kodi
Well-known member
I wasn't real sure where to post this so this is as good as any. I know I don't participate as much as I would like on this forum except my daily checking of Active Lifestyles but this was a scary experience for me.
As we all know life is full of experiences, good, bad and indifferent. I now have three that I would never want to repeat. The first was in 1995
when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had surgery to remove it. The second was in Oct 2006 when I an my aortic valve replaced. The third was just this past week and I'm still not 100% over it. Last Wed or Thur (Dec 5 or 6) I had a small bump on my right arm right above my elbow. It was a little itchy like a small bite. I didn't think much about it but next day it was getting a pus pocket on it. I picked at it and tried to squeeze it with a little luck. I treated it with ichthammol salve (one of my mother's
favorite remedies) which I found out from current literature is still very good and drains an abcess. I wasn't so lucky and each day it grew more. Last Saturday I went to the urgent care center and had it lanced and drained, came home with some strong antibiotics. By Sunday it kept getting worse starting to hurt. Monday I made an appointment with my PCP (for Tuesday). I left there with it drained again and some more antibiotics. He sent me to a general surgeon on Wed. He looked at it and admitted me to
the hospital because it was too large for him to care for in his office. YIPEE! just what I wanted to do get admitted to the hospital for minor surgery. I was immediately put on antibiotics thru an IV. At 7:45 PM I had surgery to take care of the problem. My intention was to go home take the antibiotics and go on with life. It didn't happen. They needed to get culture results to decide the best antibiotics to use. In the meantime it was hospital food, IV antibiotics, boring TV which I don't watch and reading. BTW, I read "A Train to Potevka" which I found very interesting and about half of the current "Runner's World" magazine. Thursday AM a technician came in to clean the wound. My second YIPPEE! She removed the dressing the dr applied which included a very, very long piece of benedine (or some name similar to that..it's the color of iodine and does contain iodine). This was the first time I felt any real pain and nausea. She then flushed it with saline and managed to repack it with more gauze soaked benedine. This would happen three more times before I left the hospital. Still waiting for the culture
results, I spent Thursday night in the hospital. Friday wasn't much different than Thursday until about 7:00PM when the Dr came in with the news. The strain of infection is called MRSA (in hospital slang said mursa) and is known as the superbug. Not wanting to scare anyone out there but this is about as bad as you can get. For me, and right from the start, regardless of what it was I was extremely concerned about any infection because of my heart valve. This really scared the living you know out of me. The dr was
able to prescribe some very strong antibiotics for me and released me at 7:30 Friday night. I'm now home and on home-health care who will come three times a week to clean and redress the wound. On the other days, my dear friend, Ron will have the honors....God Bless Him. On the good side, I'm on no restrictions from the doctor as far as activities but will take this coming week off from running and do some walking. However, since I'm on home-health care in order for Medicare to pay I'm supposed to be home-bound. I guess this is just another beauacracy thing. I'm allowed to go out for
food, medication and other necessities only. Of course, for me running and exercise is a necessity, but I'm sure our government would see it that way. The other good thing is I'm not 'sick'. I've taken exactly one pain pill while in the hospital and two aleve this AM prior to my 'cleaning'. I was bored almost to tears in the hospital and the halls weren't quite long enough to get much of a good walking workout in. I did get to watch Jeopardy two times, a show I like but never get to see. At any rate, I'm well on the road to recovery. Oh, two more things: a big disappointment relating to this. Judy
and Bob (daughter/son-in-law) are having their 15th annual Christmas party tonight, an event we look forward to all year long and won't be able to make it this time. Second...I wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HEALTHY, HAPPY NEW YEAR.
As we all know life is full of experiences, good, bad and indifferent. I now have three that I would never want to repeat. The first was in 1995
when I was diagnosed with prostate cancer and had surgery to remove it. The second was in Oct 2006 when I an my aortic valve replaced. The third was just this past week and I'm still not 100% over it. Last Wed or Thur (Dec 5 or 6) I had a small bump on my right arm right above my elbow. It was a little itchy like a small bite. I didn't think much about it but next day it was getting a pus pocket on it. I picked at it and tried to squeeze it with a little luck. I treated it with ichthammol salve (one of my mother's
favorite remedies) which I found out from current literature is still very good and drains an abcess. I wasn't so lucky and each day it grew more. Last Saturday I went to the urgent care center and had it lanced and drained, came home with some strong antibiotics. By Sunday it kept getting worse starting to hurt. Monday I made an appointment with my PCP (for Tuesday). I left there with it drained again and some more antibiotics. He sent me to a general surgeon on Wed. He looked at it and admitted me to
the hospital because it was too large for him to care for in his office. YIPEE! just what I wanted to do get admitted to the hospital for minor surgery. I was immediately put on antibiotics thru an IV. At 7:45 PM I had surgery to take care of the problem. My intention was to go home take the antibiotics and go on with life. It didn't happen. They needed to get culture results to decide the best antibiotics to use. In the meantime it was hospital food, IV antibiotics, boring TV which I don't watch and reading. BTW, I read "A Train to Potevka" which I found very interesting and about half of the current "Runner's World" magazine. Thursday AM a technician came in to clean the wound. My second YIPPEE! She removed the dressing the dr applied which included a very, very long piece of benedine (or some name similar to that..it's the color of iodine and does contain iodine). This was the first time I felt any real pain and nausea. She then flushed it with saline and managed to repack it with more gauze soaked benedine. This would happen three more times before I left the hospital. Still waiting for the culture
results, I spent Thursday night in the hospital. Friday wasn't much different than Thursday until about 7:00PM when the Dr came in with the news. The strain of infection is called MRSA (in hospital slang said mursa) and is known as the superbug. Not wanting to scare anyone out there but this is about as bad as you can get. For me, and right from the start, regardless of what it was I was extremely concerned about any infection because of my heart valve. This really scared the living you know out of me. The dr was
able to prescribe some very strong antibiotics for me and released me at 7:30 Friday night. I'm now home and on home-health care who will come three times a week to clean and redress the wound. On the other days, my dear friend, Ron will have the honors....God Bless Him. On the good side, I'm on no restrictions from the doctor as far as activities but will take this coming week off from running and do some walking. However, since I'm on home-health care in order for Medicare to pay I'm supposed to be home-bound. I guess this is just another beauacracy thing. I'm allowed to go out for
food, medication and other necessities only. Of course, for me running and exercise is a necessity, but I'm sure our government would see it that way. The other good thing is I'm not 'sick'. I've taken exactly one pain pill while in the hospital and two aleve this AM prior to my 'cleaning'. I was bored almost to tears in the hospital and the halls weren't quite long enough to get much of a good walking workout in. I did get to watch Jeopardy two times, a show I like but never get to see. At any rate, I'm well on the road to recovery. Oh, two more things: a big disappointment relating to this. Judy
and Bob (daughter/son-in-law) are having their 15th annual Christmas party tonight, an event we look forward to all year long and won't be able to make it this time. Second...I wish you all a very MERRY CHRISTMAS and a HEALTHY, HAPPY NEW YEAR.
Glad to hear you are on the mend though.
