I understand it doesn't look impressive...

[LewisLegion]

Ok, so here's the story. On Sunday completely by accident my mother's dog escaped her house. In searching for her I witnessed her being hit by a car. I jumped out of my own car and ran over to her to stop her thrashing around, knowing I was going to get bit, but I knew I had to get her to stop thrashing so she didn't injure herself more, or possibly bolt again if she was able. In catching hold of her she managed to bite me five times before I got her pinned and she relaxed.

I knew at least one of the bites was bleeding but so as not to upset my already upset mother even further, I pretended I was fine until we got the dog to the emergency vet and found out she was ok (extremely lucky, she was knocked down and went under the car, but all she got was some road rash on her stomach). When we got back to her house I did a cursory rinse of my hand to clear some blood and dog hair off a deep puncture in my palm. My room-mates and I then drove home, and upon arriving my BFF helped me thoroughly examine and clean the bites (five bites, three drew blood, the one in my palm the most serious). At this point my hand and arm were seriously swollen and I noticed my middle finger would not fully extend. We slathered everything in neosporin, bound it up, and I went to bed (it was about one am now).

Next morning my BFF drove me to the walk in clinic where I got a tetanus and everything examined. The bite was infected and so I was put on antibiotics, which I expected. The doc was concerned about my finger (which still wouldn't extend, she couldn't even manually extend it herself) and I got xrays taken, which showed no fractures or any obvious injuries. She gave me a referral to a hand specialist and my xrays to take to him, and sent me home.

I called and made an appointment with the specialist for the next day. My finger still would not extend and it hurt all the way up to my elbow. Not twenty minutes later they called me back and said they needed to move my appointment from afternoon to first thing in the morning, and not to eat anything after midnight, because if my tendon was ruptured they wanted to do surgery immediately. I let my boss know I was possibly having surgery the next day and made arrangements just in case I did.

That night when I got home from work I went in to take a shower. Clumsy me, as I got in the shower I kind of stumbled a little bit and instinctively planted my hand on the wall to steady myself. There was an incredibly loud crack (my BFF heard it from her room it was so loud) and suddenly the pain was gone, and I was able to extend my finger just fine. I was amazed, and when I told my BFF that the crack had been my finger, we drew the conclusion it must have been dislocated but were curious why it didn't show on the xrays.

I decided to keep my appointment for the next morning just in case, and went in first thing. The nurse was extremely nice and compassionate as she took me into a room and took my blood pressure and such. Then she asked to see the bite wound. I showed her my palm and it was an instant change. She looked at the small puncture in the center of my hand (much less swollen and angry red), then looked at me with a 'you got to be kidding me' expression, like I was wasting her time. She got very cool and abrupt after that, then went out and got the doc.

He was extremely nice and examined the xrays and my hand, and I told him what had happened in the shower. He felt my finger and extended it a couple times then told me I had a pretty bad case of trigger finger, and the swelling around the bite had caused swelling in the nodules on my tendon, and basically locked my finger into place. When the swelling went down and I hit my finger just right, the tendon popped free and I could move it again.

He didn't seem to think I was wasting his time at all over such a 'small' puncture wound and was very nice and helpful. When I left, the nurse gave me a dirty look from the desk, which I just ignored.

I don't know if she was expecting me to have a big gaping wound or what but any nurse or doctor should know that an animal bite (or any other puncture wound) can create much more damage beneath the surface than what shows on the surface. And if she'd looked at my chart, she should have known that not being able to extend your finger after a bite could mean something extremely serious so coming in was hardly a waste of her time even if the outside wound looked very small.

Bleh.

[Little Retail Rabbit]

My co-worker was bitten severely by her dog last year, and it resulted in the nerves and tendons of her hand being permanently damaged (the dog, inevitably, was put to sleep). So when I was reading your post and how you couldn't extend your finger, it immediately made me think of that. Being as my co worker was then off work for MONTHS due to being unable to lift anything and needing surgery, you'd think that nurse would realise you really have to be very careful about those sorts of wounds. Didn't she even READ the chart? O.o

Glad to hear the pup was ok (and you of course!).

[chainedbarista]

yes; even if the dog is vaccinated, it's a good idea to have a follow up on a bite wound, due to all the funky bacteria hanging around in their mouths, as well as other damage (such as with lewis' case) has occurred. just because it looks minor doesn't mean it is.

[Sapphire Silk]

Size of the wound is irrelevant to severity. Animal bites tend to get infected quick. Don't know what the nurse's issue was . . . but this was an office . . . are you sure she was a nurse and not a medical assistant?

Ruptured tendon was what I was thinking of when I first started reading the story. Soft tissue injuries don't often show up on X ray. Some dislocations don't either, especially the smaller bones. I think I had a dislocation that got missed in my sprained ankle.

Glad to hear you are doing better. Do be sure to finish all your antibiotics, and follow up with the orthopod!

[Seshat]

Also, puncture wounds can end up with a "closed infection", where the surface skin heals but the infection is still there under the skin. These can be particularly nasty: all the 'waste'* has nowhere to go but inside the body.

Any puncture wound that doesn't heal quickly and normally should be seen by someone medical, even if all you do is wave it at the pharmacist and ask for a recommendation for wound treatment. (With a closed infection, the pharmacist is very likely to get you to see a doctor.)

A puncture wound from a cat, dog, or other animal? You did absolutely right to keep the appointment! Ms Snooty should have kept her opinion to herself. She was wrong anyway. So there.


* dead white cells, dead bacteria, any dirt or foreign matter, excess lymph, etc. Not stuff your body needs inside itself.

[MnR]

I suffered from trigger fingers in both my hands as a toddler, bad enough to warrent surgery at 3. I'm really glad you didn't need to have sugury on it, and that stumble in the shower did the trick. That nurse was very unprofessional.

[LillFilly]

Glad to hear you're ok, and the puppy too! I'd have worried about my dog first, me 2nd if anything like that had happened too. Amazing hitting your finger just right too; saved you the cost of surgery! Nurse sure didn't need the attitude; isn't it always better to be safe than sorry? What did she care, if it wasn't you as a patient, it would have been someone else who was paying just the same.

[wolfie]

Ok, so here's the story. On Sunday completely by accident my mother's dog escaped her house. In searching for her I witnessed her being hit by a car. I jumped out of my own car and ran over to her to stop her thrashing around, knowing I was going to get bit, but I knew I had to get her to stop thrashing so she didn't injure herself more, or possibly bolt again if she was able. In catching hold of her she managed to bite me five times before I got her pinned and she relaxed.

I knew at least one of the bites was bleeding but so as not to upset my already upset mother even further, I pretended I was fine until we got the dog to the emergency vet and found out she was ok (extremely lucky, she was knocked down and went under the car, but all she got was some road rash on her stomach). When we got back to her house I did a cursory rinse of my hand to clear some blood and dog hair off a deep puncture in my palm. My room-mates and I then drove home, and upon arriving my BFF helped me thoroughly examine and clean the bites (five bites, three drew blood, the one in my palm the most serious).

In such a situation, there's a resource available which I would have used. After getting the dog "checked in" at the Vet, I'd have mentioned that I got bitten while trying to catch the injured dog (which, due to its injury, was clearly acting "out of character"), and ask if someone could take a look at it. Logically, a Vet's office should have someone with first-aid training (so that they could legally take care of minor issues on humans, since injured animals are likely to lash out), and they'd probably be the source most familiar with the consequences of animal bites/scratches.

[Sapphire Silk]

In such a situation, there's a resource available which I would have used. After getting the dog "checked in" at the Vet, I'd have mentioned that I got bitten while trying to catch the injured dog (which, due to its injury, was clearly acting "out of character"), and ask if someone could take a look at it. Logically, a Vet's office should have someone with first-aid training (so that they could legally take care of minor issues on humans, since injured animals are likely to lash out), and they'd probably be the source most familiar with the consequences of animal bites/scratches.

About all they can tell you though is to go to the ER and do first aid before you go. They can't give medical advice to humans not their scope of practice. They can warn you of risks

[chainedbarista]

yep; vet techs (even the vets themselves) cannot provide aid or advice, due to operation outside their scope of medical expertise (stupid, i know, but...) as panacea said. we can advise them to seek aid, provide a copy of a bite report to back it up, but that's as far as we can go. technically, we can't treat other techs/vets either, but we do and drive on.

[Seshat]

I once slipped and fell on a gravel patch while carrying my cat to the vet. Anna tells me it was amazing to watch - apparently even while I was falling, I put my cat's cage down.

Ended up with gravel rash on my knees, palms and chin. (Yes, I landed on all those spots!) We walked into the vet with a healthy cat and a bleeding human!

I was provided with sympathy, a sink to wash the wounds, antibiotics and cotton balls. Fortunately, none of it was deep. I don't even have scarring!

(oh, and the cat was fine. She was just going in for a wellness check, and apparently my fall had no effect on her.)

[teh_blumchenkinder]

Yay! Magical Seshat! Did you get kitty bonks after? Do you have cool scars? (I should tell you about the time my sister gave me a scar...)
Also, yeah. Medical Snot should have had read the charts (yes that's an appropriate construction, eat it! I looked it up! I have many grammar books and years of experience as a native speaker! :spikes football: ) and was a bitch.

[Seshat]

That particular cat (now 15!) is sleeping on my leg right at this moment. She was too stressed out by the vet visit to give me kitty bonks that day, but she lets me know every day how important I am to her.

Also, how important it is that a human turn a tap on for her. How DARE we humans make her drink still water from a water bowl!

I don't actually have cool scars from that incident. I do have a couple of scars from this cat that look like bad attempts to slash my wrists - she had some very worrying emergency health problems that scared her as much as us, at one point. Trying to get a scared cat into her crate isn't easy.
(looks for the scars) Hmm. Looks like one's finally faded away, I can only find one of them. Never mind.

My coolest scar is a tattoo inside the curl at the top of my left ear. I think I've told this story before, in this community. We had a campfire in the back yard for my birthday, my Dad had made us campfire forks to toast sausages and marshmallows and toast on. So, of course, these forks had all sorts of ashy ick on them.
Guess who tripped, fell, and stabbed herself with her fork? Yup. Fortunately, I stabbed myself neatly in the cartilage of my left ear, right up the top. Didn't even fully pierce it, just tattooed myself with ash.

[teh_blumchenkinder]

neat! (and tidy too ) My sister had longish nails when I was ~12/13 and she 3 years older (well, 2 years and 364 days, go fig) and anyway, like most siblings we had the occasional heated conversation.
Wait. That was something else that year.
This particular incident Sister and I were hanging out and she reached over to do something, and lightly, as in more lightly than one would scratch oneself to relieve an itch, it didn't even mark the skin, scratched me on a finger with a nail. It was one of those things that I didn't even really feel I did notice the scratch though, and normal in the course of things.-- and then a few days later a white trace scar shows up! it's still there on my finger, left middle, like I had gotten something shoved in it, and it's been at least 12 years since. It stands out because my fingers are darker/have melanin in them. So strange...

[ThirdGenRetail]

You know, I read the part where you heard a crack, and all I thought of was my inherited/learned adoration of joint-popping(I have psoriasis, so people harping on me for joint popping giving me arthritis tends to get over-ridden by me with "I'll never know if I get it from my psoriasis or joint popping, so I may as well enjoy the latter")... And after a while being able to tilt my head JUST so and feel the joints pop in the most satisfying manner(And that's without using my hands to aid in it).

I can just imagine how great that felt after the initial shock of "Oh my, my finger just went crack!".