Owie

Last week, I scraped my elbow - a little scrape. Annoying, because it was right on the part where you rest your arm. Flash forward to yesterday morning, when my elbow wakes me up because it hurts, at 7:00 am. I try to go back to sleep, and if I'm going to call my dad for medical advice - he's a doctor - then I'd like to wait until it's at least 7 back home.

I couldn't wait that long - I called the house at 6:45 his time and told him I thought I had an infected elbow. At this point I was crying, since my still sleepy brain immediately jumped to the time my cousin had an infected scrape on his knee and wound up needing surgery. Aaah. After I calmed down, my dad told me that it could be inflammation or an infection, so I should go to the 24 hr clinic, if I could.

Luckily, the clinic is only a few blocks away, and I was the only person in the waiting room when I got there. The doctor's must have been changing shifts, because I still had to wait 40 minutes. Once I got in, the doctor was very nice, he thought I might have a minor infection and definitely some inflammation, so he gave me a prescription for some heavy-duty antibiotics and told me to keep warm compresses on it.

Off I (yes, I - Mr. D stayed home) went to the pharmacy, which was a block away. I handed the scrip over to the tech, and he acted surprised that I wanted to wait for it - wouldn't you think that people who are getting really strong anti-biotics would want them as quickly as possible. He didn't seem to think so - he told me 15 minutes, and after 20, I walked up to the counter to check. The pharmacist had no idea that I was waiting, but 30 seconds later it was ready - thanks, buddy.

On my way home, I played good-wife and picked up one ingredient for Mr. D's gumbo (J&R were coming for dinner) and grabbed coffee. After I got home, I used the heating pad on my arm, then fell back to sleep for an hour. Then we went to the market to get some last ingredients for dinner - which I regretted the whole time we were there. I could feel every step in my arm. I spent the rest of the afternoon alternating between cleaning and laying in bed with the heating pad on my arm.

Luckily, the swelling in my elbow went down by the time I woke up this morning, which meant that I didn't need to go back to the clinic to have it drained. My arm still hurts, but I can move it without wincing every time.