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dr_phil_physicsHurry up and wait.
Anticipating that Infectious Diseases wanted a bone biopsy, they switched me from Xyralto to heparin injections, so they can stop the blood thinners faster for the surgical procedure.
Pooped. I know, TMI for most of you. But the GI systems slow down when you are mainly horizontal and if I described using a bedpan as a pain-in-the-ass, why then...
Thursday we were looking at options A, B and C. Plan A was removal of diseased bone tissue -- not practical due to the fact heel bone is built different. It has a hard shell and a porous interior -- cut it and it's just open to infection. Which is basically what happened when last year's infection slowly ate through the shell. Plan B is amputation below the knee, as foot doesn't work without a heel bone -- difficult because poor skin on lower leg from twenty years of edema and several celluitus infections makes making a good useful stump problematic. Plan C was to go off antibiotics for a week or two, do the bone biopsy and then go one targeted IV antibiotics for 4-6 weeks, then oral antibiotics for 6-12 months. Try to save the foot.
By Friday we were on Plan D. (grin) Infectious Diseases already knows what form of staph I have. They've dropped the other mixed antibiotic and just keep me on vancomycin. In a few days they will have the foot surgeon clean out the wound area. Probably a few days of recovery from that. Then either home or back to fifth floor Fuller for a brief time.
I am supposed to get a PICC line today, sort of a built-in IV port. Had one last year. With that, I can use a diffusion pump rather than get IV hang bags. Much easier to go home.
And just now they upgraded me to non-weight bearing on the left foot. OT/PT will be by to help with that.
Thursday afternoon was noisy. The heart monitor kept beeping -- WiFi telemetry issue not cardiac (grin) -- and the IV pump alarms kept going off. One of those I can deal with, but both of those AND the Aeromed chopper coming in? Man, we could not think. Turned out all the heart monitors were going off. They finally came around and yanked all the batteries. A few hours later there was an announcement that "there would be a scheduled telemetry failure for tele upgrade". Oh, so that's what the cool kids call it now. After that, reinsert batteries.
At 11:30pm they came and yanked all the sensor pads and took me off the monitor. When I was admitted I TOLD the guy to shave before applying the stickers. Oh no, this is fine. Right. Had to have those suckers ripped off twice -- once for the MRI and once to end. Uh-huh. Wouldn't hurt. Yank, rip... right...
Food continues to be bland. Evening snack choices were slight on Thursday. Didn't have milk, so no cereal. No sandwiches. So what did they have? Well, actually they had macaroni and cheese -- frozen, microwaved. With a couple of ketchup packets, acceptable as the food part of Take This Medication With Food at 9pm. At home I'm on a 7-7 pill schedule which works with breakfast and dinner, here it's 9-9, which is after breakfast and way after dinner.
Oh, and we're up to Plan H now -- not quite being sequential -- but Plan D plus hyperbaric oxygen. Last year I had an acute infection, this year it's chronic, so insurance should pay for the $800 ninety minute 5x/week treatments, 30-40 treatments. Can be done outpatient, with free valet parking with a handicapped hang tag. Also a wound vac.
I will be Borgified -- infusion pump, regeneration pod, wound vac...
Life sure is exciting. And I'm not even DOING anything! (grin)
Dr. Phil
Anticipating that Infectious Diseases wanted a bone biopsy, they switched me from Xyralto to heparin injections, so they can stop the blood thinners faster for the surgical procedure.
Pooped. I know, TMI for most of you. But the GI systems slow down when you are mainly horizontal and if I described using a bedpan as a pain-in-the-ass, why then...
Thursday we were looking at options A, B and C. Plan A was removal of diseased bone tissue -- not practical due to the fact heel bone is built different. It has a hard shell and a porous interior -- cut it and it's just open to infection. Which is basically what happened when last year's infection slowly ate through the shell. Plan B is amputation below the knee, as foot doesn't work without a heel bone -- difficult because poor skin on lower leg from twenty years of edema and several celluitus infections makes making a good useful stump problematic. Plan C was to go off antibiotics for a week or two, do the bone biopsy and then go one targeted IV antibiotics for 4-6 weeks, then oral antibiotics for 6-12 months. Try to save the foot.
By Friday we were on Plan D. (grin) Infectious Diseases already knows what form of staph I have. They've dropped the other mixed antibiotic and just keep me on vancomycin. In a few days they will have the foot surgeon clean out the wound area. Probably a few days of recovery from that. Then either home or back to fifth floor Fuller for a brief time.
I am supposed to get a PICC line today, sort of a built-in IV port. Had one last year. With that, I can use a diffusion pump rather than get IV hang bags. Much easier to go home.
And just now they upgraded me to non-weight bearing on the left foot. OT/PT will be by to help with that.
Thursday afternoon was noisy. The heart monitor kept beeping -- WiFi telemetry issue not cardiac (grin) -- and the IV pump alarms kept going off. One of those I can deal with, but both of those AND the Aeromed chopper coming in? Man, we could not think. Turned out all the heart monitors were going off. They finally came around and yanked all the batteries. A few hours later there was an announcement that "there would be a scheduled telemetry failure for tele upgrade". Oh, so that's what the cool kids call it now. After that, reinsert batteries.
At 11:30pm they came and yanked all the sensor pads and took me off the monitor. When I was admitted I TOLD the guy to shave before applying the stickers. Oh no, this is fine. Right. Had to have those suckers ripped off twice -- once for the MRI and once to end. Uh-huh. Wouldn't hurt. Yank, rip... right...
Food continues to be bland. Evening snack choices were slight on Thursday. Didn't have milk, so no cereal. No sandwiches. So what did they have? Well, actually they had macaroni and cheese -- frozen, microwaved. With a couple of ketchup packets, acceptable as the food part of Take This Medication With Food at 9pm. At home I'm on a 7-7 pill schedule which works with breakfast and dinner, here it's 9-9, which is after breakfast and way after dinner.
Oh, and we're up to Plan H now -- not quite being sequential -- but Plan D plus hyperbaric oxygen. Last year I had an acute infection, this year it's chronic, so insurance should pay for the $800 ninety minute 5x/week treatments, 30-40 treatments. Can be done outpatient, with free valet parking with a handicapped hang tag. Also a wound vac.
I will be Borgified -- infusion pump, regeneration pod, wound vac...
Life sure is exciting. And I'm not even DOING anything! (grin)
Dr. Phil
