Our house is turning into a hospital.  We have medical supplies in almost every room. We've been on a bit of a "recovery roller-coaster" since I was discharged from the hospital a week and a half ago.  I was discharged with a portable Wound Vac for home use (24/7) and I have a home-care nurse who comes every Monday, Wednesday and Friday to change the dressing and evaluate the incision.  My portable Wound Vac It's nice to have a carrying case for the Wound Vac! I was also sent home taking the oral antibiotic, Ciprofloxacin. Unfortunately, after a few days, I began to experience very negative side effects from the medication...extreme fatigue, nausea and horrible dizziness.  By Saturday (11/12), the side effects had gotten so bad that I had to call my infectious disease doctor, and he instructed me to stop taking the Cipro for the rest of the weekend to see if I felt better. I felt MUCH better :) So Monday morning he prescribed Levofloxacin, w...

Well... A lot has happened since my post last Friday about the infection in my foot. It continued to get worse and by Saturday I ended up in the emergency room at Edward Hospital because of a hole that had developed in my foot. The ER doctors were concerned that the infection had possibly spread to the hardware in my foot and/or bones. They called my orthopedic surgeon (Dr. Arndt) and I was admitted to the hospital and started IV antibiotics immediately. They scheduled me to have surgery #4 the next morning (Sunday) to try to get rid of the infected tissue and to see if it had spread (the surgery was performed by Dr. Arndt). The surgery went well, and there were no initial signs that the infection had spread to the hardware or my bones - yay! Dr. Arndt successfully removed all of the dead and infected tissues, and took many cultures to determine which infection(s) were present. All but one culture has come back, and so far I've tested positive for E. coli (not the type t...

An update on my right foot... The surgery that I had back in September was a success! My orthopedic surgeon was able to cut and remove the part of the bone that was causing the added stress to the other joints of my foot. He inserted a new plate as well as seven screws to hold everything in place, which will all be permanent. My bones have not yet started to fuse together, but they will as it heals. I was non-weight bearing for about the first four weeks after the surgery (a little longer than expected, but my doctor wants to be sure that this surgery AND recovery are done correctly). By about third week of being off my foot, I was basically pain free! Two weeks ago, my stitches were removed and I was given permission to start walking on my heel with the boot cast on. Of course I was very excited, as a whole new world had been re-opened to me! It's amazing what we take for granted! A couple days after that appointment, I started developing some pain in my foot, w...