First time owner and I'm a little worried...

[O'Mathghamhna]

Oh..., yeah Thermometer, it's not something that turns the pad on and off, I plug it in and unplug it to keep the temperature between 75 and 85....Something tells me I should look into an actual thermostat

Ohhh yeah. I got one for like $40 from Amazon, works great. The problem with plugging and unplugging is you can't monitor exactly when it starts to get too hot, and unfortunately what feels cool/hot to us may be way too cool or hot for your snake. Maybe a vet visit is in order?