Okay, I’ve finally gotten more information about my incision and what’s happening down there. It’s not good, but it’s not incredibly bad, or at least it doesn’t seem so.
As I’ve mentioned I saw my regular physician last Tuesday as a follow up to my auto incident; getting hit by a car. I’d asked him to take a look at my wound and he was concerned and did a culture. Following that I saw my surgeon’s assistant who prescribed an antibiotic and suggested that if it my wound hadn’t cleared up by this coming Tuesday we’d change dressings.
That brings us up to yesterday.
My regular physician gave me a ring yesterday and said the lab test had come back and he felt it best to switch my antibiotic from Sulfamethoxazole-TMP DS (what was on the label) to Levofloxacin. The bacteria in question is named Pseudomonas (which seems to be Pseudomonas aeruginosa).
It’s kind of a nasty bug which, while it’s pretty common, seems to like wounds and can be very resistant to antibiotics. The lab hopefully decided that Levofloxacin should be effective against this particular strain. The stuff must be powerful because I have a five day prescription of just five pills.
My regular doc also suggested using a wet-to-dry dressing on the wound. No clue…but no matter.
Today I got a call from my surgeon’s assistant and he said he’d been in contact with my regular doc and was happy with the prescription and did i know how to apply a wet-to-dry dressing?
Nope.
Such service. He asked where I was and, once I’d communicated that, he said he’d call the office at my regular location (they are at a remote locale today) and have a tech (nice guy too) show me how to apply a wet-to-dry dressing. That all happened with 45 minutes of the call. Wow.
Here’s the thing. This bug is worrying, but I’ve been assured it should really be no problem. I’m going to run with that while keeping up my prescription, my new dressing technique, and being nosey during appointments for a bit.
As my medical knowledge only extends to that required to kill vampires (I played a vampire hunter on stage twice during my theatrical career), I’m not completely up to speed, but I get the idea of driving little antibiotic stakes through my pet bacteria.
I have a regular PT session later today which means I’m headed back to the hospital later…way too much time around the place, no wonder I’m infected. I also have a follow up appointment with the surgeon’s assistant on Tuesday to keep on top of the latest developments.
And finally, this is pretty much my last hurrah for time off. I head back to work on Tuesday and frankly, I’m of two minds. Yeah, I like my job and have been pretty much bored out of my mind, but I honestly think if I put my mind to it I could find plenty to do. Ah well…only a decade or so till retirement and I’d really rather not rush on this getting older stuff.
Aloha!