The past few weeks passed by like a whirlwind that prevented me from having the time and space to write a blog post. I had a business trip, a funeral, summer school, and a wedding on top of battling an ongoing infection.
I am still the bird with a broken wing. This past Wednesday evening, I broke down in tears. I was aching for my active lifestyle. I want it back! I will get there at some point. I hope it's soon.
Three weeks ago, my doctor confirmed that all the pus pockets were gone and that I could stop taking antibiotics. The wound was still open and starting to heal. At that point, I had been on antibiotics for a total of six weeks. Near the end of that period, I was nauseous on a daily basis, throwing up, and having bouts of diarrhea. My doctor said being on antibiotics were very hard on my body. It would take a few weeks before I start to feel better. I started taking probiotics to allow the good bacteria to re-build in my digestive system.
At the advice of some of my blog followers, I made an appointment with a wound care specialist and the next opening that worked with my crazy schedule was not until August 14th. My doctor said that if I was improving for the next week, I could cancel that appointment. I kept it because a few days later, I had a bad inflammation develop that was hurting really bad. Oatmeal baths and zinc oxide helped minimize the inflammation. I was not feeling well. My doctor and I agreed I needed to keep the appointment with the wound care specialist.
And the day came. The interpreter was signing after the doctor examined the wound. "You have staff." (She did not fingerspell staff. She used the ASL sign for staff). I was trying to understand what she meant. The nurse was talking, "Staff...needs to be resolved." I was laying there on the bed trying to understand then the nurse said, "This infection..." and I immediately caught on. I told the interpreter, "No! S-T-A-P-H!" I told her it had to be fingerspelled. And it meant DIFFERENTLY from staff. She blushed and said she was sorry. It was a good thing that I could put 2 and 2 together to figure out what the doctor and the nurses were talking about. Sadly, many Deaf people cannot. And the harsh reality is that there are interpreters who are not qualified for medical interpreting because they cannot clearly communicate essential medical information. That experience hit me hard. It made my heart ache for those Deaf people who leave medical appointments wondering what was really wrong with them.
Yep, the infection that has haunted me for the past 4.5 months (it emerged two weeks after the surgery) turned out to be staph infection. I was baffled. I wanted to know how I got it. The wound care specialist explained further. My immunity was impacted initially with the cancer. The hormone therapy weakened my immune system. Then the surgery knocked my immune system out. My body was easily susceptible to any germs, including staph. Doctors did not figure out it was staph until now. The missing link in the treatment was topical antibiotics. The topical antibiotics have worked quite quickly. The wound has been healing quite well. But today, it is slightly open and bleeding again. I have been sitting working on my laptop a lot the past few days. I was sitting on it too much. Tomorrow, I plan on working on the laptop while standing up.
My doctor ordered bloodwork to check on everything to see how I am doing. I went in to get that done last Wednesday. My white blood cell (WBC) count is higher than normal. She said this high count is a clear indication that my body is fighting an infection. One more week of topical antibiotics. I still feel nauseous and headachy. The diarrhea continues. I am puzzled. I am going to give it another week and see how I feel afterwards. It's been almost five months since my surgery. I sure hope it all ends soon.
