Thursday, September 27, 2012

Cat Scratch Feva!

Cat Scratch Feva.  Yup I had it.  And no it wasn't nearly as fun as the song suggests.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Back in my younger days I was a cat fiend.  I never went far without a kitten in my hand.  They were small and fluffy and cute as all get out and I was an impressionable 5th grader.  That summer we had a cat surplus at the farm and I was kitty caretaker.  These cats were all barn cats.  Born mice killers, and claws as sharp as razor blades.  So who knows how many time I was scratched that summer.

Fast forward to October.  I'd been playing basketball with the super scary 7th and 8th graders and going to school.  We had mini lockers and I thought that was the bomb.  Then, one day I noticed a lump on the inside of my upper leg. 

I brought the odd bump to my parents attention and they became concerned at once.  How long had I had it? Did I run into anything? Did it hurt?.  To which I answered, I don't know, no and no.  So they did what all great parents do, made a quick doctor appointment.

Here are where things get fuzzy.  I'm pretty sure they ran some cat scans and did some other tests but could not, for the life of them, figure out why I had a lump or where it came from.  The doctors called it a swollen lymph node in my leg-groin area and they were going to have to do a biopsy.  At this point I'm sure the word cancerous mass had been tossed around a few times, but no one said the "c" word around me.  Honestly what person wants to tell a 6th grader they may or may not have a tumor.

So I went into my first major surgery ever not quite knowing what to expect.  All I remember was opting for laughing gas to put me out instead of a needle.  This was a huge, huge mistake.  They put the mask on me and I paniced.  I felt like I was being suffocated.  I tired to lift my arms up to tear off the mask but either I was too far out of it, or the nurses were restraining me.  Everything was cloudy and then next thing I know I'm waking up in a hospital bed.  Surgery's complete.

By the way, if you ever are given the option between gas and a needle, take the needle!  Years later at a dentist visit, the doctor tried to use some laughing gas on me to induce some numbness.  I started shaking and crying and couldn't stop.  I think it was from the bad memories of being gassed to sleep.

But back to my story...

The doctors quickly took a sample of my biopsy and did their thang which I'm pretty sure just meant looked at it closely under a microscope.

Then Mr. Dr. comes up and is all "do you own a cat?".  To which my parents laugh because we don't own "a cat", we own a heard of them.  The doctor then sighs and says well this girl has Cat Scratch Fever.  All she needs are antibiotics and she'll be fine.

It's true, I went through all the pain of surgery, didn't walk for a few days, recovery, bandages, and now have a lovely scar that shows when I go swimming all because some cat had dirt under his nails when he scratched me.

To be a bit more scientific.  The cat had bacteria under his nails and when it scratched me, the bacteria wound up infecting me.  The infection did what it does best, and made a nice little home in my lymph node.  Thus the lumpy.  Once I began taking antibiotics, the infection went away and the swelling went down and now I just have my scar as a fond memory.

Crazy right?  So I may be the only person you know to actually have Cat Scratch Fever.  I prefer to call it Cat Scratch Disease because people look at me like I'm half crazy when I tell them I had Cat Scratch Feva.  But it is real people, spread the word!

And with that I leave you with my favorite kitty cat video ever.  I've probably seen this 100 times and every time, I'm still rolling.

No comments :

Post a Comment