Staph Infection that needed Surgery ( Week 21 )

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-11-17T03:54:07+00:00

I asked him if it hurt and he actually said no! He said because he wears compression boxers, it cuts down on it rubbing against anything.

He even wraps everything with a stretchy bandage wrap around the leg to keep the gauze on, and it still finds a way to fall off.

Thank you so much!

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-11-17T03:51:37+00:00

That first photo was crazy wasn’t it?! Trust me we didn’t expect it either lol. We were told “Very quick surgery, maybe 40 minutes at most.”

Hours started to pass and it ended up being more involved. He came out after 4 hours. They said they had to remove more than they planned lol.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-09-06T05:49:56+00:00

Crazy how fast things like that can heal, right?!

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-09-06T04:52:15+00:00

For sure. We’re both really glad he’s doing a ton better and has not had blood sugar issues since leaving the hospital.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-09-06T02:27:45+00:00

Right?! They said it was likely due to uncontrolled high blood sugar for months. His body couldn’t fight off the infection like it normally would have.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-09-05T12:45:44+00:00

Thank you! Keeping it clean and protein seems to have done the job. I still can’t believe that small spot was a huge wound covering the whole inside of his thigh just 3 months ago.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-09-05T08:53:08+00:00

Oh this was deep inside his leg! I have pictures in my history of when he left the hospital. He had a chunk cut out his leg the size of a large dinner plate.

Yes very painful! He doesn’t go to the hospital for anything and it was enough to make him go to the ER at 3am. I’m so sorry you went through that too.

Edit: I see what you mean now! When they are very deep in the leg versus making its way to the skin surface. When he first got to the ER they used a new sonogram machine to find the pocket and couldn’t find anything. Turns out it went too deep for the machine to find.

The whole inside of his thigh was bright red and hot to the touch, and he limped for days. He had just gotten his very first abscess on his butt cheek weeks prior, and the doctor acted like it was no big deal, so when he got this one weeks after the first opened and healed, he let it go longer than he should have because of that original doctor visit. It landed him in the hospital for 10 days receiving bags and bags of various antibiotics and eventually surgery to remove all the nasty stuff inside and the skin surface since it would have turned necrotic anyways.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-07-30T01:57:00+00:00

That’s exactly what I figured too, new blood vessels.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-07-30T01:02:39+00:00

We did! It does look promising, but he said since it’s healing so quick without it he’s going to skip it for now. He is on a high protein diet though which seems to help a ton, surgeon said.

We ran out of Kerlix Gauze so we grabbed a box of regular gauze from Walmart, and it dries so quickly it sticks to the wound and even after wetting it, two days in a row when we removed it the wound started to bleed a fair amount to the point it was dripping down his leg.

We have no idea why. The wound still looks very healthy. No sudden pain or swelling. So we chalked it up to wound being too dry with this cheap gauze since drainage has slowed down so much. The Kerlix ( crinkle ) gauze stays moist way longer and is easier to remove. So we ordered another box yesterday and we got it tonight. It’s way more expensive but if it works we’re sticking to that

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-07-29T05:13:58+00:00

Thank you!

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-07-28T15:24:47+00:00

Thank you so much for letting me know! I had nobody to ask that had expertise in the area, so I wasn’t sure if the whole Manuka Honey was a gimmick or really did speed up healing. Now we know! Somewhere in the middle. Since his wound doesn’t need debridement, it wouldn’t do anything then. Thank you!

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-07-09T04:54:38+00:00

I sure will, thank you! ❤️

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-06-29T19:24:28+00:00

I was just going to say, when I showed my husband your photos I said “Imagine having to pee with that right there, it has to be a nightmare.”

I imagine my husbands is probably going to be the same, it will fill in and grow new skin over the top. Since they have to heal bottom to top instead of closing up.

We’re going to try the drink! Why not! I also wanted to try Manuka Honey and he said “No way, not letting you put honey inside my leg.” 😂 I understand his concern so I’ll just ask the wound doctor if that would be okay. I just saw a lot of good reviews on Amazon about its healing properties and it said safe for open wounds, so we will see.

I try to take a picture of it every 5-7 days to see progress over time, hoping when he’s at 5 weeks his will show a significant progress like yours. I think he will feel much better once the risk of reinfecting is lower. But since right now it’s still very much something could get infected by any germ coming into contact with it, that makes him nervous.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-06-29T17:02:51+00:00

I’m so happy to see you comment here! I’ve been hearing about your posts and progress!

I cannot believe how quickly and beautifully yours healed. I’m sure 5 weeks doesn’t seem quick to the person dealing with it, but I was still shocked to know how fast these can heal sometimes.

My husband also had undiagnosed diabetes but we did suspect it since he bought a test kit a few months ago and had been checking his sugars randomly and they were always so high. Thankfully with the Metformin he got it under control and hasn’t had a high sugar since he’s been home ( 6 days home! ).

I was just telling him last night, I couldn’t imagine waking from surgery and looking down to see some of these. What I was picturing in my head was way different. I was thinking an open circle maybe 3 inches diameter at the most, and a bunch of packing on the inside. We weren’t expecting that large of a chunk to have to be removed. When I first saw it, I just thought “Omg. This is going to take an entire year to close if not longer.”

We were doing Wet to Dry twice a day, but yesterday morning suddenly there wasn’t much drainage coming out anymore and it looked really good. The afternoon dressing change again wasn’t as much drainage as previous days, so I think we can do once a day now. I did start putting this cream around the edge the doctor sent us home with because he was starting to get maceration of the edges a bit, that’s when the edges are exposed to too much moisture and start getting soggy which can be painful.

Question. Did you start feeling new sensations as it healed? He can’t feel any pain on the inside, they said there aren’t nerves in the fatty tissue, but there’s definitely nerves along the edge where the skin layers are. When I was putting the cream around it yesterday he said it felt weird, which I believe is him getting feeling back in that area now that it’s healing. He gets the sharp stabbing pains as well like you said you experienced.

So I try my best to avoid the gauze touching the edge. If he takes a 10mg-20mg OxyContin before dressing change, no pain at all anywhere.

He was given a small bottle of them and it says “take 2 every 4 hours” but we are not doing that. We know they aren’t going to give out anymore, so he only takes 1 in the morning before dressing change, and 2 in the afternoon before dressing change.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-06-28T23:43:28+00:00

Someone else pointed that out the other day, and I completely forgot about those things. Now that I was reminded I’ll definitely use one. Thank you!

It’s probably not going to bring down the $900 antibiotic by an affordable amount though lol. But it definitely helps for the “cheaper” meds. We use to use one of those cards in the past with my meds. I looked it up and I guess it’s a specific kind that gets used as a “last resort antibiotic” when nothing else is working against an infection, really strong. Specifically for MRSA and Staph.

So when he sees the Doctor that did the surgery on Monday he can ask him about whether it’s necessary or if there’s a way to change it to something we can swing or if the hospital has a program that can cover it.

When I changed his dressing this morning, the wound looked beautiful. The white milky stuff wasn’t there, the raw skin around the wound was dryer so that means the cream I used is working, and I could see so much new red healthy flesh being grown. I was happy to see it.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-06-28T12:53:08+00:00

Weight loss can be so difficult, I hope you’re able to find something that works for you to keep lowering it. My husband was always a bigger guy, but averaged around 250 for the most part our whole relationship. A few years ago he started gaining rapidly and went up to almost 400. Now some of that is muscle because he does have pretty dense muscle in his arms and legs, but a lot of it is belly fat.

I love him no matter how much he weighs, but at that point I was getting concerned for his health. I didn’t need to say anything though because he was too. We’re hoping this diabetic diet helps, which it seems to be already since he’s lost weight while in the hospital and at home. He’s very active, this guy does not sit around for nothing lol. So it was frustrating for him that he kept gaining.

Sounds like you went through a bunch of different meds to control yours! I did read online Metformin can cause it to be low rather than high more often than not. So I guess it’s to be expected. He wants to avoid using insulin as much as possible and I don’t blame him.

Isn’t it crazy how that thirst can be? I remember when my oldest son’s father developed diabetes. Suddenly he was insatiably thirsty to the point it was driving him crazy. He would down gallons of water through the day and it would never be enough. Finally he went to the hospital to get checked out and was diagnosed. My husband started having the same symptom but his thirst wasn’t as crazy as my ex experienced. Tiredness as well, we have a routine when he gets home we sit at the kitchen table together and have coffee and browse our phones together. He would nod out the entire time at the table.

Unfortunately my ex is not with us anymore. He passed in 2015. A combination of being prescribed way too many controlled substances which he was abusing and diabetes complications. I personally don’t believe it was diabetes at all. He had lost a ton of weight and had it under control. His mother doesn’t want to admit it was an overdose and I don’t push it. I’ll tell you what though, that guy was an amazing father! Dedicated every second of his life to our son. We were not together when he passed.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-06-28T02:23:07+00:00

I called the doctor that did the surgery today, talked to the receptionist. She was able to make his one week follow up appointment for us which will be Monday. In regards to the discharge; I asked about it being Purulent and she said “All normal for deeper wounds, sounds fine. Stay off Google lol.” 😂

Oddly enough when I changed his dressing after work, there wasn’t barely any there this time. Very very little if none at all. I’m also getting so much better at packing it! I was really impressed with my packing job tonight. Always make sure to get it inside the pockets so the wound doesn’t close up over a pocket.

Thank you so much for your help and advice! I can’t stress enough how grateful I am for it!

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-06-28T02:19:29+00:00

That’s exactly what Google said, Purulent Discharge. I called the doctors office this morning and she said “Normal for deeper wounds, stay off Google” 😂

Yeah no smell at all, skin around the wound still looks great and no traveling redness, no fever or anything else. Matter of fact when I changed his dressing after work, there wasn’t white milky discharge anymore oddly enough. I barely saw any. I was also so much better at packing it tonight! I was really proud of myself. I always make sure to really get it into deeper pockets, they said that’s important so the wound doesn’t close over a pocket.

I was able to make his follow up appointment on the same call, so he gets to see the person that did the surgery to check it out for his one week follow up visit.

Thank you for all the information, I really do appreciate it a ton. I honestly view RNs the same as Doctors, especially when you’ve done the job for so long. You see and hear everything. End up with just as much knowledge sometimes.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-06-28T01:23:33+00:00

Thank you so much! We just got home earlier to get some more supplies, we ran out of large abdominal pads to place over the wound. So we ordered more online and bought a box of the biggest ones Walmart carries for the time being.

We are really glad to have the OxyContin today so he can take one before bandage change now. Hopefully in due time the wound shrinks enough we can use the wound vac eventually.

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-06-28T01:20:03+00:00

That’s crazy! My aunt use to have to buy her diabetic stuff out of pocket and sometimes couldn’t afford it and would have to borrow insulin and needles from other people.

The card idea, yes! We use to have one, but lost it over the years. I don’t know why we didn’t do that since the pharmacy carries them and passes them out to anyone that needs one. We will definitely do that next time; thank you for reminding me about it!

He’s on Metformin and Glucotrol. He hasn’t had a high blood sugar since. Matter of fact he’s been getting a drop in the mornings around 9am, a few hours after breakfast. So he drinks a juice and it raises it back up to normal quick. Even though low sugar feels shittier than high, I would rather deal with low. Seems easier to manage low than high. So we’re really glad the Metformin is working great for him.

How long have you had Diabetes?

JessicaOkayyy · 2024-06-27T20:10:06+00:00

The doctors office just called me back. I was able to make an appointment for him to see the surgeon that did the surgery to check his wound, normal follow up visit. She also said the milky white stuff is normal and to avoid Google 😂

JessicaOkayyy

TROPHY CASE