The weirdest injury of all

On Thursday afternoon, my left arm started aching around the elbow. I had no idea why and thought maybe I had slept on it funny (I had just woken up from a 30 minute snooze on the couch).

But by the time Ryan got home for dinner, my elbow was the size of a tennis ball, it was giving off a lot of heat and I couldn't move my fingers that well.

So, after dinner, I was off to find a walk-in clinic. After failing to find an open one, I ended up at Emergency. I wasn't keen on going to the hospital, but the pain and not being able to do anything with my arm was enough to make me go.

I checked in at about 8:45 and thankfully, I was out by 10. The doctor who saw me, of course asked what I did, at which point, I had to respond, 'I don't know', because, honestly, I had no memory of banging my arm in the last 24 hours. But that didn't mean it didn't happen.

After poking and prodding a bit, she determined I had likely over-rotated the elbow joint somehow and now the swelling was pushing on the nerves, etc. She precscribed an anti-inflammatory and told me to follow up with my family doctor in a couple of days because it could be something more. It could actually be an infection in my elbow, but it was hard to determine at this point since I didn't have any other symptoms (such as fever, or swelling beyond the elbow).

So, I filled my prescription and went home.

Friday was miserable. My arm hurt, no matter what I did, and I'm pretty sure I had a touch of the flu that Austin had just gotten over. Ryan had to stay home from work to take care of the kids, because I couldn't. I was feeling crappy and I couldn't use my left arm.

By Friday evening, the fluish symptoms had past but the arm hurt more than ever. As I was heading to bed, I checked it out in the mirror and discovered that it wasn't only my elbow that was swollen, but my forearm as well.

By morning, the swelling was reaching my hand and was creeping up toward my shoulder. Not a good sign. So, it was back to the doctor for me.

After waiting two hours at the walk-in clinic, I was finally seen by a doctor. After hearing me say I don't know what I did to hurt it, she concluded I had an infection.

In my elbow.

How I got it, she has no idea. Something as simple as a scratch could've done it.

So, now I'm on some pretty potent antibiotics and if the swelling doesn't reduce in the next 48 hours (or gets worse in the next 24 hours) I've been ordered to go to the Hospital for IV antibiotics. Fun stuff, I tell you.

I still can't use my arm for anything -- so doing things like holding Alex and even getting dressed is a challenge -- but at least it doesn't hurt right now, unless someone or something touches it, or even just grazes it.

Only me, klutz extraordinaire, could end up with an injury/illness like this. Hey, gotta keep a sense of humour, right?