Finally! I'm of use around here (and a smarty pants). With the incubation period that you describe, you didn't have "Cat Scratch Fever", which is caused by Bartonella sp. bacteria. You can find more on this disease at Wikipedia, but in general, it has an incubation period of 1-2 weeks and the symptoms are of lympadenopathy in nature (swollen lymph glands). It can be treated with antibiotics, but it is especially bad in patients with any sort of auto-immune disorder or therapy. Instead, what you had is classic infection by Pasteurella sp., usually Pasteurella multocida (named to honor Louis Pasteur). Symptoms of infection are very rapid to develop; in 1 or 2 hours, redness, swelling and severe pain can appear. Fever, moderate or very high can be seen along with some other symptoms. Rapidity is especially from a bite, which after all is a puncture wound which makes a happy buffet for bacteria. These bacteria are normal mouth flora in many domestic animals including cats, dogs & rabbits. They are adept at causing infection due to production of enzymes that breakdown tissue. As with any bacteria that causes infection or necrosis, this puts the immune system at a mechanical disadvantage because antibodies, immune cells and also antibiotics are transported to the site via blood supply which is disrupted in an abscess. They are generally very susceptible to a variety of antibiotics; *however*, if the wound is a bite wound, by far the best coverage will be with ampicillin/clavulanate (Augmentin (tm)) *because* of all of the other oral flora that have also been inoculated into your finger, toe or other appendage. (It is also the antibiotic of choice if you get in a bare-knuckle fist fight in a bar, game or reality show and shwack someone in the face, fyi ;-) Leaving a real infection to more homeopathic methods is NOT recommended as Pasteurella spp. as well as several of the oral flora bacteria organisms are also adept at causing osteomyelitis (bone infection) if they come in contact with bone and are left untreated.

As hard as it is to make a negative post, this one saved me. I had a big box sitting on my dining room table to be mailed the next morning to someone named purpleflor. I had never traded with her before, but she was so nice in her emails. I decided to do a search for her on rate and review and thought it strange that her user name did not come up at all. I expanded my search and found this thread and it sure sounded like the Erin in Illinois that my box was addressed to. I then contacted the 5 people who had made negative comments about her. Each one of them has confirmed that they mailed their boxes to the same address that mine was going to. Needless to say, my box is not going anywhere unless the box she was to mail to me on Monday 4-20 arrives. I would feel bad trading with someone who owes others plants. My thinking is that if she really had an accident, that does not change that she is feeling good enough now to be actively looking for new trades while she still owes people plants. If you search under her new name, you will see that she is actively looking for more trades. And if she is an honest trader, why did she change her user name? I give sincere thanks to the members who posted here to warn the rest of us. You saved me! If her box arrives in the next couple of days I'll certainly return to let everyone know. She told me that she would contact me when she shipped and she has not done that. BUT, she said she was going to ship on Monday and did not contact me to say otherwise when she knew I was to ship mine. If she has a hard luck story for me...well, I can only take coincidence so far...and the fact remains that she is arranging new trades while she has not come through on others.

Mclarke, marijuana growing. Some guy bought the house new but didn't move in. He'd come here every couple of days. He kept the place up, mowed the lawn, weeded and so on. The neighbors said he was a nice guy and the perfect neighbor, never any noise or anything. Then one day the feds came and hauled out many, many marijuana plants -- apparently there were plants in every room! Now mind you, this is a decent middle class suburban neighborhood, with the accent on "neighbor" not on "hood." :) The neighbors never saw the owner again. Anita, then it stood vacant for several years. When the government (I guess?) finally sold it, they sold it to the people who were here before me, for 11 years. They were a young couple, and they had two darling little boys while they were here, so I think they were a happy, loving young family. The man was a carpenter so he did some cool things to the house, put a lot of love into it. Anyway, I feel just fine here. I think this house has great vibes. The neighbors always laugh when they tell me about its former occupant. Of course, it would have been an even happier place if the the feds had left the plants here -- haha! But don't look at me -- I'm not growing anything more exciting than a philodendren.

Dedtired - thanks for the kind words about my braids! I refer to it as my Rhoda Penmark "do" ... You remember her from The Bad Seed, right? ;-) DH and I also wondered how useful we would be on this medical mission, since neither of us has any training (beyond basic CPR). Our fears of inadequacy were quickly put to rest when we had to just jump in and start doing. DH was the muscles of the group, hefting heavy equipment that needed to be loaded and unloaded, and he also overcame his lack of Spanish-speaking ability when working with patients who needed reading glasses. We did have translators who were a huge help, but once they gave us some rudimentary phrases we were able to do a good deal without their help. I assisted him with the reading glasses, and one day we distributed shoes to the children, which required fitting little feet. Most of my time was spent as patient coordinator, acting as sort of a "gatekeeper" and ensuring that the flow went smoothly. My forte is administrative work, and I found my skills well put to use in the tasks I was assigned. There is so much work out there to be done, and there are so many roles that need to be filled. Think of it this way: The Air Force doesn't just need pilots. ;-)