I was bitten by a neighbor's dog this past Saturday while walking home from my run. This particular dog is quite aggressive and I usually give her a wide berth even though she is in a fenced yard. The fence is not adequate for her and she has gotten out of it before.
The kids who live there had made her go into their house when they saw me walking by. But they didn't close the door. I stooped down and moved one of the fence slats back into place and was about to fix another when the dog attacked me. I didn't even see her coming.
I believe that I was in shock at first. The kids helped me get back up and then walked me home which wasn't far. By the time I got home I was sobbing and bleeding a lot and said, "I need to go to the hospital." Praise God that my husband was home. He dropped what he was doing, grabbed a paper towel and an old bath towel for me and then hustled me off to the closest ER.
They got me in pretty quickly and got me cleaned up. They took X-rays to make sure there were no breaks or fractures in my bones. All clear there. We were having trouble getting in touch with the dog's owner. So the hospital filed a report with Animal Services.
As you can see in the pictures, they only put one stitch in each of the deepest wounds. They didn't want to put more because of the risk of infection. I got a tetanus shot and was sent home with a script for antibiotics.
Last night the dog's owner dropped off these lovely flowers. She keeps on apologizing even though I keep telling her that it wasn't her fault.
She had told me on the phone yesterday that the dog had puppies inside the house that she was protecting. I didn't blame the dog at all and even less so after hearing that. I had suspected that she had pups. The owner also told me that they are building a privacy fence for the back yard and will keep that dog in the back from now on. The dog is going to have to be in isolation for 10 days, I'm guessing her pups which are still nursing will have to go with her.
When I got up this morning, my arm hurt just to move my fingers. My hand was/is swollen and red which hadn't been the case before. So when I called to set up an appointment to get the stitches removed with my regular doctor, I talked to a nurse who told me to go back to the ER.
My sweet, long suffering husband got permission to leave work and take me back to the ER. When we were ushered back the same male nurse who had cleaned me up on Saturday said, "Oh, you're BACK?" Then the same doctor, who incidentally looked like Ariana Grande, treated me.
She confirmed that my arm is infected and took the stitches back out. She said that at this point they were just a bacteria magnet. Then she squeezed as much of the infection out of the wounds as she could. I told her that if I were a person who cussed, I would have been cussing at that moment. She had the nurse give me a pain pill when she was done. Next they took blood work and then after getting the results from that, got me set up with IV antibiotics.
They told me that I need to come back again tomorrow to have more IV antibiotics. Each time I have to go back to the ER it's another $250. Uuuugh! We have the money, praise God, thanks to our tax return. But my husband had planned to use it for other purposes.
Now, my struggle is that I'm angry at myself for being so foolish and messing with that fence when I should have just kept on walking. I'm trying to tell myself things like, "Maybe I saved a child from getting attacked." But I'm still quite frustrated with myself even though I know:
Can anything happen without the Lord's permission?
Lamentations 3:37
Yesterday I was thinking that maybe God allowed me to get bitten by that dog so that I can develop a friendship with the owner and maybe even share the gospel with her. That would certainly help me to feel less aggravated with myself over this. In fact that would make it all worth it! I am praying that the Lord would open those doors as he sees fit. I would love for any of you who feel led to join me in prayer for this!
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