Been a While!!!

Hello my friends, I hope you are all doing well and enjoying life. Enjoy each and every day.

I have had quite the past 10 months, nightmarish!

On October 13th, I wrote about the recovery ahead...

When I was discharged from St Clare's I was not put on any antibiotic which in retrospect was a big mistake in my opinion as it was not determined beforehand the existence or not of an infection. In fact, it was still very existent and without an antibiotic at home my body had nothing really with which to fight it. I should note that Sharon had asked the surgeon for oral antibiotics but was told they were not necessary. As a result, I ended up in The Health Sciences ( HSC ) on September 14th...

I cannot state enough about the quality of care I received from Dr Michael Hogan, he saved my life. His professionalism, bedside manner, and calming influence is outstanding. He instills confidence. Hopefully none of you ever find yourself in my position, but if you do, this is the doctor for you. In reality, he informed Sharon and I that I had reached the edge several times.

So.... since my release from HSC around the end of September.....

I was slowly but gradually gaining weight and beginning to have some energy. Sharon and I received the flu shot in November. By Christmas I was feeling much better and felt that finally I was on the road to full recovery, the drainage had subsided somewhat but not completely. Then came March, I had just finished laying some flooring in my daughter's house, and the following week... I got the flu! I was swabbed at the hospital and diagnosed with Type B. [ I rarely had ever gotten sick, flu, etc but when my spleen was lacerated, thus removed { accidentally? in surgery? } my immune system was compromised ]. At the HSC when the doctor asked me the year I replied 1999, very confused with a very high temperature. Given IV antibiotics and sent home on tamiflu.
3 or 4 days later I was feeling very unwell, increased drainage, weak, etc I managed to get an urgent CT Scan, it was read by the radiologist who called Dr Hogan who admitted me immediately .........again! I was showing signs of being septic! I was in hospital from April 6th to April 13th. I received 3 bags of IV antibiotic 3 times per day, 63 bags in total. Overall, at this point I had so many needles, pic line, IV's, etc it was very difficult to have blood work as my veins were collapsing.

Upon discharge I was given a prescription for Cipro, which I had taken before. Discharged on Friday, Saturday and Sunday were fine. Monday morning, however, as I was getting out of bed, I was unable to bear weight, both feet, I virtually crawled to the washroom. On researching it, Jennifer found that were a number of incidents for basically the same symptoms, word for word. So I immediately stopped the Cipro. Could not get hold to Dr Hogan as he was out of town, and my family doctor could not see me until Friday. He gave me a different antibiotic and told me that it could take from 3 to 6 weeks before the foot problem would probably resolve and I would be mobile again. I went for physio with no success, however, slowly, gradually, over a period of 3 weeks I got rid of the pain in my feet and ankles and was able to walk again.

A couple of days later I was back at the HSC as my foot had swollen and was somewhat warm. Blood work showed my platelets were around 700,000 [ normal is 250,000 to 500,000 ] I was sent for an ultrasound which showed that I had a superficial blood clot in my leg, I was given a blood thinner and an appointment with a hematologist on Monday. Sharon has been giving me a blood thinner injection, Lovenox, each day since [ 45 days total ].

Later that week, my temp shot up, 39.5, back to the ER I go. Blood work was not perfect, luckily Dr Hogan was on call at the hospital, so I asked the ER doctor if she could call him. She came back and said that he knows you well and to not admit me....he knows how tired I was of hospitals!!! But he did give me a new prescription to fight the infection, Bactrim. Within a couple of days my temperature settled. It had been a horrific 2 weeks...3 trips to the ER with one admission...and Sharon acting as my ER nurse at home fighting to keep my temp down!!

So right now I am still in recovery mode, hope to be back to full strength within a month, barring no unforseen relapses!

Finally, I can't thank my family enough...Sharon, Adrienne, Jennifer, and my sister Brenda were there with me every step of the way. This past year they have devoted their time, their lives, to me completely, for this I give a great big THANK YOU, though it is inadequate, I hope they feel the love behind it. As well, thanks to all for hospital visits, cards, messages, food, etc, it was much appreciated.

And finally, finally....I hope this is my last entry and that I never have to write one of these GD blogs, for this purpose again.

A M E N