Festering Wound

You know the Apples to Apples card that says "Festering Wound"? That card never wins cuz it never fits any of the green cards and its just gross. But those are the words I would choose to describe what has developed on my left hip. It's grotesque. I may being erring on the side of overly dramatic but I think you get the idea.

I got two bug bites on my hip last Saturday. I would attribute them to the malicious work of a mosquito, or worse, two mosquitoes working in tandem to torment innocent sleeping young men. One of the bites started going away after a couple days. The other bite did no such thing. It started to get swollen and red, not unusual for one of my mosquito bites. Then around Wednesday I started to get the feeling that it wasn't just a bad bite that itched and hurt a little. I was able to pop it like a zit (gross I know, but it gets worse). I wasn't entirely convinced that my extremely healthy young body couldn't fight the bite on its own so I waited a few more days...

It proceeded to get worse. I went to the bar for a Thai friends birthday on Friday and I could barely sit down it hurt so bad. It got more swollen and started to develop into an open sore (I'll spare you the details about what came out of that). When I woke up this Saturday I made the decision I would go to the doctor. At this point the open sore part was about the size of a pen cap. I ended up going to the mall to see Transformers 2 (completely logical decision). The movie was supposed to get over around 5 and I was going to go to the doctor after, but the first 3 showings were sold out so we end up leaving the movie theater around 10. I was going to wait to go to the doctor until the next morning but when I got back to our Hotel I checked it out. It had grown; the open sore was now more like the size of a quarter. I decided not to wait; I needed to go right away.

I went to Chiang Mai Ram, which is the best hospital in Chiang Mai. Accompanied by my roommate, David, I walked into the hospital around 11:20. They took my information, checked my temp and put me in a room within 5 minutes. A nurse looked at the bite, clearly infected, and immediately called for a doctor. The doctor took one look and instructed me that they were going to have to drain it. I laid on my side while they numbed it, cut it open, and cleaned it out. They bandaged the wound and told me that I would have to come back for the next 7 days so that they could replace the dressing and keep an eye on it. They sent me to get antibiotics and pay and I was on my way home around 12am.

That was easily the most efficient doctor visit I've ever had. 40 minutes was all it took. It cost around $80 for the visit, drugs included. Visiting the next day to get the wound dressed was by far more painful than the initial procedure. The guy, very poignantly, shot disinfectant into the open sore. OUCH! He also swabbed it and showed me the end of the Q-tip with a little chuckle saying "look at the puss". Hilarious... if I didn't have a FESTERING WOUND!