Friday, September 9, 2011

You Just Never Know What's Around The Corner...

Last week I was all about getting ready for this Monday's upcoming hip replacement. I was doing all the things I wouldn't be able to do for awhile, shopping for stuff, all the usual things.  Little did I know that by Tuesday of this week I'd be admitted to the hospital with a serious infection!

I have a port.  It's an implanted thingy that they can access your bloodstream with. It's for people who are "tough sticks" for IV's, receive a lot of infusion treatments, and so on.  All that is me. So I got my port implanted about 4 months ago when I started receiving IVIG infusions every week for my myasthenia. After my infusion last Thursday, I noticed on Friday that the port site was kind of sore. By Saturday and through Sunday, it got even more sore. By Monday, it was sore and red.  On Tuesday, it was all that plus swelling around the port opening. Oops, time to go.

Got to the ER about 6 pm and went through triage, then I sat and waited for a few hours. It turn to be designated trauma site and they got slammed hard. Finally got checked out, admitted for IV antibiotics, and in my room with the drugs running by about 1:30 a.m.  They were not sure if the infection was subcutaneous (in the skin around the port) or actually IN the port (far more dangerous, and an indication the port would have to be removed). I was lucky - as it turned out I had a sub-Q infection only. That in itself is no picnic either, but it's responding well to IV antibiotics so far and I won't have to have the port taken out (that would be another surgery).

Got back home last night about 7, it was great to be home. Had a really nice night's sleep in my own bed. Today the home nurse came and accessed the port, and started the first dose of 14 days of IV antibiotics here at home. So far, so good - I'm feeling ok and no side effects so far. Tomorrow one of my BFF's, Sally, is coming up from KC to see her daughter's family for her granddaughter Lacey's birthday coming up the 11th. I'm thrilled I'll get to see her, as it's been a pretty crappy week otherwise!

SO... this infection had one major effect, it instantly scrapped the hip surgery for Monday. They will not do this operation if you've had an active infection within two weeks, so we are rescheduled now for October 10. This is the 4th postponement, I believe, I'm starting to lose count....  The hip is doing that thing the other one did for awhile where it'll catch on a bone spur every so often and cause excruciating pain until it "pops" back in. Usually that takes an hour or two to happen.  My other hip did that before the surgery but eventually got to the point where it got stuck in the bad position and stayed there... and I stayed like that for several months before the surgery could be done. So let's hope this postponement is the last, and we go in October - I don't think I could go through what I did the last time, again.

In other news - Koby is doing great! I'm having to keep a little t-shirt on him to keep Scrappy from licking his back. Petsmart had a sale last week and I picked up several cute ones for him. Today he got to wear his new "Lynyrd Skynyrd" t-shirt, my son John (a big fan) was really impressed:) I always knew Koby was a rock star:) Seriously, he is still gaining weight and drinking less water. I think he is so much better and so much perkier than he's been in forever. Definitely going the right direction!

SueSue has been getting into trouble this week. She's going through one of her extreme jealousy phases and her target seems to be Ladybug. She has attacked her twice in a week. She's not hurting her, it's all noise - but it still scares the crap out of Ladybug and that's no good. She has had to "go kennel" for an hour each time afterward. She livin' HATES that kennel. She can't stand being away from me for any length of time, even tho she's just in the next room. We had this problem a couple of years ago with her. It took about 4 trips to the kennel to get her to knock it off.  Hopefully she will respond in the same way this time. Really odd, her trigger is going into the house! She and Ladybug and all the others were out on the patio with me for a good two hours tonight, and the minute I headed to the door to let everyone in, she went off on Ladybug.

Tomorrow is supposed to be yet another in a series of perfect weather days! I need to do some tiny gardening - just in the front steps garden, putting a few seedlings into the bed for winter. That, some laundry, and NO IVIG tomorrow (due to the infection)!! Happy Thursday to me!


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