When I took the dressing off this morning to take a shower, the hole started bleeding. A lot. As in, it was dripping blood. I put some pads over it and applied pressure, but it was just soaking through them. I tried repacking it with gauze, but it soaked through that, too. So I got to make a trip to the ER. I hadn't even had breakfast yet!

By the time I got there, the bleeding had slowed, but when we took the dressing off so the triage nurse could have a look, this incredibly disgusting smell came out. I mean, this was bad, there is no way I could have missed this smell before, it's brand new.

There nothing so reassuring as seeing your particular injury startle every medical professional who comes to take a look. I think they were sharing me, because I swear a different nurse or doctor came in every five minutes to do something different. Every time, they'd start out smiling, doing the "reassure the patient" game. "Let's see this wound, where is it again?" Then the bandage comes off, and their whole body stops, face freezes, for several seconds, following by a slow, "Oh. Okay...Well, then..." and then they recover. It's like they were all out in the hallway in a huddle:

"Hey, you're not going to believe this lady's stomach, she's got a hole in it *this big*!"

"No way. Didn't she just walk in here like normal?"

"Look for yourself!"

"Dude, I just saw that, and it was unbelievable!"

They did some blood draws to check for sepsis and hemoglobin, make sure I wasn't too sick and hadn't lost too much blood. Then they sent me home on antibiotics and set me up to visit the special Wound Care Clinic at the hospital next week. I'm to make sure the Clinic calls one of the surgeons down to have a look and supervise when I get there (got to make sure *everybody* gets a look, right?).

I mentioned something I was thinking of doing but didn't get a chance, which was to partially debride it at home using a spray saline I found. It's Blairex Wound Wash Saline, which comes in a 210mL aerosol spray bottle. It provides more water pressure than my shower head does, so I had been planning to try it to see if I could wash out some of that snot in the hole. The physician assistant at the ER said that was a good idea and to go ahead with it.

That smell is terrible. I can't even leave my bandages in the trash in the house now, they stink up the bathroom.

I hurt so much worse today. I'm actually up to two Vicodin tonight. I can't do anything. Just standing up long enough to brown ground beef earlier had me in pain and needing rest.

As a bonus, the tape from the bandages has started ripping the top of my skin off and making it bleed.