Oh, Jared!

Okay, so, I think everyone is aware of Jared's knee surgery by now. If not you can refer back a couple of blogs. His knee is looking great! He's having some trouble getting it to straighten out completely, so he's sort of getting in trouble from his physical therapist.
Well, this is the new situation. When Jared got home from work on Wednesday, he was changing out of his work clothes, he started to take off his knee brace that he wears everyday, and I noticed a red spot (kind of like a whelp) on his leg about five inches above his knee and a little to the right. He hadn't felt anything and it didn't seem like a big deal. We thought maybe it was just from his brace. The next morning when I looked at it, it had doubled in size and had a bluish color in center of it, and he said he was feeling lightheaded and anxious. Now I was getting worried! 8:30, I called the doctors office. I was told that they would pull his chart and give us a call when the assistant (Bonnie) got there. Our first thought was blood clot, probably superficial, but still. He went to work, and I spent the whole day trying to get in touch with his surgeon. Well, Thursdays are the doctor's surgery days, so he and his assistant were out all day. At some point I called back and was able to set an appointment for 3:30 the next day, and I was told later that I probably wouldn't hear anything from the Dr. until after 4:00 because that's when he usually finishes with the surgeries. Finally, I get a call back from the nurse in the office saying that Bonnie thought it was just swelling from the surgery and that she would see us tomorrow. We'll I knew that wasn't right, but I thought "Fine, they are just going to be surprised when they see his leg tomorrow." So, Jared comes home that night, his leg looking about the same (he had worn his brace all day). I drew some lines around it so that we could tell if the redness was spreading, and we went to bed. The next morning, Friday, he took a bath and it looked as though it had spread about a quarter of an inch around. I called the Dr's office and moved his appointment up to 1:15, and he took off work for the morning. We get there, they call us back, and we wait. Bonnie comes in first to access the situation, and was completely caught off guard by what she saw. She said "I have no idea, I have never seen anything like that". She said she was going to get Dr. Bothwell to come and look at it. She leaves and a couple minutes later we hear a knock on the door. Three nurses were curious and wanted to come in and look at this strange spot on Jared's leg. A few minutes later Dr. Bothwell comes in. He's a really nice guy. He's a tall guy with a fun personality, kind of like a big kid. So, the first thing he says is " What the heck is that!" We all laugh, but with a concerned look, he starts to look over Jared's leg. He's not sure what it is, but does determine that it's not from the surgery. He advises us to go to the Emergency Room to have it looked at so we can start treating it. So, we're off! Just down the street to the Harris Emergency Room. We pick up lunch on the way, and then we go get admitted. And might I add, that Emergency Room's gross me out! I was totally paranoid the whole time think that Jackson was going to contract some strange illness. Thank Goodness for those hand sanitizer pumps that they place on all the walls in there. So after being there for a couple of hour's, getting a room, and Jared changing into one of those lovely gowns, we finally see a doctor. He comes in with his two interns, and diagnosis Jared with none other than a Brown Recluse bite. Only one of the worst kinds of spider bites you can get. And I will also add that I didn't really like that doctor. Anyway, so he writes Jared a prescription for a couple different antibiotics, and about another hour later, we get to leave.
What an adventure! The next day Jared worked on my car and then went to help is friend work on putting siding on a shed. So, by the end of Saturday, that nice blue spot was black. He took it easy all day Sunday, so it hasn't changed much more, but it still looks pretty gross. He got online and looked up other cases of Brown Recluse bites, and got a little freaked out. They can get really bad, but I think that his will heal okay. I bet there will be a scar though, and it will probably be worse than any of the one's he got from surgery! These picts were taken on the same day, but you can tell how much more black it turned within a couple of hours. Yikes!