2/16/11

My cutie patootie



Not a great picture of my little one but a cute one all the same. A friend of mine watches her one day a week to give me a break. Her dog, B, is the sweetest guy - a big dumb, happy, nervous and energetic Weimaraner. I trust him COMPLETELY. He couldn't hurt a fly. In fact, my fiery little Pekingese lunged at him a couple of years back and got him in the face and he got scared and keeps away from her since then. He wants no trouble from a 13 lb. Peke. ;)

Anyway, seems my little one was filthy and he decided she absolutely needed her face washed. What a sweetie! And the little one thought it was a hoot.

I'm a very big fan of dogs and kids, as you can tell.

(Oh....My fucked up c-section wound is still not closed and I'm wondering if it'll still be there when my girl goes to grad school - but the wound vac came off today and now I'll just pack it 1-2 times/day, until we see how that goes. UGH!)

2/9/11

Whew! No MRSA!

Fortunately the Infectious Disease doctor didn't call in the guys in the white coats on me when I told him I was freaking out that I have MRSA and am dying and he's keeping it from me.

The CT scan came back clear - no abscess; all clear. And he emphatically said "you don't have MRSA. We've cultured you several times" to which I replied "but did you test me specifically for MRSA?" and he said "yeah, the lab tests for everything." So I remind him ('cause I question an Infectious Disease specialist if he knows MRSA is staph - just a highly resistant staph) and he says "no, staph is on the skin - it's really common; most people have it if you swab them and culture. That's not MRSA." (My OB doctor said last week she'd be surprised if I had MRSA 'cause "you look great and you'd be really really sick." But, hey, she's no Infectious Disease doctor so I dismissed her opinion)

Then he proceeded to tell me that I worry too much and that the mind is a powerful thing, yada, yada, yada.

So I question why this effen wound isn't healed yet and he said it's getting better and basically waved me off and said to relax.

And here's the part only hypocondriacs like me could appreciate. I was down the hall from the Wound Center and I literally thought "maybe the lab got it wrong every culture test and I do have MRSA."

Yeah, even suffering from anxious worry, I realized that would be really unlikely.

Aside from this wound STILL not fully healed, I'm not infected with anything and the CT scan of my abdomen apparently shows normal insides.

I suppose it's just going to be a frustratingly slow(er) process than I'd hoped.

2/2/11

WTF!

Seriously, this post is going to be a bitch-fest!!!

So...remember the fucked up c-section wound? Well, has it healed? Fuck NO!

For the first 4 weeks there was huge progress and the wound is now about 1.5 cm deep x .5 cm wide with a "tunnel" off of it about 1.9 cm deep. And for those 4 weeks I wore a wound vac (very cumbersome and depressing to have to carry that 24/7). Anyway, 3 weeks ago the "tunnel" (which had been 1 cm week prior went to 1.5 cm) so I instantly asked doctor for a CT scan or MRI, just to see WTF was going on behind the wound. He said the wound had improved a lot from day one (which it had) and that it would improve following week. It didn't. At the same time he took cultures from inside because I smelled something funny (he didn't). Culture came back positive for staph, yet I was on antibiotics (the right one to cover staph) from week prior which said to me the antibiotics aren't working. He sent me another round of antibiotics.

And then 2 weeks ago it still hadn't improved and I asked why I was even wearing the wound vac if it wasn't improving. He agreed and removed the wound vac and had me pack it twice a day with a gauze that has silver in it (I think silver nitrate or something antibacterial). I did so. No easy task as the entry to wound is teeny - can barely push the head of a Q-t.i.p inside.

Well, the wound is still no better and there is a lot of drainage for such a small wound and the drainage looks "a little cloudy," which is suspicious of infection (meanwhile, I'm on the antibiotic).

FINALLY, this morning he agreed to order a CT scan (I don't know - but I'd feel better if they could see something in there to ease my mind) AND he put me back on the wound vac. Needless to say, I'm depressed to be on this machine again. Oh and he's sent me another antibiotic to take with the current one.

If the CT scan (Friday morning) shows nothing and the wound is no better I'm going to have to see OB and have surgery so they can open it back up, clean it out and put the wound vac on AGAIN.

Honestly, I curse this c-section!!!

If ANYONE out there in cyberspace reads this and has experience with a c-section wound and how much time yours took to heal and if you wore a vac or packed it, please share details with me. I'd like to feel less alone in the world here. :(

As for my little princess, she's beautiful and wonderful - thank the universe for THAT!