Infection!

On July 30, at about 5 or 6 pm, I realized that my apheresis catheter area was beginning to hurt a bit. It's always itched, but the pain was something new. It bothered me a bit, but since I was in the middle of inspecting, recommending, buying and riding a new motorcycle for a friend, I sorta ignored it until I got done. You know how it is, the job at hand is always more important than a little discomfort.

Well, when I finally got home, I looked at the site and it was pretty ugly. Swelling, redness, pain...... all the signs of an infection.

Now, if you look at the picture in a previous post, you'll see what the cath looks like. You can imagine that whole area, from the entrance to the upper gauze pad being red and swollen.

Ed and I aren't stupid. We went to the Urgent Care facility and finally saw a doc at about 10pm. Blood tests, bacterial tests, antibiotic infusion. "Please come back and see us in the morning."

So I did. I felt like rolled up doggie dookie! They poked, they prodded, they gave me more antibiotics by infusion. Then I was told the catheter had to come out. No questions, no argument. It was coming out. I didn't complain or worry about the cost of getting a new one when harvest time comes..... This infection had the potential to kill me quickly in spite of everything we'd already been through.

So, I had a minor surgical procedure that removed the source of the infection. Local anesthetic wasn't terribly helpful because most of the pain was actually in the chest muscles, not the skin, so it was unpleasant to say the least.

Ok, so I got home, crashed like an old hound, and slept through the call the hospital gave me about a little "problem". It seems they took some samples from the cath and my blood tests to confirm I have a staph infection in my blood stream.

This is NOT a good thing. Particularly since my immune system is compromized by the Multiple Myeloma.

"Please come back in and get some more antibiotics and we'll teach you how to administer your own at home."

Ok, should be no big deal, right? Wrong!

Well, now I have a different kind of line. They're calling it "long term" or "semi-permanent". It's basically a specialized IV line that goes in the big vein in my left arm.

And now, every 8 hours I get to give myself an infusion of a saline flush that's followed by 20cc of Cefazolin I infuse over a period of 10 minutes (by hand at 2cc per minute), and that's followed up by another saline flush.

Yup, every 8 hours. FOR THE NEXT 30 FREAKING DAYS!

Makes me understand the saying: "If the disease doesn't kill you, the healthcare system might!"

I'm SO TIRED of being sick. We're right at the first anniversary of symptoms, and at 11 months since diagnosis. I didn't know they made roller coasters this long.