We need to rewind back to October when we went down to Indiana to see our friends and do some jeepin.
We need to go all the way back to the night we left.
We also need to go back to three weeks before we left.
I noticed a spot on my arm. Day by day it got worse. A week goes by and it is worse yet. Another week goes by and now it more then hurts it is causing pain to move my arm and have clothing touch it. I slap a bandaid on it and just try not to move my arm. Another week goes by and now it is probably the size of a fifty cent piece… if not bigger. It looks disgusting. Jesse told me to go to the Dr. the day before we left, but I just didn’t have time to squeeze it in… and actually I thought it might be looking better… maybe…
So now the night we left for Indiana. Jesse tells me that he talked to one of the doctors at the prison about my arm. The doctor gave him some ideas of what it might be. Tick Bite. Cellulitis.
We are driving, trying to get to Illinois where we have a hotel booked for the night. It is getting to be after 10pm and I start to get bored so I get out my phone and start googling images of Cellulitis.
Nope! Totally not that! That is super gross!
Start googling Tick Bite images.
OMG!! Looks exactly like a tick bite!! Exactly!!
Now I start to feel creepy crawly. I start to get weirded out thinking about a tick being in my arm… and for the past three weeks!!!! I start to want a shower! I can’t stop thinking about it! Get this off of me now!
Jesse and I start talking about what we should do. Should we go to the hospital once we get to our friends? Should we find an ER before we get there?
5 minutes later we drive by a Hospital sign. There is an ER at the next exit. We take it! We haven’t left Wisconsin just yet – so maybe we should do this so our insurance covers some of this.
We find the hospital. It is 10:45pm! Their urgent care is open until 11pm! Score! I go in by myself and Jesse is going to stay in the truck with the kids and watch movies. It is late. The kids are still awake.
I get checked out by my nurse and I’ll admit I was nervous. I was nervous they were going to find a tick in my arm. I do not like bugs of any kind… especially TICKS! The doctor comes in and he is really harsh with me. He kind of treats me like I’m a drug seeker. Not friendly at all. Asking me why it has taken me so long to come in if I think there is a tick in there!
Then he finds out that I’m on my to Indianapolis and he warms up with me. He went to Grad School there.
He decides to run lab work to check me for Lyme's Disease and for MRSA. MRSA is like a horrible infection that wouldn’t ever go away.
Then he wants to check and see if there is a tick in there and so that means he needs to cut my arm open and “explore”. He tells me that he will numb the area first. Which is about 4-5 shots around the site! He was ever so kind to inform me that sometimes this numbing may not work and I’ll still feel him digging in me!! He was a real special sensitive doctor… I’m kidding! He was not!
I’m extremely squeamish when it comes to needles and blood… so I’m looking away the entire time. I’m trying to make light of the situation and trying to distract myself from the pain and tell him if he finds a tick to please not tell me!! Just get rid of it!!
It takes him, what feels like forever, to work on my arm. He did not find a tick. However the infection went deeper then he thought and he needed to remove the entire infection. He had to go 1.5cm deep. Because he had to go so deep he wanted it to heal from the inside out so he packed a bunch of gauze in my arm. Him shoving that gauze in my arm was the most painful part!
When he is all finished he tells his nurse… lets send these tools home with her – she needs to repack this in two days. The nurse is hesitant to send the professional grade tools home with us. But the doctor insists and says… everyone needs tools like this anyway.
Then he says to me (which by the way I have not yet looked at what he has done.) you need to change this out in two days and I want to show you how to do it. I laughed. Really hard. Not going to happen. I can’t even look at my arm with gauze sticking out if! I might pass out! In two days the numbing won’t be there and it hurt with the numbing – how are we going to do this in two days. He is off his rocker!!
The nurse says- her husband is in the waiting room now… I’ll go get him. Great idea!!!
In come Jesse and the kids. The kids are so super worried about me that they both come to me and try to get in my lap. Jesse and the Doctor are talking about what he thinks might be going on. The Doctor did not think it was a tick bite, however he was running tests for Lyme's Disease and MRSA. Jesse got a little concerned because of himself working in a prison – he could of brought MRSA home and gave it to me.
The Doctor shows Jesse how to repack my arm and he glances over at his computer screen and he says “Oh! That test came back positive!”
ME: (I’m staring at the screen in huge disbelief and can not speak a word. I know what test he is talking about.)
Jesse: She has MRSA!!!?
Doctor: No that other test we talked about.
ME: (Still staring and speechless!)
Jesse: She has Lymes?!!!
Doctor: No. She is pregnant!
*Silence!*
Jesse and I look at each other and you can’t wipe the smile off my face and Jesse is going from thinking I have a huge illness… to I’m pregnant…
Jesse: Well that is one hell of a way to find out!
Now I knew what test was positive… the pregnancy test… because when it was just me in the room and the doctor starts telling me “if” I have lyme’s disease the medication I need to take and how powerful it is. It got me to thinking… hey Jesse and I have been trying to get pregnant… what if I am pregnant will I be able to even take this medication? I had no clue if I was pregnant. My vote was no. I did not feel one bit of ounce that I was pregnant. We were struggling this time around on getting pregnant. So I had just about convinced myself that I wouldn’t be able to have more kids. (Seriously the week before we left for vacation I started praying for acceptance that I wouldn’t have anymore and to be okay with it.) The doctor suggested just running a test since we had to do labs anyway. Deal. I never thought about it again – because I seriously did not think it was possible.
So when it was positive. I was in so much shock and so giddy and so very excited… and how could this be possible!! : )
We get out of the hospital at I don’t even know what time… probably midnight or later and make our way to our hotel. I am now googling if you can get a false positive from a blood test! : ) I was in so much shock and didn’t believe it! The answer is no. You can not get a false positive on a blood test.
My arm? It was nothing. There was not a tick to be found. He treated me as an abscess. The rest of the tests came back negative! I still have a spot there! It is all healed… but it did not heal the way they wanted – so I think I will have this mark on my arm for a long time if not forever!
It will be my permanent reminder of Frey Baby #3!
Exciting!!
