Last Saturday, the weekend doc decided they had waited on antibiotics long enough and called the surgeon in to look at the swelling under my arm. Later that day, they drained the abscess. I am thankful they knocked me out to do it. Although the incision is less than two inches, the surgeon said the amount of infection was extensive and healing will be a long process.
Sunday they let me come home after blowing two more veins trying to get more vancomycin in me. They sent me home on antibiotics and with pain pills. Tuesday I went to the wound care center to have the packing removed and repacked. Not a pleasant process! When the packing was finally out, the nurse measured it - 52 inches of two inch gauze had been used to pack the canal area the infection had created.
I am now set up for home health to come change the packing daily to keep the incision open so the wound can heal from the inside out. The surgical culture was positive for staph infection even though I had no external wound/sore. I am hoping the healing goes quickly. Right now my big challenge is dealing with the tape and sore spots it is creating.
I am not back to exercise yet but have been trying to keep my diet healthy.
My goal tomorrow is to get back to 32 oz of water and work back to 64. My current weight is 197 lbs so I am not gaining and hope when I can walk again, I can start losing again.
Thursday, August 16, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
About My Silence and Healthier Hospital Food
Sorry about my silence for a while. I have had a rough August so far. I wasn't feeling great as we started getting into lease signing furniture moving days but things got worse from there. I thought in all the sweating I had done, a hair follicle under my arm had formed a boil. It really was only a red spot a little bigger than a pencil eraser. But it never came to a head and by the time the work week was coming to an end (a week ago) I though it was gone. I guess the effects were not. A week ago I woke up with pain in my arm pit. Not a little pain, one of those show-stopping, wonder if you can continue pains. I looked but could not see anything. It reminded me of the pain when I had costochondritis and the lining of my rib cage was inflamed.
I took motrin and tried to continue with the day. By evening, my underarm was a little swollen and I was sick to my stomach. In hind site, the sick probably came from the infection building. I slept on the couch, close to the bathroom, with heat pads on my arm. It should have been a telling sign that I needed to use the bathroom every 30 minutes or so that night. By Sunday morning the pain was pretty persistent but there wasn't much swelling and no fever, just a painful arm. I managed hot packs off and on as we prepared for a birthday party.
Monday morning I headed to work for a half day with the last of school registration to be done in the afternoon. Standing in the registration line, my body turned flush and the heat turned on. I felt like my fever had to be 105 or more all the sudden but in reality it was just 99 but my armpit area was basically squishy all over and really swollen. I took the kids home and went to urgent care. They looked, agreed it was really swollen but there was no central point where it originated, no absess that he could tell and no way to know where to drain. So he loaded me in antibiotics and sent me home. the fever broke but the pain didn't. Before the night was over the redness started.
Tuesday morning was more of the same only the pain or infection would not let me keep anything down. By afternoon the fever started and the redness began to spread starting my journey to the ER. It took the PA one look to say she was admitting followed by a list of blood cultures she wanted along with a CT scan. I eventually learned the blood cultures were negative and the CT scan showed cellulitis. But one week later I am still here with a massive hard spot under my arm. I have been on heavy antibiotics all week and finally this morning the weekend doc asked why it had not been drained. I asked this earlier but the approach was to reduce it with the antibiotics. He is going to contact a surgeon to look. I hope they come soon. I rank the pain of cellulitis on the scale of having bunion surgery. It definitely exceeds the pain of childbirth for me.
So this has been the reason for my silence. I try not to write (or talk to people) when in a pain drug cloud. I am almost at the point where my meds have worn off so I will talk about how healthy the food is here in another message. When I got here I weighed 198' no clue what I weight today but I have definitely burned fewer calories lately. Hoping to see that surgeon soon so I can get home and back to normal.
I took motrin and tried to continue with the day. By evening, my underarm was a little swollen and I was sick to my stomach. In hind site, the sick probably came from the infection building. I slept on the couch, close to the bathroom, with heat pads on my arm. It should have been a telling sign that I needed to use the bathroom every 30 minutes or so that night. By Sunday morning the pain was pretty persistent but there wasn't much swelling and no fever, just a painful arm. I managed hot packs off and on as we prepared for a birthday party.
Monday morning I headed to work for a half day with the last of school registration to be done in the afternoon. Standing in the registration line, my body turned flush and the heat turned on. I felt like my fever had to be 105 or more all the sudden but in reality it was just 99 but my armpit area was basically squishy all over and really swollen. I took the kids home and went to urgent care. They looked, agreed it was really swollen but there was no central point where it originated, no absess that he could tell and no way to know where to drain. So he loaded me in antibiotics and sent me home. the fever broke but the pain didn't. Before the night was over the redness started.
Tuesday morning was more of the same only the pain or infection would not let me keep anything down. By afternoon the fever started and the redness began to spread starting my journey to the ER. It took the PA one look to say she was admitting followed by a list of blood cultures she wanted along with a CT scan. I eventually learned the blood cultures were negative and the CT scan showed cellulitis. But one week later I am still here with a massive hard spot under my arm. I have been on heavy antibiotics all week and finally this morning the weekend doc asked why it had not been drained. I asked this earlier but the approach was to reduce it with the antibiotics. He is going to contact a surgeon to look. I hope they come soon. I rank the pain of cellulitis on the scale of having bunion surgery. It definitely exceeds the pain of childbirth for me.
So this has been the reason for my silence. I try not to write (or talk to people) when in a pain drug cloud. I am almost at the point where my meds have worn off so I will talk about how healthy the food is here in another message. When I got here I weighed 198' no clue what I weight today but I have definitely burned fewer calories lately. Hoping to see that surgeon soon so I can get home and back to normal.
Tuesday, July 31, 2012
Ending July with Just One "C"
This has been a really long month. Pneumonia, pain issues the doc thought was shingles, pink eye or allergies, sick kiddos, and more. But it is ending on a high note. A few days ago, I asked Grand#1 to read me something and her comment was that she didn't how to read Roman Numerals. I guess that is not something that gets emphasized any more.
So here is my Roman Numerals lesson for the day. The number 201 is written CCI (hope I got that right!). My good news is that for today, there is only one C showing on my scale. It took two months to drop 13.5 pounds but this morning the scale said 199.8. I hope to be able to get it below the CC point forever. I know my weight bobs up and down so if I do go back up I will retain my focus to get back to single C status.
I'm pretty tired tonight. I walked 2.6 miles tonight which put my total step count today over 12,000 and my total miles walked at 5.1. My right foot is still bothering me so I hope it will be better by morning so this doesn't wind up being the only real walk this week.
I know I did not eat enough today but I have no appetite. I had a cup of raw cauliflower for breakfast, two cups of smoked chicken breasts for lunch and a grilled lean burger patty on a sandwich thin for dinner. I should have had something else but I just could not make myself eat. I have been sneezing a lot today so the allergies may be kicking back up again. Gotta love pollen.
//k//
So here is my Roman Numerals lesson for the day. The number 201 is written CCI (hope I got that right!). My good news is that for today, there is only one C showing on my scale. It took two months to drop 13.5 pounds but this morning the scale said 199.8. I hope to be able to get it below the CC point forever. I know my weight bobs up and down so if I do go back up I will retain my focus to get back to single C status.
I'm pretty tired tonight. I walked 2.6 miles tonight which put my total step count today over 12,000 and my total miles walked at 5.1. My right foot is still bothering me so I hope it will be better by morning so this doesn't wind up being the only real walk this week.
I know I did not eat enough today but I have no appetite. I had a cup of raw cauliflower for breakfast, two cups of smoked chicken breasts for lunch and a grilled lean burger patty on a sandwich thin for dinner. I should have had something else but I just could not make myself eat. I have been sneezing a lot today so the allergies may be kicking back up again. Gotta love pollen.
//k//
Sunday, July 29, 2012
Weight Loss When You Eat the Wrong Stuff
It has been a few days since I had the strength at the end of the day to actually write. I know I overdid it on the exercise earlier this week because by Thursday walking was beyond painful. My feet were swollen so I had to wear sandals to work since they would not fit in my tennis shoes. That might sound reversed; it would seem I would always wear the dressier shoe to work but my feet are so bad that wearing sandals for the day can easily throw me into a sleepless night of massive bone pain and foot cramps. I didn't walk a lot. I took lunch with me and I stayed at my desk most of the day only getting up to go to the bathroom. I guess the swelling and extra fluid prompted my body to want me to flush it out because Thursday and Friday both I was constantly thirsty.
My Thursday morning weight was .7 lbs lighter than Wednesday. I really thought it would have been even less but with the feet swelling I am lucky to have recorded a loss at all. Even though I did no walked on Thursday other than the routine stuff, I did stay on track with me food intake and drank more than 80 ounces of water. My Friday morning weight was a tenth of a pound higher than Thursday.
Friday I had a prepackaged Cesear salad for lunch. Even though the package said it was 230 calories, the sodium count must have been high. I did not even finish it because it was just to salty to eat. I had another salad on Friday night because we were out and had to grab something to eat on the run. My best choice was an Apple Pecan Chicken salad from Wendy's. I got the half size and was pleasantly surprised to find out it was only 170 calories. The dressing they offer would have added another 60 calories and they forgot to give me the pecans so I did not have to count those extra calories or fat. I added a little balsamic dressing to the salad but again, it just seemed so salty. I think this "everything tastes salty" stage was telling me I was dehydrated, though I can't figure out how since I was drinking so much. Thankfully the swelling in my foot was decreasing so at least the fluid was not mounting there.
I thought with two salads and a protein breakfast I would have at least held a steady weight on Saturday morning but I was wrong, I gained .8 lbs. Things like this make no sense to me but it could be anything that causes that small of a gain I suppose.
I started off Saturday thinking I needed to get myself back on track walking wise or get in the pool. My feet instantly said no to the pool in the a.m. because it was cold. My toes cramped up almost immediately and I could not work them out to release without getting out of the water. I thought I would get back in as the heat of the day rose but the lightning storms rolled through ruling that out. By last night, I ached all over so for the third day in a row, I skipped exercise and went to bed. To top off the fact that I could not get myself to the exercise mode, for the first time since setting this goal and changing how I eat, I went off the deep end food wise. Maybe it was the pain, maybe the boredom, or maybe just a weakness over the sugar cravings. In addition to munching on dried mangoes(dried with honey on them) all day long, I caved in and had my first ice cream in a couple of months. Sadly it was not even that good so I don't know why I finished the bowl. I fully expected after gaining from eating salads the day before, this step would put me up multiple pounds. Strangely enough, when I stepped on the scale this morning, I was exactly the same as yesterday.
So my first weight of the day as of July 29, 2012 is 201.5.
Today when I woke up, my entire body hurt. I started to just stay in bed but I know from having had a Psoriatic Arthritis flare this bad before that laying in bed just makes it worse. So I got up, started the coffee and listened to the news. Weather forecast said heat index of 103 today and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Since the swelling in my feet had gone down, I decided if I planned to walk, I had better get it done. So I started the day with a 1.5 mile walks. I took it slow and did not even consider the longer route. I came home and cut the back yard using the riding mower and then did some raking. Later in the afternoon, I took my granddaughter shopping. All total, my fitbit says I walked 6.5 miles today. Thankfully it was spread over the day and my feet are not yelling as loud as the other days. Hopefully tomorrow gets me back to a normal pain threshold.
I'd love to see the scale tomorrow show at least a 1.5 lb loss and show me the 200 or below numbers. I am not holding my breath through. Even though what I have eaten doesn't come close to the calories I have burned, I know from experience that means nothing to my body.
//k//
My Thursday morning weight was .7 lbs lighter than Wednesday. I really thought it would have been even less but with the feet swelling I am lucky to have recorded a loss at all. Even though I did no walked on Thursday other than the routine stuff, I did stay on track with me food intake and drank more than 80 ounces of water. My Friday morning weight was a tenth of a pound higher than Thursday.
Friday I had a prepackaged Cesear salad for lunch. Even though the package said it was 230 calories, the sodium count must have been high. I did not even finish it because it was just to salty to eat. I had another salad on Friday night because we were out and had to grab something to eat on the run. My best choice was an Apple Pecan Chicken salad from Wendy's. I got the half size and was pleasantly surprised to find out it was only 170 calories. The dressing they offer would have added another 60 calories and they forgot to give me the pecans so I did not have to count those extra calories or fat. I added a little balsamic dressing to the salad but again, it just seemed so salty. I think this "everything tastes salty" stage was telling me I was dehydrated, though I can't figure out how since I was drinking so much. Thankfully the swelling in my foot was decreasing so at least the fluid was not mounting there.
I thought with two salads and a protein breakfast I would have at least held a steady weight on Saturday morning but I was wrong, I gained .8 lbs. Things like this make no sense to me but it could be anything that causes that small of a gain I suppose.
I started off Saturday thinking I needed to get myself back on track walking wise or get in the pool. My feet instantly said no to the pool in the a.m. because it was cold. My toes cramped up almost immediately and I could not work them out to release without getting out of the water. I thought I would get back in as the heat of the day rose but the lightning storms rolled through ruling that out. By last night, I ached all over so for the third day in a row, I skipped exercise and went to bed. To top off the fact that I could not get myself to the exercise mode, for the first time since setting this goal and changing how I eat, I went off the deep end food wise. Maybe it was the pain, maybe the boredom, or maybe just a weakness over the sugar cravings. In addition to munching on dried mangoes(dried with honey on them) all day long, I caved in and had my first ice cream in a couple of months. Sadly it was not even that good so I don't know why I finished the bowl. I fully expected after gaining from eating salads the day before, this step would put me up multiple pounds. Strangely enough, when I stepped on the scale this morning, I was exactly the same as yesterday.
So my first weight of the day as of July 29, 2012 is 201.5.
Today when I woke up, my entire body hurt. I started to just stay in bed but I know from having had a Psoriatic Arthritis flare this bad before that laying in bed just makes it worse. So I got up, started the coffee and listened to the news. Weather forecast said heat index of 103 today and thunderstorms in the afternoon. Since the swelling in my feet had gone down, I decided if I planned to walk, I had better get it done. So I started the day with a 1.5 mile walks. I took it slow and did not even consider the longer route. I came home and cut the back yard using the riding mower and then did some raking. Later in the afternoon, I took my granddaughter shopping. All total, my fitbit says I walked 6.5 miles today. Thankfully it was spread over the day and my feet are not yelling as loud as the other days. Hopefully tomorrow gets me back to a normal pain threshold.
I'd love to see the scale tomorrow show at least a 1.5 lb loss and show me the 200 or below numbers. I am not holding my breath through. Even though what I have eaten doesn't come close to the calories I have burned, I know from experience that means nothing to my body.
//k//
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