Funniest serious illness I've ever had: Cat Scratch Fever!

My "wild" cat, who is not in fact wild but acts like it, as injured me pretty badly nearly every time I've handled her. Once she got me bad enough I needed stitches. This past Sunday night, she sunk her claws into so deeply I couldn't get the wounds to bleed, I had a feeing it could go one of two ways, and when I woke up with my hand and arm swollen, I knew it had gone the bad way. I'm immune-impaired, so after my doctor stopped laughing he freaked out and put me on a million antibiotics and a complicated schedule of heating pads and elevation.

I just know I feel horrible and I can't get Ted Nugent out of my head!

I had CSF about ten years ago and it sucked. It took about a month to get back to normal.

Not at all funny if you have it...but funny sounding...like, couldn't they come up with a better "disease-y" sounding name for it?

Hope you get to feeling better soon!

I bought my wife a new cat for Christmas. The cat decided climbing my leg was fun. The cat decided not waiting until I had my pants on before she started climbing was even more fun. When you're a kitten, hearing your human scream at the top of his lungs is the greatest fun.

Anyway, about three days later some glands in my crotch--not my testicles, fuck you very much--swelled up and I went to the medics. He said I had cat scratch fever--good diagnosis thanks to all the cat scratches up and down both legs. I looked at the physician's assistant and said something to the effect of "that's a real disease? I thought it was just a Ted Nugent song about the clap!"

Note: Hair dryer + cat = very bad idea.

One claw went all the way into my pinky finger, and was in so far it actually came back out in a different spot. It was SO painful it wasn't funny. Started swelling almost immediately, and I went to the ER. They taped it up and immediately gave me antibiotics. I even doubled up on the first dose to get it kick started. It just kept getting worse - to the point they were talking about putting me in the hospital on IV antibiotics! They even gave me morphine, the pain was so bad - which made me SICK, so that was fun. Not.

Anyway - I had all kinds of scratches, but the nail hooked in the fleshy part of my pinky was the worst of my injuries. It swelled up so much that when the swelling went down skin peeled off the finger and my hand.

What I'm saying I guess is: I feel your pain! Good luck, and it wouldn't be a bad idea to mark the infection line with ink - if it keeps moving you need ER treatment POST HASTE.