Tuesday, April 18, 2023

Is Mrs. HM Patient Zero For A New Malady?

Friday night, I snoozed off on the short couch in the wee hours of the morning. I was quite comfy, having my hands in the pockets of my fleece jacket, and covered by the fleece throw The Pony left me from his college days.

When I woke up, my right hand was itching on the ring finger. I don't wear rings, just describing which finger. It was on the last section of finger. The part with the fingernail. The intense itching was on the finger pad. It was hot and red. I daresay my fingerprint would have been so stretched out as to eliminate me from a crime scene.

Dang! It itched so much. I had to scratch. That's not very much space to scratch. Sometimes I just rubbed in on the tweed-like upholstery of the couch cushion. I couldn't see anything wrong with the finger itself. I vaguely remembered it feeling like I had scratched it a couple days previous. Perhaps while getting ice cubes out of the bin in FRIG II, or on the wooden handrail while going down the steps on the side porch.

Through the morning and into the early afternoon, that finger itched like the dickens. It was swollen to three times the size of the ring finger on my left hand. When I got in the shower, it HURT! The hot water running on it made my whole right hand feel like it was on fire. It lit up like a Christmas tree. A Christmas tree in a steel foundry on the surface of the sun, decorated entirely with red lights, just before bursting into flames.

I took a picture in town on Sunday. 


It's only about double the size of the left-hand ring finger in this photo. Doesn't feel like the skin is about to explode. As you might notice, it developed a small bump filled with clear fluid. No, I did not squoosh it open. That's just an observation of what I see when I push at it, and the contents move around under the skin. What in the Not-Heaven? What disease have I contracted?

I showed Farmer H, and he suggested that it might be a spider bite. I don't think so. To make matters worse, and more curious, on Sunday night, another such bump popped up on my right index finger, between the punching knuckle and the frogging knuckle, on the side by my bad finger.

There's more to this story...

4 comments:

River said...

Frogging knuckle? Is that the middle knuckle? That swelling looks painful. I would have squooshed it by now and then stuck my finger in a bowl of disinfectant.

Hillbilly Mom said...

River,
Yes, the middle knuckle. You bend your fingers, and use the index and badfinger knuckles to forcefully jab somebody in their upper arm muscle. The muscle that lifts your arms out like you're flapping chicken wings. That's called FROGGING somebody. Of course I've never done it... but it was all the rage with the boys in my class.

I am not a squoosher. But SOMEBODY is. Story will continue...

Kathy's Klothesline said...

I have those little itchy bumps fro time to time on my fingers. I thought it was from playing in the dirt. I have several pair of garden gloves that I forget to grab n my way outside. Fire ants will leave bumps filled with fluid and the area around them will be swollen and hot to the touch. As soon as I pop the bumps and release the fluid it feels much better.

Hillbilly Mom said...

Kathy,
No fire ants around here, thank the Gummi Mary! I didn't want to pop these, in case the fluid might spread the bumps elsewhere.