Just over a week ago today, Sassy and I were about to finish up our evening walk when I spotted a guy with a dog approaching. It was dark, but as they passed under a street lamp, I could see the dog pulling and jumping all over the sidewalk. It didn’t appear to be leash-trained.
As we walked by them, Sassy and I stepped onto the curb, between a sidewalk tree and a car, so we could avoid them. Normally I’d either walk in the street or cross the street to prevent any encounters since she’s absolutely petrified of other dogs. But we were a few doors down from home, I didn’t.
Big mistake.
Somehow the dog got free and went directly for Sassy. She cowered and yelped and fell into the gutter and I put my arms around her to protect her. She’s less than 20 pounds and she’s 16 with dementia and this dog looked twice her size and young.
In the confusion and in what I can only assume was abject terror, Sassy accidentally bit my right hand.
Hard.
I screamed.
The guy just stood there and watched all of this happen. He said: “She’s only 10 months old,” as if that was meant to explain anything.
When a dog misbehaves like this, you can’t blame the dog. This asshole blamed the dog. It was his damn fault for not controlling her and allowing her to attack Sassy.
“Well, you need to control her better,” I said as I stood up, surprising myself at my calm tone and lack of profanity.

We rushed inside and I got the first glimpse of my hand in the light. There was a puncture wound in the fleshy area under my thumb, and the first drops of dark red blood started to appear. The pain was sharp and stabbing and I screamed, I hopped around, I cried. I sat down on the couch and rocked and wailed and sobbed harder than I have in years.
Meanwhile, Sassy was pacing, which she spends a lot of time doing because of her dementia, but now she was running in circles. I noticed she’d peed on the kitchen floor, something she does out of anxiety sometimes. With my left hand, I stroked her whole body and didn’t see any signs of injury from the other dog. She was just completely freaked out.
I texted Mike at work and he called. He told me to wash it out but I couldn’t because it hurt too much.
After we got off the phone, I took a few deep breaths and ran some soapy water over it because he was right, it needed to be cleaned. Then I wrapped it in some paper towels, which were blood spotted before long.
After a bit, the pain was less acute, and Sassy and I were calmer and now exhausted. So I set out to do what anyone would do while I waited for Mike to come home: Sit on the couch, turn on the most recent episode of “The Bachelor” and drink a glass of wine.
But we recently got a new TV and I couldn’t figure out how to turn it on, and we were out of wine. Womp womp.
So, I sat back down at my laptop and wasted time using my left hand (I’m right handed) until Mike got home.
He cleaned it out more with soapy water and alcohol and covered it in bandages. It didn’t look good — it was starting to swell and it hurt like a motherfucker. It was bearable, though. I thought a serious dog bite would be bigger, bloodier, much scarier.
But I later learned smaller bites like this are actually more dangerous. Cat bites are even worse, I was told, because their longer, sharper teeth can send bacteria deeper into tissue, even though the wound would appear to be tiny.
We thought we’d keep and eye on it and maybe we’d go to the hospital in the morning but I didn’t want to be viewed as an alarmist hypochrondriac. It would probably be fine. I planned to email my boss in the morning to request a half day to get it bandaged up properly. We had no idea how bad it was.
This delay in getting treatment was the cause of all the crap that would follow over the next few days.
I took a Tylenol before bed and the pain woke me up when it wore off, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. In the morning, Mike noticed it had become even more swollen, and it felt like a piece of raw meat at the end of my wrist. He firmly said we were going to the ER. We didn’t know it at the time, but if we had waited any longer I’d be in an even bigger mess.
Hospital
We took an Uber to Thomas Jefferson University Medical Center last Thursday morning. There was nobody waiting in the ER so I got in immediately. I was put on IV antibiotics right away, and that IV stayed in my arm for more than two days. I got x-rays (nothing remarkable) and a hand surgeon was called.

The upshot was that in the hours since the bite, my hand had developed a severe bacterial infection from Sassy’s nasty hot garbage mouth. We should’ve come in right away because the infection just got worse overnight.
The other issue was that the wound was pretty small and the stuff coming out of it kept drying up, creating a roof on the wound when the nasty junk needed to get out.
The hand doctor squeezed the hell out of my wound trying to get some of the pus out.
I’ll spare you the other details but he did some stuff that hurt so much that I screamed fuck over and over while grasping Mike’s hand. (I also got a shot of lidocaine into my hand, but it hurt like hell and didn’t really numb me much at all.) Mercifully, I was given small doses of morphine every few hours in my IV line.
I couldn’t do much of anything with my right hand. I couldn’t even touch my pointer finger and thumb.
I was shocked when I was told I’d have to stay overnight. I had no supplies with me. I really thought Mike and I would be out of there within an hour or two and if we had time, we’d go to buy a new car, something we needed to do so Mike could get to his new job more easily, before I had to get back to work around lunchtime.

Later on I was moved upstairs for observation where I stayed until Friday night, then I was moved to a different part of the hospital until my discharge Saturday. I was on two different IV antibiotics and I’d get a new bag every couple of hours hours. Every few hours my vital signs — pulse, blood pressure and temperature — were taken.
So, I didn’t even try to sleep Thursday night, I just read news articles and blogs on my phone, texted and emailed people using my left thumb to type (very frustrating, but it killed time because it took me so long) and chatted with the nurses and techs who came in to do stuff to me. Mike had brought me my Kindle, but my mind was too foggy from pain pills to focus on a book. Because of all the activity and worry about my hand, I was barely even tired. At that point I was being given two Percocet every two hours so I was definitely woozy, though.

I was wearing my cherry and white Temple University shirt (until Mike brought me a new one) and just about everyone who came in asked me if I went to Temple, if I taught there, if I graduated from there. I was grateful for the conversation at first but after the third or fourth time I wanted to give everyone who brought it up the side eye. I also got tired of answering questions about how I got the dog bite. I just wanted to go home.
Things came to a head Friday afternoon. The day before, a nurse practitioner had drawn a line on my hand around the swollen part, which consisted of the area from my middle finger to my wrist to my thumb.
By mid-afternoon, the swelling had spread past the line. Now my paw was so swollen it appeared as if it belonged on someone else’s body. It looked like a meat balloon and my fingers looked like chubby hot dogs and it felt like it was going to explode. Even my wrist was huge and puffy.
From the start there was talk of possible surgery, which sounds scary but it just would involve cutting my hand open more to allow it to drain and combat the infection.
Friday afternoon, when it was clear that my hand was just getting worse, one of the hand surgeons performed a bedside incision and drainage procedure with local anesthesia as I held Mike’s hand. I was glad I didn’t have to go into the operating room, which would have cost so much more, even with insurance.

I hadn’t been permitted to eat for more than 10 hours in case they needed to put me under in the OR, so once my hand was bandaged up again, Mike and I feasted on veggie hoagies that his mom and stepdad brought for us.
I was able to sleep for a couple hours early Saturday, until I was awoken by another hand doctor before the sun came up. He cleaned out the incision and squeezed it and said it still didn’t look that great, but it did look better, so they were going to try to discharge me later that day. Woo hoo!
I was feeling better (maybe it was the Percocet) and they unhooked my IV and let me get up and walk around Saturday morning. After being in bed for so long it felt so good to stretch my legs. I wandered the halls, texted Mike — he was out buying a car with guidance from his stepdad — looked out the window, and just relished the freedom.

A little while later, another hand doctor came by and confirmed I would be discharged in a few hours! I had to keep my hand wrapped and they gave me an antibiotic that I have to take every eight hours for 10 days.
I was in the mood to celebrate with pizza as Mike picked me up in our beautiful, shiny just-like-new Honda Accord! But, they gave me one dose of the oral antibiotic before I left, and I hadn’t eaten. So I had Mike pull over and I got sick in some parking lot, then a little while later I got sick again at home as our victory pizza got cold. I fell asleep at 7 p.m. and didn’t wake until 15 hours later.
The current state of my hand
My follow-up at the Hand Center on Monday was a hot mess. I thought I was doing great and I assumed they’d take a look at it, pat me on the head and send me home. But there were worried looks and talk of a second fucking surgery to allow more of the gunk in there to drain. The infection is still there.
The doctor said they were going to put my hand in a splint. This is to immobilize my hand and keep the infection from spreading. I thought it would be some small thing, but I was fitted with a custom made removable plastic cast/brace with velcro straps that makes my arm look like a freaking robot arm. I couldn’t believe it.

I can’t work with that thing on. My right hand is busy! So I wear it when I’m done working. I also have to soak my hand for 30 minutes per day at least twice a day in a peroxide and water mixture. I go back next Monday so I’m hoping they’ll tell me it’s finally looking good.
The occupational therapist who made my robot arm asked me about Sassy and my injury, and I was surprised by the words that came out of my mouth: “I’m afraid of my dog now.” I felt tears coming to my eyes and I just wanted to sob, but I kept my shit together.
This is really long, so in my next post I’ll talk about the emotional side of what happened. If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading.

I read your blog about 18 hours after I was bitten. One of my dogs went after the other and my hand just happened to be in the way. A bite and 1 puncture wound at my thumb joint on my left hand. After reading your blog I knew I should have gone to the ER the morning this happened .it was 24 hours before I wewentI went home with a prescription for augmenten 875 and instructions to cone back if swelling increased and there was pus. Well day 2 and here I sit in the ER waiting to see the doc. Had I come the morning this happened I might not be experiencing this. Did I mention my air conditioning is also out?
I was bitten by my frenchy mix a week ago. I have not felt pain like that! Thankfully, i went to the er immediately. Lots of antibiotics (and vomiting) later I’m still in pain but getting better. Thanks for sharing your story. Mine was breaking her and the chihuahua up. I was afraid i would be scared of her too, but i really tried to remember she wasn’t being aggressive towards me.
Great article and extremely helpful. It’s 5:50 a.m.and I’m now counting down the time until the nearby walkin clinic opens to have my forearm checked. Though my shih tzu Miles left only a small puncture wound that hardly bled when he snapped at me and bit my arm when I guess he was startled as I reached for the remote behind him four hours ago, my arm is now swollen and sooo sore, and I can hardly open and close my hand. Thank you for this article!
Oh jeez! I hope you’re doing okay. I’m glad my blog post was able to give you some info on what to do! When my dog bit me there was hardly any blood either but MAN was it swollen. Speedy recovery! 🙂
July 2017 I was bitten on both hands by a 200# Mastiff owned by a friend. First Dr. cleaned wound and gave tetanus shot and antibiotics. Two days later hand was a balloon. Went to ER and sports med surgeon put me under, “cleaned” wound and sewed shut incision. I spent the night is hospital. $29k bill from hospital.Four more trips to ER over the next two weeks because of persistent infection. Sports med surgeon and his associate hand surgeon failed to understand the need of a drain. Super Dr at final ER visit figured it out and opened me up and inserted drain. Was on oral antibiotics 45 days. Had a second general anesthesia operation. Severe internal damage to internal workings of left hand, wrist, elbow and shoulder. Now after 7 months have regained only 70% use of left arm. Dog’s owner’s insurance company is Travelers Insurance and it refuses to pay bills despite me being unable to work for six months. I’m financially wiped out, hounded daily by medical service providers and collection agencies. Travelers Insurance is not a reputable firm. Stay clear at all costs.
Well, right after I read your comment about swelling I began to think you were right about infection so I pushed on the swelling and puss poured out of the holes, gross I know. I was so sick, couldn’t walk right or even think clearly. I went to the emergency room immediately and my blood pressure was sky high and I was pouring off sweat although my temp was normal. The doctor took one look at it and knew it was a severe infection. I was given iv antibiotics and had blood work done. I was released about 4 hours later, I got a new prescription for antibiotics, so right now I’m taking two of them twice a day. It’s been two days and I can finally move my hand and the pain is slowly going away. I definitely learned my lesson though, never wait to take a medication when you’re dealing with a bite. Literally less than 24 til I took the meds but it was too late, the infection was already started. I’m glad I ran across your post and you replied so quickly. If you wouldn’t have I probably would waited a few more days before going in. Thank you for wisdom haha, even if it was learned the hard way.
Ahhh I was wondering how you were doing! I’m glad you went back and got it taken care of before it got worse. Thanks so much for the update! I hope it heals quickly and you never have to experience anything like this again. Glad I was able to help.
I was googling dog bites and pain and came across your post. I was bitten by my dog yesterday , chow/mix. Two deep holes in the top of my hand and smaller ones around the wrist. I’m in the worst pain I’ve ever felt. I got stitches and a tetanus shot and was sent home with antibiotics. My hand is so swollen today and hurts more than it did yesterday. The tetanus shot is giving me side effects, I’m extremely sick and my anxiety is racing. I haven’t taken the antibiotics yet cause I’m anxious about the side effects of it. My hand isn’t oozing but the pain is so bad, literally feels like my hand was crushed. I’m not sure what to do, go back to the hospital or wait a day to see if it gets better.
Oh man! I’m so sorry his happened to you. Unfortunately (as you know) I can relate, and I urge you to take the antibiotics as well as go back to the hospital. You mentioned it’s swelling — that could be a sign that an infection has set in, and that’s really bad. Any side effects you experience will be nothing compared to the pain of an infection. I had to be on IV antibiotics for more than two days followed by 10 days on oral antibiotics. Chances are it won’t get better on its own. Did you get an x-ray? If not, I’d do that because you might have broken bones in your hand. When I went to he ER that was the first thing they did so that broken bones could be ruled out. My experience taught me that dog bites are SERIOUS. Please go back! I’ll send you healing thoughts. Update me if you’re able!!
go back to the hospital! An animal bite is nothing to fool around with.
[…] Here's what happens when you don't get a dog bite treated right away […]
Oh what a shitshow. Otter bit Amy once, similar spot, but she went into shock right away so I got her to the ER asap. Looks like that was a good call. So sorry you’re still suffering. Big hugs to you, Mike, and Sassy.
Thanks, Megan! That must have been scary when it happened to Amy – I’m glad she was okay. Is it bad to say it’s something of comfort to know Sassy isn’t the only otherwise sweet pet who bites? 🙂
Oh, what an ordeal, Jen! I’m thankful your girl was okay. I hate to hear of what you have gone through, and I wish you a speedy recovery!
Well, fuck! That’s just a bunch of bullshit 🙁 I’m so sorry this happened. I had no idea something like that could escalate so quickly. I hate people that think rules/laws aren’t made for them and they can ignore leashes. Soooo not okay. Waiting for part two… How is Sassy doing with all of this?
Thank you <3 She barked in her sleep that night and she seems even more terrified of dogs than before, something I never thought was possible! I feel so bad for her.
Holy crap, Jen! This has all been in the course of a week? I’m so sorry you are having to go through this – both on an OUCH level and an emotional OUCH level. Guilt, fear, pain, sadness – not a fun roller coaster combination for sure! (Chris Morris)
Thanks, Chris xo