Yesterday, I was trying to see if we had even one fish left in our poor little pond, which has dropped four or five feet due to the drought.  When I pulled the trap in, there was an enormous frog, tons of tadpoles, and a stick that was about 15 inches long.  Then the "stick"--a small moccasin--got me in the leg.  I have a bruise half the size of a football, and not even morphine helped with the pain.  Next snake I see in my pond will see the end of my old .22.

After I got a call from one of Mom's friends this afternoon, asking for an update regarding Mom's condition, I figured I should update everyone, eh?

At this stage post-operation, Mom is doing quite well. She is in pain, but that is expected. The room is pretty nice and large; there is even a DVD player (thankfully for Little Bear, who is the one mostly at the hospital -- I don't get paid time off for family health things).

There really isn't much else to say, I think. I will update as there is information -- hopefully she will be back home before too long, and will be able to update you all herself!

As is sometimes the case, my hand didn't heal at all while the stitches were in place.  Dr. Tremor realized that they were causing more damage than helping, and removed them.  He said with my diabetes and decreased ability to heal, that the wound would have to heal from the inside out and the stitches just got in the way.  So he took them out, in favor of strips.  The strips fell off after a couple days, and the wound looked better than it had since it had happened.  He also told me to use the antibiotic once daily, and let the wound dry (which one of the nurses in the ER also said, but the ER doctor instructed otherwise).

Now, though it is still not healed (and there is a great deal of pain in it when I don't take painkillers--which I am avoiding right now), it is almost completely sealed.  I can't see all the way down through my skin into my muscle tissue--and sometimes glimpse my bone, as before.  It no longer extends around the side of my hand, and the opening is only about half an inch long, though the picture looks like it is longer (that is the peeling of the outer layers of skin along the edges of the original wound).

I really appreciate Dr. Tremor's experience with this kind of problem.