well i just have to say i had my infusion tuesday down at white memorial in East L.A. no problem as usual, everything is going fine, when about 1 hour before i am done i get a call on my phone from a client asking if i could go sit with their two german shepards while they were on their way home from san diego. i did not really want to because i was going to my sculpture class right after IV but like a people pleasing fool i said yes. so i drive to eagle rock, go up to house and the dogs greet me warmly. very friendly, (I have dog-sat with these dogs before) i walk into kitchen turn around and the male dog jackson just attacks me biting and biting my arm and hand. Gawd, the pain. it was horrible i was scared really thought he was going to kill me, he was like cujo. i was trapped between him and a locked door, i got out back door with just a few bites on my legs. i was bleeding all over the place and my whole right arm was throbbing in pain. i started screaming help, help somebody help me, it was residential and not a soul was home. they had a 6 foot fence all the way around and i couldnt get the lock open i had my arm wrapped in t-shirt compressing it with my left hand. I kept telling myself not to panic to "think" so I pulled a chair over to fence and propped it up. First time chair fell over, second time I got my leg up and over fence, balancing with only strength on my left side (pretty good for being 55 and 170 lbs!) fell to the ground got up ran out to the middle of street, flagged down a man in a truck, who probably thought I was nuts, or a dom. violence victim or a gunshot victim, we are in Calif. you know. I told him a dog mauled me. The firemen came, then the paramedics came and took me to Glendale Adventist, I was moaning and wimpering and doing deep breathing, The pain was unbearable, and they were just letting me lay there for about 15-20 mins, in the ER, when a man (who I thought was the doctor) told me to "keep quiet" that my moaning was upsetting his other patients! I told him I couldn't help it that I was sorry, and I starting crying. Could he please give something for the pain? Then I asked him if he was the doctor, and he said no, he was the nurse. So finally he came back with Ativan, and morphine, and the pain dissolved, thank Gawd. Then The Doctor came, she was a young (well 30's) woman. She was so nice, and reassuring. They cleaned wounds, stitched them up, and then I went home. My right hand and arm are completely paralyzed, like a had a stroke. I am so FRIKKING angry!!!! I cant do anything! I have to take vicadin a lots of antibiotics and I feel nauseated with a headache. I am depressed, I just cried myself to sleep last night. My husband said that crying wasn't going to help, and I said he was making me feel guilty, so I cried anyway, and I feel better today. What is it with me and not wanting you to express pain? Don't they realize it is self-soothing? I am grateful for being older and wiser to know which heals me faster, and I will NO LONGER be intimidated by people telling me how I should react to pain. They can either leave the room, or that nurse could have put me outside to moan, until he came up with the pain meds. Just saying.