlook. The views did not disappoint.
On the way, I noticed one of my surgical site (the ever-problematic right femoral) was puffy. I started to think that maybe I’d pushed too much over the weekend hiking in the canyon and with Jess. I walked super slowly back to the car, and got ice to put on it when I pulled into Page, AZ. Soon after I drove across the Glen Canyon dam. I hobbled out to take a few photos, but I limited myself greatly, so as to not aggravate the wound.
Soon after leaving the dam, the rain came for the next couple of hours. No visibility of the bluffs, until I started to drop down into St. George. Then it cleared. The storm cells over Zion were impressive; I can imagine the raging slot canyons. That’d be cool to see — from a safe vantage point, of course.
Checking out the swelling in my leg, I was dismayed to see that it had grown. And become uncomfortable. Being the good, doctor’s instructions-abiding soul that I am, I got on the horn to the office where I’d had the procedure. I described it as a hematoma, and they recommended heat (!), rest and see how it is the next day. Cool.
I nuked a wet washcloth to make a hot compress, used it until the heat was gone, and took a look.
Huh, what’s that spot?
I scraped at it, and pulled a little thingie off. That released a blob of pus. Well! It looks like it’s not a hematoma after all. Something was infected. Honestly, I wasn’t sure if infection was better or worse than a hematoma. I expressed the pus, getting gobs of thick then thin pus out. Disgusting? You bet! No foul odors though, so that’s a positive.
I kept an eye on it, and my temperature for a few hours. My thermometer started showing my temp edging up and over 99°F/37.5°C. Shit. Time to get myself to the ER.
I arrived about 9:00 pm, got checked in, and was situated in an examination room within about 30 minutes. Once again, I had ECG patches attached in places strategically designed to take as much hair with them as possible when removed. After about 15 minutes of waiting, the doc arrived and took a look at the wound. He agreed that it was a good idea to come in, and decided to do an ultrasound to check for arterial integrity and to see if there were any clots down in my leg. That was another hour wait. But, once done, the results were clear. The surgical site into the artery itself was sound. Yay!
That meant the infection was cutaneous, and hadn’t gotten any deeper. The result is a week’s regimen of antibiotics (Cephalexin and Bactrim) for a week. The wait for discharge papers was alleviated by a less anxious brain in my head. The downside of that was it took about an hour. I finally made it back to my hotel about 0045.
The drugs weren’t pricey either when I went to pick them up this morning. As for the ER visit, I’ll have to wait and see what my costs will be when they send a bill. Cost is somewhat irrelevant, though. I’m not dying and my leg stays attached. Win.
As for how I got the infection, I don’t think it was a result of my activities over the weekend, despite being a bit over the recommended limit. Unless I got it from sweat and dirt? Yeah, no. I’m blaming the cheap hotel sheets in Barstow and Flaggo and the fact I slept in them with no covering over the wound site. Lesson learned? Yeah. Put on a Bandaid before bed.
Today is a day of absolutely nothing. Tomorrow I’m driving to the eastern Nevada megalopolis of Ely, stopping at a Nevada State Park that apparently has some cool slot canyons. After that, it’s off to western Nevada and where I used to call home.
Be kind and take care of yourselves. If you can, care for someone else, too.
Slang, out.