E
ericaj
Here's an update from Niki (Gnusgal) I thought i was gonig through a rough time but my problems seem to pale in compatsion to hers. Keep Niki in your thoughts ok? - Erica
To: "Erica Thiel" <[email protected]>
From: "Nicole Herron" <[email protected]> View Contact Details
Subject: Hospital skuttlebutt
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:10:24 -0600
Would you mind cutting and pasting this message to VR? I know it's
long, but it would be much easier for you to cut and paste than trying
to summarize.
Sorry it took me awhile to send an update!
Well, I am sure everyone is anxiously waiting to find out what is going
on with me and my "sprung leak." First of all, I have to be honest and
say, I didn't go in that night. I just COULDN'T go to the ER again. I
was sick of going to the ER and then being sent home. I knew I
wouldn't get any answers (or see a doctor) until the next day anyway,
so I just kept putting new gauze over it (I soaked through 2 nearly
full packages of 4x4s) all night until I could call in the morning. I
even went in to work in the morning, with plans to head to the doctor
in the afternoon (thinking that way I'd get my sub plans set up and I
figured I wouldn't get an appt. until afternoon anyway). Bad idea.
The drive to work was torture. I was in SO much pain. But I got to
school anyway and started getting things set up for an afternoon sub
and for Thursday/Friday's sub (I had a conference I was supposed to go
to). While I was making copies, another teacher came in and asked me
how I was doing. She could see the pain on my face, and as soon as she
showed sympathy, I began to cry. She went and got the school
secretary, who called my sub for that afternoon and asked if she could
come in for all day (this was long before school had even started yet).
I had two teachers drive me home (one to drive my car, the other to
follow and drive the first one back to the school), then my aunt met me
at the house and we headed towards the doctor's office. This was still
prior to them even opening. On the way I called and told the nurse
what was going on. She said that my doctor wasn't in the office today
(she was doing procedures in the hospital), but that I could see the PA
and that she would also page the doc and let her know what was going
on.
When the PA took off the gauze it wasn't leaking at the moment. But
she removed the steri-strips, and soon it began to leak again. She put
new steri-strips on it, but it continued to leak. So she placed some
gauze over it. I soaked through it within minutes. She actually said
maybe I could go home and come back the next day when the doctor would
be in the office! I was shocked. I said, "Can't she come up and look
at it?" She finally said she'd try paging her, but it might be awhile.
I said I'd wait all day if I needed to. Fortunately, the nurse had
talked to the doc prior to her going into the procedure, so as soon as
she got out, she came up to see me. She took a look at it (and my 4th
soaked set of gauze), poked (quite hard) at it, and said she felt it
was infected and the ICD should come out. She called in an infectious
disease doctor just to be sure, but she was pretty certain he would
recommend taking it out too. The only problem was that I needed to get
my INR down before they could do the surgery.
Once in the hospital the infectious disease doctor took a quick glance
(and didn't poke!) and took a swab for a culture, but also said he
could tell from looking at it that it was infected. So then it became
a matter of getting my INR down from 3.0 to 1.5 so we could do the
surgery. They gave me a vit. K pill and seemed to expect to be doing
the surgery on Friday (two days later). The next morning, they took my
blood and shortly thereafter I ate breakfast. I asked what my INR
was... It was 1.4. Ack! I was good for surgery, but I'd eaten. But
the went ahead and put me down for a 1 o'clock surgery.
Oh! And I left out another thing. Because of the infection they want
to make sure it doesn't spread to my heart (fortunately it seems to be
localized right now), so they have me on IV antibiotics and want me to
stay that way for quite awhile. So they put in a PICC line. That's a
longer-lasting IV (can be in up to a year) that starts on the inside of
your upper arm (a few inches above the elbow) and runs through the vein
all the way to the heart. I'll go home with this in and continue to
give myself IV antibiotics at home.
Also, when they took out the ICD they did not close up the incision.
They left it open and packed it with gauze. Today a lady came in and
removed that gauze and put on what is called a "vac." Essentially, I'm
hooked up to a vacuum. It's supposed to speed up healing or something.
I don't completely understand it. There's this black sponge stuck
inside the wound with a piece of plastic over it, then a tube attached
to a machine that continuously sucks at the wound. The infectious
disease doctor said it would help the would to also heal from the
inside out. Slowly the sponges will get smaller (they will be replaced
every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by Home Health people) until it is
completely healed (perhaps 3 weeks?). Because of the Vac I will be in
the hospital until Monday. Right now I'm on the hospital's big, heavy
machine that they have. But they have started paperwork to get me a
portable one to take home. That one will fit in a fanny pack and I'll
be able to take it to school with me. Hopefully I won't freak out the
kids too much. The paperwork will take awhile to get processed, and
that is why it will be Monday before I go home. Though the infectious
disease doc had been saying he wanted me to stay until Sunday at least
so he could figure out what bug we were dealing with and what specific
antibiotic to send me home with (right now he's using a lot more that
he wants to send me home with). So it's not that big a difference.
But my EP had indicated that she thought I could go home Saturday, so
it's a little disappointing.
Anyway, this has turned into a book. I'll try to update again soon.
But hopefully there won't be anything more "exciting" to report.
Niki
To: "Erica Thiel" <[email protected]>
From: "Nicole Herron" <[email protected]> View Contact Details
Subject: Hospital skuttlebutt
Date: Fri, 28 Jan 2005 16:10:24 -0600
Would you mind cutting and pasting this message to VR? I know it's
long, but it would be much easier for you to cut and paste than trying
to summarize.
Sorry it took me awhile to send an update!Well, I am sure everyone is anxiously waiting to find out what is going
on with me and my "sprung leak." First of all, I have to be honest and
say, I didn't go in that night. I just COULDN'T go to the ER again. I
was sick of going to the ER and then being sent home. I knew I
wouldn't get any answers (or see a doctor) until the next day anyway,
so I just kept putting new gauze over it (I soaked through 2 nearly
full packages of 4x4s) all night until I could call in the morning. I
even went in to work in the morning, with plans to head to the doctor
in the afternoon (thinking that way I'd get my sub plans set up and I
figured I wouldn't get an appt. until afternoon anyway). Bad idea.
The drive to work was torture. I was in SO much pain. But I got to
school anyway and started getting things set up for an afternoon sub
and for Thursday/Friday's sub (I had a conference I was supposed to go
to). While I was making copies, another teacher came in and asked me
how I was doing. She could see the pain on my face, and as soon as she
showed sympathy, I began to cry. She went and got the school
secretary, who called my sub for that afternoon and asked if she could
come in for all day (this was long before school had even started yet).
I had two teachers drive me home (one to drive my car, the other to
follow and drive the first one back to the school), then my aunt met me
at the house and we headed towards the doctor's office. This was still
prior to them even opening. On the way I called and told the nurse
what was going on. She said that my doctor wasn't in the office today
(she was doing procedures in the hospital), but that I could see the PA
and that she would also page the doc and let her know what was going
on.
When the PA took off the gauze it wasn't leaking at the moment. But
she removed the steri-strips, and soon it began to leak again. She put
new steri-strips on it, but it continued to leak. So she placed some
gauze over it. I soaked through it within minutes. She actually said
maybe I could go home and come back the next day when the doctor would
be in the office! I was shocked. I said, "Can't she come up and look
at it?" She finally said she'd try paging her, but it might be awhile.
I said I'd wait all day if I needed to. Fortunately, the nurse had
talked to the doc prior to her going into the procedure, so as soon as
she got out, she came up to see me. She took a look at it (and my 4th
soaked set of gauze), poked (quite hard) at it, and said she felt it
was infected and the ICD should come out. She called in an infectious
disease doctor just to be sure, but she was pretty certain he would
recommend taking it out too. The only problem was that I needed to get
my INR down before they could do the surgery.
Once in the hospital the infectious disease doctor took a quick glance
(and didn't poke!) and took a swab for a culture, but also said he
could tell from looking at it that it was infected. So then it became
a matter of getting my INR down from 3.0 to 1.5 so we could do the
surgery. They gave me a vit. K pill and seemed to expect to be doing
the surgery on Friday (two days later). The next morning, they took my
blood and shortly thereafter I ate breakfast. I asked what my INR
was... It was 1.4. Ack! I was good for surgery, but I'd eaten. But
the went ahead and put me down for a 1 o'clock surgery.
Oh! And I left out another thing. Because of the infection they want
to make sure it doesn't spread to my heart (fortunately it seems to be
localized right now), so they have me on IV antibiotics and want me to
stay that way for quite awhile. So they put in a PICC line. That's a
longer-lasting IV (can be in up to a year) that starts on the inside of
your upper arm (a few inches above the elbow) and runs through the vein
all the way to the heart. I'll go home with this in and continue to
give myself IV antibiotics at home.
Also, when they took out the ICD they did not close up the incision.
They left it open and packed it with gauze. Today a lady came in and
removed that gauze and put on what is called a "vac." Essentially, I'm
hooked up to a vacuum. It's supposed to speed up healing or something.
I don't completely understand it. There's this black sponge stuck
inside the wound with a piece of plastic over it, then a tube attached
to a machine that continuously sucks at the wound. The infectious
disease doctor said it would help the would to also heal from the
inside out. Slowly the sponges will get smaller (they will be replaced
every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by Home Health people) until it is
completely healed (perhaps 3 weeks?). Because of the Vac I will be in
the hospital until Monday. Right now I'm on the hospital's big, heavy
machine that they have. But they have started paperwork to get me a
portable one to take home. That one will fit in a fanny pack and I'll
be able to take it to school with me. Hopefully I won't freak out the
kids too much. The paperwork will take awhile to get processed, and
that is why it will be Monday before I go home. Though the infectious
disease doc had been saying he wanted me to stay until Sunday at least
so he could figure out what bug we were dealing with and what specific
antibiotic to send me home with (right now he's using a lot more that
he wants to send me home with). So it's not that big a difference.
But my EP had indicated that she thought I could go home Saturday, so
it's a little disappointing.
Anyway, this has turned into a book. I'll try to update again soon.
But hopefully there won't be anything more "exciting" to report.
Niki
