Saturday, December 1, 2012

Brown Recluse Bite Update

Well, I've been way too busy to post an update on my Brown Recluse bite, so let me catch you up.

Saturday, the 24th, I went back to the ER for a follow up. I had 93 random bruises all over my body and the rash was worse. It felt like my skin was on fire! The doctor took one look at me and said I was having an allergic reaction to the antibiotics they gave me on Thursday. The nurse came in and stabbed me in he back of the arm with an epipen and a respiratory therapist tried to give me a breathing treatment, but when I asked her why I needed one, she looked at the nurse and said, "Ummmm.... I don't know." So I politely responded with, "Then I don't want it. I want to speak with the doctor again."

They also gave me 3 super strength steroids and a Claritin.

So the doctor comes back and I call my dad to come find me in the ER. I argue with the doctor for a bit on his treatment and ridiculous diagnosis (he said the bite wasn't infected and that I don't need to be on any medication besides steroids and antihistamines.). After 2 more hours, I'm released an told to follow up with my family doctor in 3 days.

Three days later, I see my family doctor who couldn't believe that the ER doctor took me off all antibiotics. She gave me some really strong meds reserved for MRSA to treat the staph infection that had developed in my leg and was spreading to my bloodstream, causing a horrible, itchy, red rash all over my body. I was literally crawling out of my skin, it was so itchy!

Today, the 1st if December, I'm finally startling to feel better and the red rash is almost all gone. The bite is now caved in and still infected, but doing better.

I go back on Tuesday, the 3rd, for yet another follow up. Hopefully it will be the last, but I might have to have the infection cut out via surgery.

I was not a big fan of spiders before, but now I'm terrified! Apparently it's rare to be bitten by a brown recluse, and even more rare to have a systemic reaction like I did. And on top of all that, I'm allergic to the venom! A friend of mine suggested I buy a lottery ticket with all this luck!

I'll post again later if there's any new updates.

A. J. Spindle

Friday, November 23, 2012

A Thanksgiving to Remember

This will be a thanksgiving to remember. Let's start at the beginning, shall we?

I was getting ready for school monday, November 19th, when I pulled on a pair of jeans that had been on the floor all night. I felt something poke me twice, but didn't think much about it and went about my day. That night, about 12 hours later, I took my shirt off to take a shower and noticed a red, sunburn-like rash all over my stomach and back and a bite mark on my upper right thigh.

The next morning, the 20th, I woke up to a swollen red face, but went to work anyway. I only felt a little sick, nausea, headache, and kinda sore, but not too bad. A couple hours into work I started feeling worse and got a fever of 101 so a friend drove me home early. That night I went to the after hours clinic and they gave me some antibiotics and steroids for the swelling in my face and sent me home. At that point, the red rash was darker and very itchy.

The next day, the 21st, I got up and only had a little swelling around my eyes and my face was pink. I went to school and work without a problem. When I got home, I pulled out the jeans I had worn on monday and turned them inside out. A little brown spider fell out. It was dead, but looked like a brown recluse. I put it in a ziplock incase I needed to go back to the doctor, I could show them.

On Thanksgiving, I woke up at 10 a.m. to go to my aunts house for lunch with my family. But then I saw that my legs had dark red streaks and I was bleeding under my skin all over my body. I showed my parents and they took the food over to my aunts house and off we went to the ER.

I stayed for 3 hours while they ran blood tests and tried to figure out if it was really a brown recluse that bit me. I was finally released and told to return in 48 hours to check the rash, bleeding, and bite. They switched my antibiotics, gave me some anti-itching meds, and told me to keep taking steroids to bring down the swelling. Now my skin is peeling and feels sunburned and EXTREMELY itchy.

Now I'm at home and doing okay. I got back in tomorrow. The bleeding rash thing is still very itchy, but the meds they gave me knock me out so I don't want to take them in the daytime. Hopefully I won't have another IV thing (they left it in after drawing blood incase I needed meds right then). I'm not a big fan of needles *shivers*

Today I found another brown recluse in the house and it was ALIVE!! You should have seen my mom and I scramble to kill the thing before it tried to escape! It was funny, but seriously, these little guys can do so much damage. It's unbelievable!

Below are some pictures of my trip to the ER:

My IV line.


The bite 11-22-12

The bleeding rash spreading down my legs. This was all over my back and stomach too.


And finally, me. I call this picture "E.T. Phone Home."

I hope your thanksgiving was less eventful than mine!
A. J. Spindle

Saturday, September 15, 2012

New Computer?!

So I finally broke down and bought myself an iMac. You know, that shiny, sleek, beautiful monitor that has the whole computer inside? Yeah, that one. I got the one with 1,0024 GB because I've used most of the memory on my little MacBook.

I've wanted a desk top for a while now so that I can properly edit my documents by having two screens open at the same time.

I started my8th semester of college a few weeks ago. It's quite challenging. I'm taking Anatomy and Physiology I and Lab, Microbiology and Lab, Pharmacology, and Spanish III. The lab for Micro is pretty intense. We got to handle e.coli and other bacteria that I can't remember the name of.

Why am I taking all these classes? Oh, because I've put the English Major thing on hold for a while as I try to get into the Surgical Technician program at College #1.

I'm still teaching preschool and having fun with that. I haven't had ANY time to work on books, or READ them, for that matter. My schedule is as follows:

6:00 a.m. Wake up
7:20 a.m. Go to school
2:30 p.m. Go to job number one
6:30 p.m. Go to job number two
9:00 p.m. Come home
9:30 p.m. Eat dinner
9:45 p.m. Study until I can't see straight
11:40 p.m. Go go bed

So, as you can see, that doesn't leave me with much free time. My only days off are Saturdays and they're usually filled with homework and cleaning the house.

I've been cleaning out my desk today and came across all my old spiral notebooks containing just about every short story I've ever written. I also found the beginning of my children's book, Bennett Nelson scrawled across several pages from when I was 15 years old.

I might turn Bennett into an ebook since I've had no luck with finding a literary agent. Maybe I can at least get it out there for others to see instead of taking up space on my hard drive.

Well, it's 10:40 pm already. Guess I better get back to cleaning up the house so I can get to bed and watch a few episodes of Gray's Anatomy.

A. J. Spindle

Monday, April 23, 2012

Long time, No Blog.

Well, a lot of things have changed since I last blogged. I turned 21 years old, got the iPhone I've always dreamed of, made new friends, got baptized, started and almost finished my last semester of college #1, and most importantly, published my children's story.

As you can see in the screenshot below, I self published my kids story as a FREE e-book. You can download it on Apple's iBooks store, through Barnes and Noble, or Kobo. If you download it, PLEASE leave a review. I don't care if you hate it, tell me in a review. (but please don't hate it!) :)

Here is my new used desk! It's been in our guest room for many years now, and I decided my old desk was too small for writing and doing homework. The only downside to this desk is that it doesn't have any drawers. But it will do for now until I can get a fancy desk with a matching bookshelf. :)

You can see Bella in her cage, staring me down. She likes to try and grab my hair through the bars as I sit at the desk. You can also see the color coded index cards on the wall on the right. Those are character cards for Bennett Nelson so I can just look up and see all the info about each character when I'm writing. And no, I do not go to A&M. I just like the coffee mug!

So as for turning 21, it's not that great. I had a quiet birthday, just went out to eat dinner with some friends from work, who are awesome by the way! And I bought myself an iPhone, like I've always wanted. Now I'm just afraid I'll drop it and shatter the screen! Haha!

I'm working on my 10 page research paper for English. I chose to write about feminism in The Yellow Wallpaper. I'm on page eight so far. I really need to go back over it to make sure it's okay. I'd rather not get a bad grade on this paper since it's worth 30% of my grade.

Work is still going well. I still love my kiddos and their antics. I just wish I could be with them longer each day. 4-6 hours a day isn't enough. During the summer I'll be working 40 hours a week instead of 20-30, but my other job takes a break for summer.

Another change is that I changed my major, or well, added another one. I'll still be majoring in English (but I'm taking a break next semester to focus on the other degree). I'll be applying to get into the surgical technician program at school #1. After this semester (if I by some miracle pass math) I will be graduating in May of this year! (That's one month away) I will have my Associate of Arts. I just need this one math class; statistics!

Well, I better go work on my research paper before I have to go into work early today. Don't forget to download my kids book! It's FREE so you have no excuse!! :)

A. J. Spindle