Hi Stacy,
I am sorry to hear of your set back. In 1981 my bro-in-law was helping me do
a transfer from the car to my chair. I lost my balance and broke my right
femur about 4" below my hip. It was a 4 1/2" upside down 'V' on both side of
the bone. They put a titanium rod in my femur, and wired around the break in
two places. It took awhile but it finally healed. In 1987 I noticed a spot
on my leg that would not heal. The bone had osteomyelitis in it. Over the next
2 years my Surgeon and I worked on the leg. The rod was removed and antibiotic
beads were placed around the bone. He was able to clean the bone of infection,
but a soft tissue infection blew in and reinfected the bone in August, 1989. I
didn't feel that I could put my body through two more years of what it had
taken to clean the bone, so I took my Surgeon's advice and had the infected
bone removed from my body. I had to rehab again like after my SCI. My balance
was gone, my body couldn't do a thing like it
could do after my SCI, until I leaned how to work all over with only one leg.
I do know that the technology has advanced a lot about wound, bone, and
vancomycin-resistant enterococci (VRE) in the last few years.
In February, 2007, I had emergency surgery to clean an abscess out of my
lower back near the coccyx bone. I had a wound 5 1/2cm long, 4.5cm wide, and
6cm deep. With a lot of hard work, good treatment, and a positive outlook. it
is now only 2cm long, 2cm wide, and2.2cm deep.
Keep fighting, listen to your Doctor's advice but ask a lot of questions,
stay in a positive mood, and your body will heal itself over time. You'll be
in my prayers until then.
With Love,
CtrlAltDel aka Dave
C4/5 Complete - 31 Years Post
Texas, USA
Stacy Harim <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Hey all. What a few months. I broke my back. Of all ways, I was
transferring into my wheelchair. I didn't fall as one would guess. I grabbed
the wheels to pull myself the rest of the way and it snapped at T 11. For those
of you who don't know I got encephalomyelitis 6 yrs ago and left damage at T7.
It hurt like hell even though it was below my level. I was shipped to
Hopkins and had a rod put in my back. It turned out that I had osteomyelitis
in my spinal column. A month later a cat scan revealed that he didn't get it
all. Another rod and another cage in the lumbar area on top of nerves being
snipped. Finally another surgery on my bday of all days July 3 to remove a
screw that was too close to my aorta. The neurosurgeon feared erosion and it
would come loose.
I went ahead and had surgery on the pressure sore AGAIN! I had spoke with a
reconstructive surgeon at Hopkins a few weeks before I snapped my back. I had
several tests done that revealed that there was an underlying problem with the
bone so I had some of it removed. I combined the last surgery. It should have
healed in only a few weeks because he used triple stitching in layers. The
skin healed but came apart again. I had to go back to Hopkins from rehab and
ended up getting another surgery. He said that he didn't even see the
dissolving stitches that should have lasted a few months. Now I'm home and on
bed rest. It's been a month. He took the stitches out and there is still some
drainage that he knows about but the pain can be extreme. I know I will end up
calling him next week.
I have definatly gone backwards. I have lost my balance, used to be able to
sit up in bed, and I have lost my transfer ability that I got back slightly. I
also have lost all stregnth that I am not allowed to work on until my spinal
restrictions are lifted. On top of it all, I found out that I carry VRE in my
wound. I am not sure if its in my intestines or not but my bowels started
messing up since about a week after my last surgery. I'm not sure its the VRE
or the zyvox I'm taking. I havent had it in a few days so I wonder why they
are acting up. I'm taking iron twice a day and that isnt even slowing them
down. Does anyone know about this? I'm going to the doctors next week but
there isn't information like a fellow person that has been through it.
Any help would be appreciated,
Stacy
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