I was going to write about some great Pixar movies I was finally able to catch up on, but something more urgent came up. First of all, I have been rolling along for a while. I enjoyed Grange Fair, Lake Tobias Wildlife Park, and a lengthy vacation down south with little fatigue. This all recently came to a screeching halt.
I normally tag along with my wife when she works in Sayre, PA on the New York border because it's a break from the kids and the normal routine, not to mention her company puts us up in a nice hotel where everyone knows us. We arrived there on Tuesday and planned to leave Wednesday. I woke up Wednesday morning and noticed that my right eye was nearly swollen shut. We paid a visit to the ER at Guthrie Hospital in Sayre. They determined it was a superficial infection, gave me an oral antibiotic and sent me on my way. We returned home Wednesday evening.
The next morning, I felt a constant pain on the right side of my forehead. It began to swell and was warm to the touch, sure signs of infection. We then decided to go to Mount Nittany Medical Center in State College, hoping it was an abscess they could drain. After a head CT, an MRI and a consult with a plastic surgeon, who determined in about 2 minutes she wasn't going to touch it, we needed a neurosurgeon to look at it, because the infection was outside and inside my skull. Mount Nittany's neurosurgeon "left" a few months ago. I am not sure about the circumstances, so that is all I am going to say about that. Meanwhile, my entire face swelled up, and both of my eyes were swollen shut. I was in a good deal of pain.
Since there were no beds available at Hershey, I was transported to Geisinger Medical Center in Danville. The neurosurgeon determined, obviously, that all the infection needed to be removed. In order to do that, an infected bone flap on the right side of my head would need to be removed as well. Since they weren't touching my actual brain and I was in a lot of pain, we decided to have the surgery done at Geisinger instead of traveling to Duke. Despite lots of post-surgical pain and a real push for us to choose Geisinger's neuro team over Duke (like that will ever happen), everything went as planned, and the diagnosis was a severe staph infection. We think the surgery and infection a month after the initial surgery was also staph, and may have been misdiagnosed as MRSA.
A few days later, I was discharged. I have to wear a helmet while in motion because part of my skull is missing and my brain is vulnerable. Also, I need to be on IV antibiotics for several weeks, so I have a home pump that administers the medicine. In about 6 months when the infection is completely eradicated, they will put in a prosthetic bone flap. Hopefully, this will be it for infections for quite a while.
I returned home, and all I can seem to do is sleep. I even get winded walking up the stairs of our house. Hopefully I will be rested up enough so I can enjoy the holidays with my family.
This was a whirlwind tour of three hospitals, and I was pleased with the care and nursing at all of them, especially Geisinger. They made sure I wasn't in pain overnight, and I was getting enough sleep. Thanks also to friends and our church family for praying and sending lots of food. Also, thanks as always to my lovely wife, whose life was sent into upheaval once again, as she had to make sure the kids were taken care of, and juggle my care around her work. To add insult to injury, my mother-in-law, Sandy, was admitted to the hospital with pneumonia, so Jaci had to drive back and forth between Danville and State College. (Sandy has returned home and is recovering well.) I feel so bad, but so appreciative for everyone who has to alter their schedule when I am stuck in the hospital. Hopefully it will be a long time until my next unplanned visit.
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