Well, as many of you know, Steve has had a bad few days. For those of you who don't follow his updates on Facebook, here is the rundown.
A few weeks ago, Steve slid on our hardwood floor and his his knee on the wall. He noticed immediate pain, lasting several days, then his knee got bigger. He went to our Orthopedic Doctor and he drained off the fluid. He had formed a bursa in his knee from the traumatic injury of hitting the wall.
Last week, during the festival, his knee started to swell, and daily became increasingly bigger and more painful. By Saturday, he just wasn't himself, and in a lot of pain. Saturday came and went, then there was Sunday, with more pain, and even more swelling, and even more trouble walking. By Monday morning, getting out of bed was a challenge. He somehow drove himself to the Orthopedic Doctors office as soon as it opened to have it drained. That is where things changed.
Dr. Goris told Steve his knee was infected and that he couldn't drain it this time for the fear of spreading the infection throughout the body. He put him on large doses of Keflex antibiotics, antiimflammatory meds, and pain killers, along with two days of bed rest. If the knee wasn't better by Wednesday morning, he was supposed to go back to the doctor.
When I got home from work on Tuesday night, I was expecting to see a smaller knee and a happier Steve. Instead, I saw the opposite. The knee was now bigger, turning purple, hot, and he was in more pain than ever.
We called Dr. Goris and home and told him of my concern and that we were actually going backwards instead of forward. The antibiotics were not working. He said to try to make it through the night, told me what to watch for, tried to reassure me that I would know if I needed to take him to the ER. He said to meet him at the Surgery Center (Where I work with him) Wednesday morning and he would see if the antibiotics were working yet. He would decide then, but probably admit him. He told me if I got scared that the infection had spread to somewhere else in the body, during the middle of the night, to take him to the ER. Less than two hours later, Steve has spiked a fever and was feeling bad, so we called Dr. Goris back and he said it was time to go to the Hospital. He called ahead and had a room waiting for Steve when we got there. Pretty specail treatment! Thanks Dr. Goris. I hate the ER.
He ordered IV antibiotics and made him NPO after midnight in case he needed to operate Wednesday morning. We had a very scary, emotional, and sleepless night. We were both anxiously awaiting to see Dr. Goris Wednesday morning to get the reassurance that the infection was still contained in the knee.
He got there and told us yes he thought the infection was still in the knee, but the antibiotics hadn't helped at all. His knee was actually worse than when we got to the hospital. That meant, the infection was a little more serious than at first hoped. He chose to incise his knee and drain the blood and puss instead of taking him to surgery with the risk of spreading the infection because his antibiotics weren't really on board. This was the safest way. In order for the anitbiotics to work, they had to get rid of the thick puss.
He left the incision open, so the knee will continue to drain. They took cultures of the knee to see what exactly is growing in there. It will be a couple of days to get the results. He seems to think it is MRSA since it did not respond to the Keflex.
MRSA is a bacteria that is hard to treat because of its resistance to certain antibiotics.
So, Steve will be here for at least two more nights, maybe more. Could even be a week.
They need to get this under control and see some real improvement before he can be realeased. There is still the risk of the infection spreading, but we are on the right track and in the right place.
Prayers are still welcome for us to make it through this. Hopefully we are on the rebound and headed for a full recovery.
Thanks to all of you for all of the calls and texts of concern and offering to help.
We appreciate everything and are very thankful to have supportive family and friends.
I will try to update everyone tomorrow!
Love, Tammy
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| From Here |
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To Here!
Graphic, SORRY! |
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To Here!
Steve's home for the next several days!! |
