I cannot believe that girl's doctor is giving her pills instead of intravenous antibiotics, or waiting to send her to an ID doctor. I had a whole staff of them in Florida and I still go see mine here in Virginia every few months. That doctor must be a bigger quack as the doctor I first went to in Florida... a referral from my health insurance. If I had listened to him, I would have died. After getting home from an appointment, I called him frightened because my lower legs were swollen an covered with watery blisters. He told me to eat less salt and come see him Monday. I went to the emergency room Sunday Morning, they took some tests, sent to a hospital room a few hours later; the last thing I remembered. I 'woke up' in ICU severals days later with my sister crying in my ear by phone.
In 2003, I decided to spend the winter with my brother in Florida. Feb. 2004, I contracted MRSA staph disease. Never heard of it before or don't know where or how I got it. I spent 2 and a half months in the hospital there; had to take a med-flight back to my home, where I spent the rest of the year and all of 2005 in and out of hospitals, not expected to live, many times... several MRSA flare-ups with oozing sores on my back and butt. Once I was so swollen I looked like I was 8 months pregnant which was an abscess that ruptured; I won't go into the gory details. Several times I was in conflict with my health insurance because they didn't feel I was sick enough to go back into the hospital. I had at least 4 series of Vancomycin through PIC lines, and 8 - 10 blood transfusions because my body nearly stopped reproducing red blood cells. It left me with a severed spine, L2 and L3 deteriorated, surgery was life-threatening and wouldn't reverse the paralysis. Also, had chronic bone infection, 3rd stage kidney disease, skin problems, continued imbalanced blood issues, etc., and it left me incontinent, the most humbling experience. I lost my home since I could no longer live alone and was unable to keep it financially. My Dad build that home for me when he was in his mid-seventies, that made it harder than ever to have to give it up.
My life has completely changed, spend 90% in bed, living with my son and his family, which has had its ups and downs. It takes a lot of prayer, patience and understanding on all our behaves. No fancy equipment or handicapped aids for me... I don't have the money and health insurance won't cover them, so to mobilize me at all it takes the help of my 2 grandsons and/or my son to tug and pull to get me from bed to my wheelchair or into a car. It's so difficult, I rather stay in bed must of the time. My laptop and TV is most of my world now.
