back-alley surgery in room 219

WARNING: the following post contains graphic depictions of the corrective actions taken to remedy the insect bite i've been battling for the past week. if you have a weak stomach, this may not be for you. if you dare, proceed at your own risk and it's probably not a good idea to open the first picture link, the second one is safe.

it's good to know that there are still doctor's that make housecalls. my bite (i'm pretty sure now it was some sort of spider) had not been improving despite the medications i was on. it was VERY swollen (moreso than the last posted picture) and i'd fallen on it two days ago bruising it as well. so, yesterday i asked the hotel if they could give me the name of a doctor to see (the last one, a skin doctor, just gave me med's, didn't even examine it, i shoulddo something nasty to him). the hotel said they'd have a doctor come to the room after work to look at it. i got done work and went to the front desk around 8:20PM, they called the doctor and he was at my room in maybe 10 minutes, medical box in hand. he looked at it, said that hotel said it was a mosquito bite, and he needed more dressings etc. i figured he'd come back the next day but he said he'd be back in 10 minutes. true to his word he was, with more stuff in his kit. he said it was an abcess (i knew that) and it needed incised (cut open and drained). i'd tried this with a sewing needle to no avail, i found out why once he did it. for those with a weak stomach, you might want to stop here... go ahead, i won't think any less of you. click here to jump past the gross

so he opens his box, i was concerned about sterility, but this guy had it down pretty well. he has a scalpel handle and one-time use, sterile packaged scalpel blades (more like x-acto knife blades), but sterile nonetheless. he had sterile packed latex gloves that he opened in front of me. he brought the trash can over, had me sit down on a stool to bleed it into the trash. the only thing he didn't do was disinfect the skin before he cut it, but hey, i think it was worse outside than in, i'd just scraped off a penicillin based topical crust i'd put on it. so he cuts the thing about an inch long, didn't feel a thing, skin is basically dead blister skin. then he squeezed. SWEET MOTHER OF GOD!!!. whoa that hurt. the shite that came out of there was nasty. smelled like ass and lots of blood, lots of clots (probably from the infection AND the bruise from where i'd hit it the day before), and venom-ey, pussy (yes, that IS how it is spelled, blasted homonyms) stuff. i see now why my needle wasn't working. i'd pierced it but the clots were too damn big to get out the wee needle hole. they (being the clots) internally and bacterially laughed at my meager attempt to expunge them. so he squeezed and squeezed and squeezed some more. hurt like a bastard, but this is for the good of my arm. he cut the original scab out, so there was a hole and you could see the pocket was empty. he clamped a bit more of the skin and it didn't hurt, so he cut it off. he inserted an alcohol soaked cotton ball in there swabbed it around a bit. felt a bit like i think napalm would if used similarly. pulled it out and wrapped me up with a gauge pad and gauge wrapping. all his stuff went into the trash, so i had my own personal biohazard bag. 500 rupees was the cost and he is coming to change my dressing today after work and to check up on it. he gave me a prescription for some anti-biotics. it felt very 'reservoir dogs' or 'pulp fiction' when he left. i left my room about 5 minutes after him to go to the bar, and two hotel boys were coming to my room for cleaning. i'm like, i didn't call for cleaning. i'm guessing he stopped at the front desk to tell them that there was a bloody bag with a used blade in it, and they should clean it. kinda like calling harvey keitel to clean up brains in the backseat and dead bodies.

furthermore, i had no proof that this guy was a doctor except that he had doctor stuff and a prescription pad (kinda like "catch me if you can"... if you look like one, you must be one). nice enough guy. again, this is a bit graphic... i took the wrapping off last night to show emma. i swear to you all, this IS an improvement, and i am confident this is only going to get better. if you WANNA see, this is post-operation. there is still a bit of blood on my skin form the surgery overflow that wasn't cleaned up post-op, so that kinda gores it up a bit. i'm all good kids, superman, i tell ya, superman.

oh yeah, this doctor told me i was way over-medicated with the wrong stuff. i'm pretty sure all the good doctors are in america. in other news, my cough is back a bit, ramesh was concerned so he sent his driver out last night to get some Benadryl. he got some and here is a photo from the ingredients. look at that ethanol content!!! it's like fukkin' moonshine. they put that in funny car engines. good god, no wonder it works. and "pleasantly flavoured vehicle" --- my ass!!! it tastes like the shite that came outta my sucking flesh wound smelled. it is quite horrid, but i think it's working, at least that's what the gremlin in my pocket is telling me.