Swollen

Swollen, originally uploaded by mike.tan.

On Saturday evening, walking back from grocery shopping, I walked past a planter bed, when I suddenly felt something very painful at my left ankle, the front part which folds when the foot flexes (there's gotta be a better name than this, but I am not aware of it).

Initially, I thought it was some sort of ant, and from the pain, probably a large one. I bent over, to try to pick off the ant, and when I did, I found myself pulling off an insect with yellow shell. That was when I realised that I had been stung by a yellow jacket...

Besides a mild itch, Saturday night and Sunday morning was fine, enough that I decided to take a walk on Sunday afternoon, to see the Pedestrian Sundays at Kensington Market - that's when they close the roads off to vehicular traffic and hold street performances and celebrations at Kensington Market; this one in commemoration of the 2003 blackout which affected the Eastern Seaboard.

Coming home, my shoe felt distinctly tighter, and by Monday morning, the foot had swollen to the extent in the picture.

Walked to the hospital, waited 3 hours to see the doctor for 5 minutes, who proclaimed that it was unlikely to be infected because I had no fever, and that there was no pain at the site of the sting. He gave me a prescription for antibiotics which I was to fill if I had a fever, and asked me to get some non-prescription anti-histamine. Quite the letdown from the pronouncement of the triage nurse who said that I might have to have IV antibiotics because it looked infected.

So, right now, almost 20 hours after 50mg of diphenhydramine, I still feel slightly woozy, certainly not the sharpest I've been, but nowhere near as bad as a hangover. The foot itches on and off, and when it does, I feel as if I almost need to claw away the skin to get relief. I'm somewhat irritable, cos of the drowsiness, and I should not walk, to ease off the pressure on the foot, so, I feel very cooped up in apartment.

The boy's cries and fussiness have not been too helpful on my mood either. :(

So, overall, don't feel so good.

As a commentor on this picture on flickr says, I guess things can only get better?

Oh and by the way, if you look carefully, you might see my right small toe bruised from the box fan falling down on it... I tripped on the cable and caused it to fall on my foot. Bad weekend, I guess.