Poision Ivy will ruin your life!

You may have noticed that I have been away from the blog since posting on the Amazing Scavenger Hunt...

Here is what happened...

I spent the day on Friday putting in an in ground fence for our dog Java, who is our well behaved puppy who just needs some space to run. The process took much longer than I expected, (which was not a surprise to Erin) and I spent like 6 hours digging a 2 in trench around the yard.

Somewhere along the way, I got into poison ivy... not big deal right? I have gotten it a number of times since we moved to Greenville. This was much different. I know now, that I must have picked it up while taking a leak in the woods. Can you put the rest of the pieces together? I have Poison Ivy... down there! I was somewhat uncomfortable throughout the Scavenger Hunt on Saturday, but I was able to keep myself from scratching.

I didn't sleep well Saturday night, and when I got up Sunday morning considerable swelling had begun. I managed to complete all of my church responsibilities on Sunday, but immediately following RidgeStudents, Erin and I went to the emergency room.

We arrived at 9:00pm.
We were seen at 2:45am.

I can't complain, because I kept getting knocked down the list because of heart trauma patient who went into cardiac arrest, a kid with a huge gash in his head, and an older woman who cut the end of her finger off with a knife. My problems seem minor in comparison.

The doctor gave me kudos on an "impressive swelling," and understood why we would have waited so long to be seen. The male nurse kept checking in on me, and apologizing that I had to be uncomfortable for so long.

I had to get a steroid shot in the butt... it didn't hurt, but I nearly passed out 3 times within the next 45 minutes, because of my irrational fear of needles. This was particularly frustrating, because they were trying to discharge me from the ER so that I could go home and go to sleep, but had to keep me there until I could keep myself stable.

Lessons learned:

Never build a fear of needles... it can become very embarrassing
Never pee in the woods again
Never "scratch" again
Never assume "it" will go away in a day or so
Never assume that "bigger is better" - it most certainly is not