Cat Scratch Fever!

I am sure you have heard about what happened, this time last year. It was cold, I had been sick practically the whole month of December and I felt like I was never going to get better. I was demanding to be babied like Jason demands when he just has a cold. It had been real cold outside and the last thing I wanted to hear was that he had some kind of cramp. So then one day, a few days later he said he had a hard bump on his left pelvic region. It was true, and unnatural . It worried me and I told him that I would take him to my doctor. (He has rarely gone to the doctor for anything) Then suddenly after he had carried a bucket full of huge logs for the fire, he complained his pain was worse.

I called the quick care and they referred him to the ER. He gave me such a hard time, he really wanted to go, but when he walked in the door, he saw the people and ran out! (Oh brother!) After arguing with him about it, I called my parents and they told him to go in. So then he did.

At least a hour passes and we get in there, this was about 11pm. We were both so tired. What could this be, I worried. When we were there, we saw the doctor once, no test, and then a surgeon came in to our surprise. We had no idea what were they thinking when we were waiting. Jason wanted to walk out the door. The surgeon felt it, and then said he knew exactly what it was, a strangulated hernia! He drew us a picture, and said it could be fatal if he didn't get worked on right away. Suddenly my heart dropped, poor Jason! Here, I was being mean to him. The doctor said he had been working all day but he can get this done in 30 mins. After that, things moved really quickly. Too quickly! I called Bro. Swinson to give him a blessing and he arrived there as they were wheeling him away. Did I add that Jason was scared too?

We sat there, together in the waiting room. One am rolled around and Jason's surgery was a hour in. I had so many worried thoughts. It helped to know that he was there to comfort me. Then as the doctor came back, he tripped because he was so tired! (I thought that was not a good sign) He told me it was not a hernia, which could have waited until morning, but it was a infected lymph node that did not appear normal. He said it would go in for biopsy .

After a week of not knowing, we went to see the doctor. We prayed it was not cancer. He said it was something unusual. He said it was either one of two things, a rare disease found in Asian decent, or cat scratch fever. What? That darn cat! (We had three at the time.) He said if our cat was a carrier, any of us could of gotten it, and we still could get it. He didn't need surgery after all, if he would have gotten a simple blood test, he could of had meds for it. The disease could have caused swelling on any lymph mode. Usually happens in neck. It did for my friend Diana, who lived down the road from us. She contracted it in the spring and because the doctors were baffled, she went through some really scary moments and costly tests! Doctors from AMC told her because of it's growth rate, they thought she had cancer and they needed to get all five swollen nodes out! Which would have made horrible scars. The doctor sent her up to UVA to see a surgeon there. He was a older, more experienced guy and he had her tested for the diease, and yes, that is all it was! Now her neck is almost back to normal. Unbelieveable!

This was another lesson learned the hard way! I hope people who read my blog, will learn from all of my stupid mistakes! I write this stuff so that I may remember and not make these costly mistakes again! But it seems that I am still making them, when will I ever learn?