I am home today feeling much better than I was, although, that's not saying much.
Last Thursday I noticed a lump in my right armpit. One of the things I inherited from my father is oily skin and a tendency towards infected follicles, so I just figured that it was a big zit. But it really hurt. It was about the size of a small marble when I went to bed Thursday. Friday, it had about doubled in size and hurt like heck! Mom tried to open it up, but we just got a little blood and that was it.
Friday night we had decided that after the parade on Saturday morning I would go to Urgent Care and have them look at it. I participated in the parade, went to lunch and then went to the Urgent Care at the new hospital building. We got in pretty fast, a nice P.A. numbed it, lanced it, and said she figured it was MRSA. She asked if I wanted some pain pills and gave me Keflex (an antibiotic).
When the numbing shots wore of, it just kept hurting. I wondered why it was hurting so bad and when I went upstairs to get ready for bed at about 11:00 pm I discovered that the lump on my arm was about the size of a baseball.
It hurt really badly by this point. So, we loaded into the car and went to the ER. Here was our first surprise, they said the P.A. had called earlier and told them we might be in later. Funny, she never told us that. We sat in the ER and waited for a little over an hour. I had been holding my arm up pretty much all day, and it hurt like a son of a b*tch. Finally we got in and this doctor whom we had never seen before, and who was really weird, took a look at me.
By this point, mom was pissed off. It didn't help that this doctor was short with mom, scolding her for removing the packing even though she tried to explain that she had be instructed to change the packing by the P.A., and was so rough in handling my arm that I ended up sobbing. He just squeezed on it and rammed the gauze into the hole until it hurt so bad I thought I was going to at least throw up, if not pass out. H prescribed a new antibiotic because he couldn't figure out why the P.A. would prescribe Reflex if she thought it was MSRA.
I waited another half hour for a shot of Morphine (which did nothing for my pain), an antibiotic shot, and a shot of stuff so that the Morphine would not make me puke. At 2:45 a.m. we went home.
Mom went to get my new antibiotics Sunday morning and when I got up to take it, we discovered that the lump was now the size of a grapefruit and still hurt like a s.o.b. Almost in tears again because of the whole saga, we headed to the ER. AGAIN.
What I haven't mentioned is that we spent 15-20 minutes at Urgent Care and both ER visits giving them the same information about what had been going on, meds, etc., every time! We were actually this close to going to another hospital.
So, we got the ER at 11:30 is a.m. they got me in a room and then we waited... Mom told me that at 1:00 p.m. we were going to leave and go somewhere else. At 12:58 a really nice, and competent, P.A. came in. She took a look, got me an IV started and got me Fentanyl. HALLELUJAH! They gave me a round of IV antibiotics which took two hours, and then they took me right into surgery.
Where there was a one inch incision, there is now a 2-2.5 inch incision. The MRSA had apparently tunneled in my arm. They kept my in the hospital on the blessed pain killers until Wednesday when my white count was finally normal again.
So, three days of strong IV antibiotics, and good progress healing later, I am home chilling until I get the ok to get back to work.
MRSA is found everywhere, as are other strains of Staph, so all I can say is wash your freaking hands people!!!!
Last Thursday I noticed a lump in my right armpit. One of the things I inherited from my father is oily skin and a tendency towards infected follicles, so I just figured that it was a big zit. But it really hurt. It was about the size of a small marble when I went to bed Thursday. Friday, it had about doubled in size and hurt like heck! Mom tried to open it up, but we just got a little blood and that was it.
Friday night we had decided that after the parade on Saturday morning I would go to Urgent Care and have them look at it. I participated in the parade, went to lunch and then went to the Urgent Care at the new hospital building. We got in pretty fast, a nice P.A. numbed it, lanced it, and said she figured it was MRSA. She asked if I wanted some pain pills and gave me Keflex (an antibiotic).
When the numbing shots wore of, it just kept hurting. I wondered why it was hurting so bad and when I went upstairs to get ready for bed at about 11:00 pm I discovered that the lump on my arm was about the size of a baseball.
It hurt really badly by this point. So, we loaded into the car and went to the ER. Here was our first surprise, they said the P.A. had called earlier and told them we might be in later. Funny, she never told us that. We sat in the ER and waited for a little over an hour. I had been holding my arm up pretty much all day, and it hurt like a son of a b*tch. Finally we got in and this doctor whom we had never seen before, and who was really weird, took a look at me.
By this point, mom was pissed off. It didn't help that this doctor was short with mom, scolding her for removing the packing even though she tried to explain that she had be instructed to change the packing by the P.A., and was so rough in handling my arm that I ended up sobbing. He just squeezed on it and rammed the gauze into the hole until it hurt so bad I thought I was going to at least throw up, if not pass out. H prescribed a new antibiotic because he couldn't figure out why the P.A. would prescribe Reflex if she thought it was MSRA.
I waited another half hour for a shot of Morphine (which did nothing for my pain), an antibiotic shot, and a shot of stuff so that the Morphine would not make me puke. At 2:45 a.m. we went home.
Mom went to get my new antibiotics Sunday morning and when I got up to take it, we discovered that the lump was now the size of a grapefruit and still hurt like a s.o.b. Almost in tears again because of the whole saga, we headed to the ER. AGAIN.
What I haven't mentioned is that we spent 15-20 minutes at Urgent Care and both ER visits giving them the same information about what had been going on, meds, etc., every time! We were actually this close to going to another hospital.
So, we got the ER at 11:30 is a.m. they got me in a room and then we waited... Mom told me that at 1:00 p.m. we were going to leave and go somewhere else. At 12:58 a really nice, and competent, P.A. came in. She took a look, got me an IV started and got me Fentanyl. HALLELUJAH! They gave me a round of IV antibiotics which took two hours, and then they took me right into surgery.
Where there was a one inch incision, there is now a 2-2.5 inch incision. The MRSA had apparently tunneled in my arm. They kept my in the hospital on the blessed pain killers until Wednesday when my white count was finally normal again.
So, three days of strong IV antibiotics, and good progress healing later, I am home chilling until I get the ok to get back to work.
MRSA is found everywhere, as are other strains of Staph, so all I can say is wash your freaking hands people!!!!
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