Originally posted by Udo
This past Monday the 28th of July, I went to bed at me regular time. (around 8 p.m.)
However, I woke up at 2 a.m. on Tuesday morning with some severe chills to the point that my teeth would not quit chattering.
I had a fever of 103, and my blood pressure was 108/60.
My wife finally got a hold of my home nurse at 5:30 a.m. and she said to rush me to the emergency room, which she did.
About two hours after the arrival to the emergency room, and several blood tests later (plus urine and stool samples, and chest x-ray), they still
could not figure out the source of the infection. Then they isolated the pic line the hospital had implanted in me a couple of weeks ago for a
portable IV that I used as a walking feeding tube for my nutritional needs.
The area around the feeding tube entrance was not red, and it was till in sterile condition, but the doctors decided to remove the pic line anyway and
sent it to the lab for cultures also. It would take about 24 hours for the cultures (all of them) to come back with some results. So back to
being admitted (again).
They now were pumping me with antibiotics via an IV.
Two days later, now, I find out that I had a severe blood infection from the pic line the hospital had inserted. So I had to spend another night in
the hospital hooked to three bags this time.
I was finally discharged last evening and given a prescription for 600mg of ZYVOX anti biotic that cost $7,000 for 28 tablets!
Lesson learned:
Even sterile implanted devices with an external (outside the skin) connection, appear to be susceptible to infections, as was in my case.
I am now back home and slowly recuperating from my blood infection. |
