on urgent care compassion...

Since Friday, my left pinkie finger has been really bothering me. By Saturday night it was swollen, feverish, and extremely painful to move or touch.

That means that last night I got a whopping 45 minutes or so of uninterrupted sleep, in those magic moments between the heat pack being too hot to touch and too cold and clammy for comfort. The rest of the time it throbbed and pulsated across my knuckles and down the side of my wrist.

Marius is out of state for a wedding. So I got to take up his side of the bed with pillows arranged neatly to keep the arm propped up vertically. Except that every time I fell asleep the wrist would relax and flop to one side and the throbbing would start up again.

This morning I called my doctor's office. It could be an infected knuckle that might need draining with a needle. Or it could just be another lovely byproduct of all the extra pregnancy fluids. The nice part is that I'm allergic to Extra Strength Tylenol, and all sulfa-based antibiotics. Yay.

So they gave me Hydrocodone and told me to sleep it off. And I did - for three dreamless hours this afternoon.

Then we fashioned a home made splint (brownie points for popsicle sticks, cotton strips, and an ace bandage!!), and I decided to go to Urgent Care.

An hour in the waiting room - dizzy and nauseated - got me to a patient room where I could lie down. 30 minutes later the doctor arrived. Same story.

You must have bumped it and didn't realize. Can't give you most antibiotics cause you're pregnant. Can't give you the rest of available antibiotics cause you're allergic to sulfa. Can't x-ray it cause you're in your 2nd trimester. But I'll swab it to rule out a staph infection.

So he grabs my hand, twists my pinkie finger around to face him, takes this long-handled Q-tip thingy and starts literally attacking my finger with it. Like a scullery maid scrubbing floors.

I gasped as pain shot down my wrist and across my hand. The doctor literally snickered at me.

"Oh, this is nothing! Just wait till you go into labor!"

Yeah. Because you've been in labor yourself, mister. So you would totally know what it's all about.

Gee, thanks for nothing, doc.