It Started With a Bump

One year ago today, I woke up at my parents' house and found a giant bump on my arm. It looked like a bull's eye and was a perfect (and rather large) red circle. I was alarmed. I was 99% sure it wasn't there before I went to sleep and I couldn't even remember the small circular bump in the middle (which looked like a puncture mark) being there before. How could this happen?

I did what I always do when something medical is alarming me - I immediately turned to google. I put in all of my symptoms and after reading a bunch of sites, was convinced I had a spider bite or some random bug bite. After all, we were out near a lot of trees and dirt and other things we don't have in the concrete jungle. It was possible. And we had gone running by my old high school the day before. The high school which is surrounded by woods on 4 sides. Thick wooded areas which every 17 years produce tons of cicadas that scare the crap out of me and hold who knows what other demonic bug creatures. (I really don't like bugs.)

I didn't know what to do about the bite. I could try to treat it myself but the size and the perfect circle and the sudden onset of the swelling was sending up all kinds of red flags. I took some allergy medicine, applied some ice, and decided to go to the doctor. We were supposed to go for massage therapy that day, so I was going to go to the walk-in doctors after that since I always need massage therapy. However, just before we were about to leave, they called and cancelled on A, so massage therapy was off for the day. Off to the doctor I went.

The doctor wasn't entirely sure what it was, but guessed that it was an infected bug bite. What kind of bug? No idea. They gave me a prescription for some antibiotics and, since it was a puncture mark of unknown origin, a tetanus shot. Wheee. Just how I wanted to spend my Sunday.

I picked up my antibiotics and we went about our day like we normally would (running all of our errands). By the end of the day, I was a bit of a mess. On top of the swollen bug bite, I was extremely fatigued and my right upper eyelid wouldn't stop twitching (usually it's the lower one). It was hard to see. With all of the distractions, we left my parents' house late, got home late, and went to sleep late.

By the end of the night, the swelling seemed different. The perfect circle was gone, but it was redder than it was in the morning. It also seemed to cover a large section of my forearm. The doctor had said that the antibiotics should work but it looked to me like it wasn't getting any better. I hoped that sleep would fix it and that I wouldn't need to go back to the doctor.

Despite all of this happening, and happening so suddenly, I still didn't think anything was seriously wrong. It was more annoying and confusing and weird than scary. I was overloaded with work and this was a horrible time to be getting sick. I just wanted the bump to go away, and it was just a bump, so how concerning could it really be? (As a side note, I looked carefully through all my old pictures weeks later and found one from February with a light mark in the same spot as the puncture mark, so it's entirely possible this wasn't a bug bite and was a long time developing.)

Thanks to twitter, I know that I ended the night saying that I was "hoping for a better week." If I only knew what was to come...