SNOW and my first trip (as a patient) to the Saint Mary's ER

We have gotten a ton of snow in the past 2 days (for pictures, please see Wendi or Kristen's blogs). I think there was 14 or something inches on the ground yesterday by early afternoon, when I decided to take a little expedition. With my newfound vow to buy minimal amounts of groceries and wanting some fresh air/exercise, I decided I would trek to the Hyvee by Barlow Plaza and buy a bag's worth of fresh fruit and veggies. To walk seemed perfect because I would be limited by the fact that I would have to carry my purchases home, although the store is less than a mile away. So I donned two pairs of pants, fleece, my big winter coat, and boots and set out on my way.

It was really quite a pleasant walk... until about 2 blocks from the grocery store. It was still snowing and there were very few sidewalks that were shoveled, so I ended up walking in the street for most of the trip, but it was very warm (i.e. around 30) and I was enjoying being outside. Then, when I got up 11th Ave., I saw this German Shepherd darting between this house's driveway and the street, nearly getting hit by oncoming traffic, and barking up a storm. I was walking on the same side of the street that this dog apparently "belonged," but I just tried to keep calm, keep walking, and not let the dog "smell" my fear.

That didn't work too well. I made it past the driveway but then felt its teeth sink into the flesh of my left leg. I heard someone yell for the dog and it ran around to the back of the house. Rather than thinking through things, going up to the house and asking about rabies vaccination, I just wanted to get the heck out of there, so I continued walking to Hyvee.

Once there, I did check out the wound. The dog's teeth had punctured my windpants and broken my skin, but my workout pants underneath didn't seem to have a hole in them. So, although the wound hurt and was a bit bruised and swollen, as well as bleeding a little, I tried to convince myself that I didn't need to seek medical attention because there had been a "barrier" between the dog's saliva and my skin (again, proof that I am a terrible patient). Lesley called and, after relating this to her, she came right away to Hyvee to pick me up. After looking at my leg, she felt like I should probably go to the ER and get it looked at to perhaps get antibiotic prophylaxis (animals' mouths carry all kinds of funny organisms like Pasteurella) even if I didn't need rabies immunoglobulin. So to Saint Mary's we went. To give you an idea, here's a picture of my leg, taken once I got home.

It wasn't too bad of an ER experience. Actually, it was quite interesting being on the "patient" side of things. I was there for about an hour and a half (luckily, I had a book [you may ask, who brings a book when she's walking to Hyvee for groceries and back?! But I always have one, for situations just like this one]). I learned that the steps I needed to take were to go back to the house, see what the animal's rabies vaccination status was, wash the wound, and take some ibuprofen for pain/ Amoxicillin for 5 days. It was actually quite funny when the PA was interviewing me-- he saw all these rabies shots in my immunization record and, thinking I had been bitten lots of times, thought I should "reconsider my career choice or something." I had had many (prophylactic shots) growing up while living in Asia, where there are many stray dogs. And I got a tetanus and rabies vaccination in 2005 before going to Peru.

In any case, once we left Saint Mary's, Lesley and I went back to the culprit house to talk to the owners (I was so glad I wasn't alone!). Lesley got out of the car wielding an ice scraper as a weapon should we spot the wild animal, and we knocked on the door. The owners were really surprised that "Hannah" had bitten me, as she never has bitten anyone else, and there are several children that live in the house. She is usually confined to the backyard but must have escaped due to the high snowdrifts. The owners did confirm that she has had her rabies shots. Someone I talked to today said that I should totally make them pay for the ER visit when I get my bill. This didn't really cross my mind yesterday and I realize that I don't have the owner's last name (she scribbled her first, as well as her phone number on a slip of paper for me). But I'm not sure that this is appropriate. I guess it was my own fault for walking past this dog. I don't know. In any case, I'm supposedly in the clear for rabies for now, unless this dog becomes very sick in the next 10 days. Tell me if you think I start acting crazy or if I have foam coming out of my mouth.