Already Monday

so, what am i doing on this monday morning? i am sitting in my living room, telling myself to go work out instead of sitting here all morning reading or watching tv until it's time for me to head over to dauphin island and start getting all my stuff together and ready to go to port st. joe at the freakin butt crack of dawn tomorrow morning. i'm not doing the best job of motivating myself, though. and i haven't worked out since last wednesday, so i feel guilty about that. my excuse last week was that my arm hurt. actually, it still sort of hurts. and itches. why does my arm sort of hurt and itch, you ask? from that stupid tetanus shot that i told myself i must get or face certain death. yes. today begins day 6 of latina's tetanus shot adventure. i should not still be counting the days since the shot by now. all pain, swelling, and redness should be long gone by now. chad said that his stopped hurting after day 2. true, there has been vast improvement compared to days 3 and 4 (which were bitches in the small universe of latina's upper left arm), but i'm still pissed that there is any evidence of a tetanus shot left at all by now. i'm sure those around me want this stupid itchy red lump on my arm to be gone as much as i do, for all of my complaints. it sort of looks like a spider bite. you know, all hot and red and hard and swollen.

let's recount the days of this tetanus shot fiasco.

day 1 - got the shot, it stung. the stinging went away after a few hours. there was no visible evidence that a giant chrome horse needle was ever plunged deep into my wimpy arm muscle.

day 2 - woke up with the arm hurting like the devil, with a dime-sized red bump between two red spots that marked the places where the band-aid was stuck to my arm. as the day progressed, the bump grew in size and there was excruciating pain any time i used my left arm. but the bump was still only half-dollar coin size at the end of the day.

day 3 - my arm hurts even when i'm not moving it, and the huge red deformity is now approximately the equal in diameter to a baseball. even having a t-shirt on it is unbearable. but at least the bump stops growing.

day 4 - pretty much the same as day 3. slightly less pain when i move the arm.

day 5 - significant improvement (finally!). doesn't hurt much when i move my arm, but still hurts when i push on the bump or lay on the arm (which i do a lot when i'm sleeping). bump shrinks to quarter-sized, but is still very hard and hot and red and itchy.

day 6 (today) - feels just like yesterday. this thing should so be gone by now. but at least i can use my left arm regularly again.

are the effects of a tetanus shot usually this long-lasting, or am i just freakishly sensitive? my consolation - tetanus has to be worse than this. 'cause, you know, i don't think my life is any actual danger from the shot.

anyway, that's enough bitching from me today. tomorrow, it's off to psj to check on my experiment. i'm hoping all the cages are still intact and secure and that no urchins escaped. and now there's no fear of tetanus.