I almost died - SassyGirl

   To those of who don't know what I have been going thru the past few months, I'm writing to let you know. Some of you know that I had surgery again December 10, 2010 on my neck. It didn't fuse all together the first time I had it done a year ago in the front of my neck, so my Neurologist had to fuse it from the back. I was doing great afterwards for almost a month. It was starting to heal great and I wasn't having anymore migraines. Of course he had to cut into my tattoo of my daughter that passed away but he did a great job sewing it back up that you couldn't hardly tell he even cut it.

   Well on January 6th, I woke up not feeling right so I took my temperature. It was 100.4 so I didn't think to much of it cause sometimes I run a temp like that, but I thought I would still keep an eye on it thru out the day. 2 hours later I took it again and it was 101.2 so I called my sweetheart, Rod at work to let him know that I was running a temp and that my doctor said I should go to our nearest ER which was in Algona, if it got 101. He said to keep watching it and that he would be home soon. Well by the time he got home it was 103.7 so he rushed me to the ER. They checked me over and drew some blood. My incision was red and swollen but wasn't quite sure why yet. They told me to come back in the morning to see one of their doctors.

   So at 9:00am January 7th, I went into the hospital to see the doctor on call. I could barely walk to the doctors office. I felt like my legs were giving out and I was about to keal over. I leaned against the wall and my sweetie, Rod came over to grab me. He said I was white as a ghost. He held on to me to help me walk into the doctor's office. I got registered and then sat down. The nurse called me right away as soon as I got sat down because they noticed how sick I looked. They took me back to a room, then put me in a wheelchair cause I couldn't walk anymore, and wheeled me up to have more blood drawn. When they got done, they wheeled me back to the doctor's room and he came in right away. He told me I had Staph Infection and if I didn't get back to the hospital that did my surgery ASAP, I would die! It happen to be blizzarding outside and I didn't think we could get there because it was a 3 hour drive to that hospital. He told me if we couldn't drive there, then he would take me by ambulance. Rod said he will drive me there cause he didn't want me to die.

   It took him 4 hours to get there but he got me to Mercy Hospital in Sioux City, Iowa. By the time I got there, they took me back to ER right away and had the Neurologist oncall come in and see me. I was laying down because I could no longer sit. My head hurt so bad and I could barely open my eyes. He said I needed to have emergency surgery to reopen my incision and flush it out.  So they wheeled me back to the OR and saved my life. I spent 5 days in the hospital.

   The day I was getting out, they took me back to OR and put a PICCLine in a vein in my right arm to an artery next to my heart, because that was the only place they could find a vein, so they could hook me up to IV-antibiotics when I got home. We got home around 8:30pm and the Inhome Nurse was already there with my IV-antibiotics. She and my sweetie got everything set out and hooked me up. That was the begining of 6 weeks of IV's hooked to me 24/7. I still wasn't feeling the best plus I had this stupid thing hanging from my arm. My left arm was black and blue from them trying to get a line in there. I hurt all over my body.

  The Inhome Nurse came once a week to draw blood and Rod would put a new IV bag on every night. It had a pump he hooked it to that gave us troubles sometimes. It would say it had air in the line and there wasn't any. I would have to flush my PICCLine before and after an IV. Eventually I would change my own IV bag after a couple weeks of watching how it was done. One day when a Inhome Nurse came, she was drawing blood and when she started to flush the line, the PICCLine blew! It freaked her out and she got upset. I told her to calm down that it wasn't her fault, that sometimes happens I was told. Rod took me over to the ER in Algona and the doctor there said it had to be removed cause it was no good. Then I started to freak because then I knew I would need a new one put in which meant more needles. Our hospital did not have a doctor that could put another one in so I had to go Spencer Hospital to have another one put in.

   When I got there, they took me back to Same Day Surgery and  one of the doctors tried to put a PICCLine in my left arm. He took one look at my arm and said he knew right away I was going to difficult. I told yes I was because I have been poked so many times that my veins disappear. He used an Ultra Sound to find some veins but could not hit any. He tried in 8 different spots. It hurt so bad that I was in tears. He would hit nerve about 3 or 4 times and it would shoot pain up and down my arm. Finally he said enough and called for another doctor to take me back to OR to have a Gorshong put in. Its like a PICCLine but it's put directly into your chest next to your heart. Since I had eaten before this all happened they couldn't put me asleep. He numbed me up and started cutting by my collar bone. It hurt like no other! I was crying and telling him to stop! Finally he was done and I could go home. I had that in for 2 weeks.

   Time was up on February 24th and my doctor in Sioux City said it can be taken out. I still have some Staph Infection left in there but I didn't need the IV's anymore. She put me on oral antibiotics for another 3 to 6 months. She sent me back to Spencer to have them take out my Groshong. The next day I went to Same Day Surgery to have it removed and a really nice surgeon numb me up really great because he had to cut it out. It had grown into my vein already. That time I didn't feel a thing, thank goodness. I am now free from, as I called it, my "Ball and Chain"!

   Well that is what I've been going through lately, like I don't have enough going on in my life the way it is. Yeah right! lol Now my Blood Pressure and Pulse have been running a little to high so I have to get that figured out also. I guess I'm just falling apart. I'm still not feeling the best but I have started Physical Therapy and it is helping somewhat. I got a long ways to go yet but I pray I will get better soon. My family still needs me. I am to stubborn to die yet. I have a few pictures of some of my owwwwwies. One is a yucky pic of my Infection as I laid dying on the table in the ER. The rest are battle scars and my "Ball n Chain".

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