[lenjan]

This is the "help Candy decide whether to insist on being checked into a hospital" forum.....

I had elbow surgery Nov. 11. In a cast for a bit, sling, brace, blah blah blah. Staples came out this past Wednesday. Scar's kind of scary-looking (I didn't expect it to be that big!), but just fine, everything healed up well, no infections or anything.

This week Tuesday, on the way from a different doctor appointment that friends had taken me to, I scraped my leg against the car door while I was trying to get my big butt out of the back seat. Longish scrape, certainly not worthy of stitches or anything, didn't bleed, hurt a bit more than it should have, perhaps, but I didn't think anything of it.

That was Tuesday. It hurt more and more Wednesday. By the time I got home from therapy at 5 pm, I could barely put pressure on it. The staples had just come out and I was SO excited to be able to get to take my very first long, hot bath since the surgery.

So I got undressed, and I looked down at my leg, and it was the size of a watermelon, with about a 12-inch diameter (seriously) flaming red, swollen, hot, tender area around it.

Hellooooooooooooooooooooo, emergency room.

I had first called a friend who's a nurse to describe it to him. He told me to hang up and drive to the ER, so I did. I had pulled up my pants leg to describe it to him, so just left it rolled up. I walked into the ER, they asked me what I needed to be seen for, I pointed, and they finished my registration in record time and got me to a room ASAP.

From this one lousy little scrape (and it wasn't even a rusty car door), I have gotten myself cellulitis. I will spare you all the gory details, 'cause it was pretty darn gory, what they did to me to clean it out, etc.

My pdoc, who I saw Tuesday morning, ordered some labwork, because for the second month in a row I told him I could NOT get out of bed, was sleeping all the time, etc, but my mood has been fine, not depressed at all. His office is in the hospital's outpatient building, which is acrosss the street from the hospital, so after leaving his office I went over there and got the labwork done, then went home.

He called me Tuesday afternoon and said he was very concerned by some of the results and to get into my regular dr. ASAP, and when I called my regular guy to make the appointment, I found out my pdoc had already made me one!

Regular Boy looks at test results, says "you're anemic and you have low thyroid." Yay. My white blood cell count also was pretty low, which apparently is an odd thing.

OK. Now that I have completely confused you by going through all this back and forth , here is my question:

Both my ears are infected. I have sores on my tongue that are making it very difficult to eat. My leg is SERIOUSLY infected. This all happened this week. Does this have any correlation to my arm surgery/getting the staples out, and should I just take what they gave me for antibiotics, or insist that I clearly have something systemic going on and need IV antibiotics instead? It just seems like too much coincidence at one time. (My arm scar is still just fine, BTW.)

Thanks for any help......I don't usually have this many health problems in a YEAR, much less a week, and I'm not having much fun with it! Blah.

Candy

[inkblot]

That's quite a bit for such a short time, but my guess is that it is all probably coincidence and not systemic. You could ask the doctor for a blood culture and explain your thoughts why. Being that you are anemic and low thyroid, that alone will decrease your immunity for infection. Take the antibiotics!

[lenjan]

I went and took one just as I heard my mail notification go off for your response, Inky . I have every intention of finishing them as ordered, don't worry!

[(JD)]

I find it interesting that you have such an infection and yet your white cell count is low... I think I read that in 2 posts? Sorry if I'm misreading you. I agree... something is going on! That your doctors are so concerned in quite key, imo... I would insist on seeing the records and getting the truth of what they suspect. I wish my brain would work so I could help with the reactions you are having... maybe post in the DRUG forum what meds you are taking and see if someone knows if it causes this stuff? (You know what I mean?)

Be your own best advocate... if you continue to be sick and still bother them, then they might let you in on what is going on! TC of you!

[dexter]

Candy, definitely see the doc again... it doesn't matter whether this is related or separate, something is going on that needs to be looked at and waiting for it to get worse is just going to cause more problems.

You don't have to "insist" on a certain form of treatment but I would ask them about your concern, i.e. is this related to the staples or the antibiotics, they should explain to you what they think is happening and discuss with you whether a change in treatment might be necessary.

Good luck, I'm sorry so much is going on all at once and hope it can be taken care of quickly.

[lenjan]

Thanks Sky...I don't understand it either...but I like your suggestion to post in the meds forum. I'll go do that in a bit.

[lenjan]

Thanks Dex....I just emailed my sister the nurse of 30 years and will see what she says too. I'm not trying to stall, just gather opinions.

You, dear, are The King of Having Everything Go On at Once , so I know you know how it feels and appreciate the kind words.

Candy

[wanttoheal]

You might try an herbalist as well. I have found that they are better at actually getting rid of things, rather than covering them up. Just my half penny thought. Hope things get better for you soon.

[lenjan]

Not a bad idea, wantto, considering that so far the meds aren't doing a damn thing, and today the wound looks worse than it did yesterday, despite my playing by all their rules. I'm afraid I might have to go back to the ER if it gets any worse. I get charged $75 right off the top just for walking in the door, then god knows how much everything they do costs. Insurance will probably charge me $100 for the antibiotic shot in the butt I got .

I was up every 2 hours all night last night trying to get some relief for my poor infected ears, and I finally fell asleep, and then got startled out of it and may never get back to it again. It's all way too miserable.

[SeptemberMorn]

Ok, which happened first, the ears or the leg? I'd bug my MD until he gave me some real answers! If it's systemic, I would thing it's from the scrape and not the removal of the staples.

Something else I'm confused by is that you're anemic AND your white cell count is low?? My white cell count is low due to my kidneys being "fatty" but my throid was low eons ago. Take synthroid for it. Sounds to me like you have several things going on, Hun, but I'm just talking from personal experience.

Celulitis is nothing to mess with! It's extremely painful and difficult to get rid of! Wish they had cleaned mine out but NO! I had to let it go away on it's own until it came through the skin. UGH! Then I had an extra powerful antibiotic ointment to put on it. My Dr at the time said the tube cost over $100 so she just gave me some from the clinic.

Like I said, keep after you main Dr until he gives you some straight answers! In the meantime, "allow" yourself all the rest you need and SCREW your boss! LOL

{{{{{{{{{{{{{{{Candy}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}}} Take care of YOU, you hear me??

[lenjan]

The ears came first, then the tongue sores, then the scrape. Somebody PM'd me signs and symptoms of this and that, and one of the signs of low white count is exactly the sort of sores I have on the top of my tongue. (Usually I get tongue sores on the sides of it.)

I'm going to go take a shower and throw a few things in a paper bag and call Ron and Marie for a ride to the hospital. I think I might be sticking around this time. At least I kind of hope so. With all this crap going on, it would be nice to have it taken care of all at once. And yes, I started Synthroid Thursday. Blah.

Wish me luck!

Candy

[SS8282]

Sorry to hear you're having problems. Hope you feel better soon. Hugs

[dottie]

Good luck Candybear. I used to get those sores on the sides of my tongue until I hit a certain age. It's sure not pleasant to have them. I hope you will be cured of all this.

I know if your thyroid is off..it can preclude a variety of maladies. Take good care!!

[January]

Please let us know how you are as soon as you can.

Hugs,

Jan

[lenjan]

thanks everyone,

Cooler heads (my best friend the nurse) prevailed before I wasted another grand at the ER. He said to just finish the antibiotics, stay off the leg as long as possible, and take it from there. He didn't think all the infections were related, just that I needed to be traded in for a new model

I went to the store and bought things that are cold and soft, like Jello and yogurt, and those will take care of the tongue sores, I hope.

Eeesh! I hope I'm getting this all out of the way now so when I'm 80 I'll be healthy!

candy

(((((((((((Candy))))))))))))

Thinking of you!

[inkblot]

Aha, that is great to hear! Glad you have a friend there to help put you at ease. I would love to go back to nursing school. I almost graduated and had to leave while my classmates were trying on caps and gowns. I have too much anxiety to be in school right now, or at least over the past few days. Hope you heal fast!

[Perzephone]

Yanno, a lot of people get systemic infections after spending time in the hospital for surgery or various procedures that involve an overnight stay. No matter how thorough the cleaning practices are, hospitals & doctors' offices are still full of sick people touching stuff.

It's been a miserably bad flu year this year & people are dropping like flies w/various versions of it - and after the last time I went to my gp for high b.p. meds (the beginning of this month), within about 12 hours, I had a low-grade fever, sore throat, my ears & joints hurt & all my glands were swollen. But, hey, I had my sleeping pill & b.p. medication prescriptions to make the next week of feeling like crap-warmed-over worthwhile.

[lenjan]

the leg infection has done nicely and is pretty well cleared up. the ears will NOT go away. I have tried 3 different antibiotics. My sister the nurse then goes and tells me that not all ear infections are bacterial -- they can also be caused by viruses and allergies. Great. She also said the ears and the cellulitis were not at all related, so there goes my dream of a systemic infection and a few days of guaranteed food and water in the hospital . Maybe then my boss would think i'm actually sick....

I feel like %#@&#! for having done absolutely nothing this week in the way of work--always a potential problem when working from home, but that much worse when you're sick. I got the surgeon to sign off on 30 hrs/week, told my boss I'd be cutting that down to 20 in a hurry, and have actually put in perhaps 10. I got some Vicodin for the ear pain, but it isn't doing much except making everything all mellow and grooooovy, man. I'm going to have to excavate my scale and see how much weight i've lost since I haven't been able to eat without pain, though.

Why does all this stuff have to happen all at once?! I bet other people's bodies let them spread things out over the year.

[ozzie]

</font><blockquote><div id="quote"><font class="small">Quote:</font>
Why does all this stuff have to happen all at once?! I bet other people's bodies let them spread things out over the year.


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</div></font></blockquote><font class="post"> Sorry you're still having problems, Candy. My body isn't letting me spread things out anymore either.....just one thing after another....sometimes all together.

I hope you are feeling better CandyBear.

I am sorry you have had to go through all this.

Hope your hospital stay will fix you up for good!

Speedy recovery,

Petunia