Infections

I went to Boston for the cervical spine surgery on February 16th. All seemed to be well and I went home on the 20th. Although I felt tired, and had some pain, I was not having the terrible pre-surgery pain. I was excited to have the surgery over and done with and be back home.

Life was good, and although the incision area was sore and swollen, I chose to believe that this was normal and I was recovering.

Then, on the morning of February 24 I felt quite ill. When I woke up, I remember feeling slightly dizzy, but by 11 o”clock I really felt ill. I decided to lie down for a nap, but Hubby noticed my incision was draining a terrible smelling, white, yellow, green color discharge. I called the doctor, emailed pictures, and was told to come right down to Boston.

Hubby drove me down to the city, and at 9:30 PM the doctors operated on me to clean and remove all infection. It was bad, very bad. It was also a long surgery and I did not get to a room until 2:30 in the morning!

The Infectious Disease department became involved and antibiotics were found to treat me. Trying to find an antibiotic or two or three proved to be a challenge. In the end, I did find two that are strong and are working.

I was inpatient for six days, before I was released to come home. Now I am on two different antibiotics that must be given through an IV for 4- 6 weeks and then orally for 2 months.

I have learned to do the infusions and that is not too bad, but they tell me it will be a while until I get better. A long slow road to recovery.

In the end, I am just very lucky they caught the infection so early!