Tribulations of the Illness Prone Part II

A couple of days ago the blog prompt was about accidents and illnesses. At the time I could not remember any serious accidents that had happened to me. Thank goodness for mothers, as mine promptly called and reminded me a few.

The first was many years ago in a time far away. (So melodramatic, don't you think?)

Walking to the base library, a field mouse ran up to me. I picked it up. It bit me. Mom rushes me to the hospital and I was just darn lucky I didn't have to go through the rabies shots. Tetanus shot.

Then one summer day, while in shorts, I backed into the muffler of a motorcycle that was still running. OUCH.... More than ouch, I didn't tell anyone what I had done. It turned out to be a pretty serious burn and then to top it off, it got infected. I ended up at the hospital where, I swear, they used steel wool to clean it. It was years before the scar disappeared. Another tetanus shot.

And what about the time I stepped on a rusty nail; another trip to the hospital and more tetanus shots. Or the time I got a tack in my wrist. And one more tetanus shot for the road.

Then there was the time (and I have no idea why I didn't remember this one) I had been bitten by a brown recluse spider on my ankle. This time it wasn't a matter of that I didn't want to tell anyone what I had done but I just didn't realize it, until I started getting sick.

I called my mom and dad to take me to the emergi-care center down the road from us. It was packed with people, but I signed in, sat down and then passed out. Needless to say I was bumped to the top of the list.

I was sent to a specialist who very callously told me I only had a 20% chance of living since I had waited so long for treatment. Duh! Like I knew I had been bitten by a poisonous spider. After I proved him wrong about that one, then I had a 75% chance of losing my leg. I'm still walking around on the ones God gave me folks. (and that reminds me there is another story to blog about this particular doctor that I need to write.) My ankle still shows the signs of the bite and will also do so and I still occasionally twist my ankle as it gives out. But I have learned to live with it, which is probably why I didn't recall.

So much for having an accident free life, LOL, though I probably had enough tetanus shots to last a lifetime.