Just when you think it's over.....

Philippians 4:7New King James Version (NKJV)

7 and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

We had a great Christmas, John and I quietly celebrated our 25th anniversary and we rang in 2015 in traditional fashion with a Twilight Zone marathon. Everyone was doing well and I was feeling great all things considered. My hair even stopped falling out from the combination of Vancomycin and Invanz that I had just finished taking by IV for six weeks.  On January 2nd, my best friend and I hit some thrift stores in Plant City, FL. I found an antique Tom and Jerry set for 3.00 at the first shop (I've wanted one for a long time) and we headed downtown to walk around some antique stores.

We were having a great time when I was hit with a sudden feeling that reminded me of getting the flu.   By the time we made it home, I crawled into bed and didn't get up much for a few days. Even though I had had a flu vaccination, it was apparently not the best match this year and my immune system was taxed.  My fever continued, I had body aches and a headache but nothing else. The next week we had our first cold snap of the season and my back was really achy. I emailed my surgeon's wonderful assistant to ask her if there was something that I should do or take seeing as this was my first experience with cold weather since my lumbar fusion surgery.  She emailed me back in about two minutes with the question "Have you been running any fever lately?"  Oh my goodness. I hadn't thought for one minute that there could be a connection with my previous spinal infection.

In the next few days I saw my surgeon (who later said that my eyes were sunken in and I looked so horrible that I scared him), my infectious disease doctors, had an X-ray, many blood tests and an MRI.   I was home alone when I got a phone call from one of my doctors letting me know that I had a large abscess in my spine and would be admitted that night for a procedure in the morning.  Not going to lie, I lost it. I sobbed and didn't stop. My poor son was the first one home and just held me while I cried. How could this be happening again? I called John who was on his way back from Gainesville because it was treatment day for our daughter.  Family came over, friends came over to hug me and pray with me, I took a really long hot shower and was tucked in at the hospital by my midnight deadline.  I wasn't happy about this but had just started experiencing the familiar infection related back pain so I was ready for whatever happened next.

My surgeon explained that I didn't have a simple round abscess in my back, it was pocketed (like a cluster of grapes).  They were going to try a procedure to drain it without surgery but weren't optimistic because of the nature of the infection.  If they couldn't drain it sufficiently, I would be having surgery again.  So they used a CT scan to decide where to place a catheter, numbed my back and drained out 90 ccs of gunk. I was awake for it all and saw everything. The procedure was quite effective, they started me on the same antibiotics again and my labs and vitals immediately started improving.  They left me with a drain which I would have for another two weeks. On my first night, my drain stopped working entirely for several hours.  I was so discouraged. God and I had a very long talk and I let Him have this situation. All of it. He gave me this incredible peace and I truly felt His presence. 

Things continued to improve. I survived the weirdest roommate situation ever which left me and the environmental services department of the hospital with serious issues. She liked perfume, was happy to "have the privacy to rub her naked body with oil", and cleaned the entire room by herself before she would lay down in bed.  On the second day, the perfumy smell was so overpowering that I ended up camped out at the end of the hallway waiting for a transfer to another room. I spent a couple more nights in unscented bliss and headed home with a shiny new PICC line and three more months of IV antibiotics ahead of me.  I had dodged the surgery bullet and was really optimistic that things were going to start getting normal again.

With the exception of the twice daily IVs, not being able to shower, and my hair falling out, things have been great. I have more good days than bad and I'm adjusting to my physical limitations. At this point I only have a couple more weeks of treatment left so my PICC line will be gone and life will get a whole lot simpler.....for a while.  Unfortunately, the hardware from my fusion was encased in my most recent infection.  Apparently once it's there, I will be carrying around nasty bacteria until my hardware is gone. That means that I will need to stay on antibiotics forever or until I have surgery again to remove that hardware.

That means surgery is coming again. Probably in May, probably followed by months on a wound-vac and who knows what else. The good news is that I'm at peace with whatever we need to do to put this baby to bed. I'm really okay with it.In the meantime, once my PICC is out and I'm allowed a little more physical activity, I'm going to have fun. I want to go dancing and to the beach and ride my bike and take a shower. Lots of showers. I'm taking a road trip with my girls and going out with John on his boat. It's funny, but I feel the need to squeeze as much as I can into the month or so that I will have before surgery, so that's what I'm going to do.