Mailman cliche comes to life...

This week and next I'm working every day to cover annual leave for both city mail carriers.  I was kinda excited about this, since that means overtime and a VERY nice couple of paychecks :)  Unfortunately, yesterday when I was delivering mail on a walking loop, I got bitten by a dog.  A German Shepherd, owned by parents of a high school friend.  :(  I couldn't see anything coming up to the mailbox because of their hedges, and as soon as I closed their mailbox I heard the dog barking and running up behind me.  The owner was there, and apparently the dog had come from inside the house to come after me, but he wasn't fast enough and the dog bit me twice before the owner could get there.  It was only about 4 seconds total, I didn't have a chance to get to my dog spray and my satchel was on the other hip.  Can't protect both.  The owner locked the dog up and took me inside, where we cleaned it up a little bit and bandaged it.  It took me 40 minutes to get ahold of my boss because she was on a conference call, so I finished that section of the route between call attempts and waited at the church for her to get there.

It was an ordeal.  The carrier that's on vacation had to come in and finish the route because we had to go to the ER and there was still half of the route to finish.  My boss called the police to the house and Animal Control went there and came to the ER to get a statement from me about what happened.  This picture was taken in the ER, before it got flushed out and before the bruises started really coming out.  It doesn't hurt too much, but the other bite on my butt does.  Mostly because of the placement I think; it hurts to sit and walk.  I had to get a tetanus shot (not rabies, thankfully) and the dog was put down this morning.  I feel bad for them, but what else was there to do?  If it happened to me, it could easily happen to anyone else just taking a walk and it could've been far more serious.  That wasn't the first run-in with that dog either, the regular carrier had to run from it twice before.  Sigh.  At least I don't have to worry about the bill because it's worker's comp.  I went back to work today, but had to get a lot of help to get done in time.  Tomorrow will be similar, until I quit hurting enough to get my speed back up. 

Amy had a really good day at Grandma's yesterday, but when I got home she started crying. :(  Only reason I can think of is that she knew I wasn't feeling good and that made her upset.  Her stomach was badly upset for the rest of the night too... not sure what was going on there.  Hopefully we're past it now and we can all get some sleep tonight without the projectile vomiting.  Poor girl :(

The bruises really started filling out last night.  We didn't get pictures of it, but I did take some tonight and they're starting to look better.  Yes, this is better than last night... The tetanus shot hurts worse, which is odd but true.  The bites themselves hurt when they happened, but since then the one on my side doesn't bother me much, despite how ugly it is.  I'm taking antibiotics for 5 days because dog bites get infected so easily and of course in combination with the tetanus shot they're making me a bit woozy.  I can't focus on things as well as I need to for work, but I started to feel better once I was out on the route and I hit a decent stride that was similar to when I was just learning the route.  I needed a lot of help to get back in time, which of course makes me feel bad, but I'd do the same if it was one of the other carriers that was hurt so it'll all work out.  I just hope tomorrow goes better so I don't have to depend so much on everyone else who already has their own job to do.

I don't really know what to do now.  I suppose I'll just let it heal and see how it goes, keep track of the progress and watch for changes, hope it doesn't get infected, and get back to work.  I'm getting a lot of pressure to sue their homeowner's insurance... not sure what I want to do.  On the one hand, it's pretty awful and we could definitely use the money to take care of some bills.  On the other, they're wonderful people and I don't want to hurt them, even if it's just a rate bump on their insurance.  I hate that this happened.  There's nothing good or funny about it, even though the dog-mailman bit has been a joke for years.  

B's job has been almost nonexistent basically since I started working so I really need to keep plugging away at my job.  Hopefully things will get better there, but if they don't soon... VERY soon, we're at a breaking point... he'll have to find a different job.  Guess I sound like I'm feeling pretty crappy tonight.  Well, I am.  However, it's time to wind down for the night and try to get some rest.  Updates tomorrow after my follow-up at my regular clinic.