Welcome To Our World Where There Is Always Some Sorta Episode...

Well if its not one thing its a freakin nother... Well we had a decent Thanksgiving at hubbys aunts. I didn't have any real issues with food except for the sugar-free splenda apple crisp. Apparently I'm probably the only freak who dumps on this cuze boy did I feel freaky after eating it. I even used the splenda brown sugar to be safe but WOW my head was spinning. Everyone else raved over it though and could not believe it was sugar free. I also used sugar free Jell-O pudding mix and made pudding pies. I figured I'd make the deserts because she did all the main dish cooking and it was safer for me that way so had I wanted something for desert I knew what was in it. Anyhow my apple crisp episode caused me to lay down for about a half hour. For a few minutes there I wasn't sure if it was going to come u*****t but after the first fifteen passed I knew it was staying put and was just going to be evil. So I feel better and get up, now my hubbys shivering but feels warm to the touch, I'm thinking GREAT the flue!!! So we pack up troops and head home... The next day he's getting ready for work at 5:30am and notices his leg is sort pinkish like a rash but blows it off and heads to work. I head to work too.. About 4pm I get a call at work and its hubby telling me he's going to Rhode Island Hospital cuze his leg is now PURPLE from his ankle to his knee and feels like somebody's kicked him in the shin . I knew right away what it was. Damn it his celluitius is back!! I hang up and rush to the hospital because with his St. Jude's valve in his heart any and all infections are dangerous for him. So I get there and it's plum purple.. Of cores nobody has marked his leg to gauge whether or not its spreading so I pull a pen out of my purse and mark the highest point and the lowest point of the purpleness.. Normally ya circle it but its such a large solid purple mass there was just no reason to. Now of cores everyone who comes in says "Oh great they marked you so we can see the progression" I said "UMMM No I did nobody else seemed to think of it"... Sorry, as much as I had wonderful care all the times I spent at Rhode Island hospital for my cancer, my gallbladder and my WLS I have a bit of animosity toward the E.R. at Rhode island Hospital due the fact they almost killed my hubby. Them dingbats down there sent him home twice last year telling him he had the flue when in fact he had a massive staph infection that turned into endocarditis that went to his heart and destroyed his aortic valve that's why he now has a St. Jude's valve. So this time with his leg there was no way they were just sending us home. At first they tried it and said they were going to put him on antibiotics and send him home and IF it didn't look better the next day he'd have to come back. I'm like, "UMMM NO, he has a valve in his heart and seeing how it spread this fast in just one day there is no way he's going home". The nurse, doctor what ever she was said she'd have to check his blood work to see if there were any abnormities to be able to keep him because ya can't stay just because you want to, the insurance just doesn't work that way. Thankfully "sorta" his white blood count was off a bit and THAT was reason enough to admit him. So by 11pm Friday he was in his room. They put him on I.V. antibiotics and for some strange reason his I & R (blood clotting rate) was off too so they put him on heparin. They told him had he waited any longer he could have lost his leg. This is not the first time he's had celluitius but it is by far the worst he's had it. What seemed to bring it on was he had been working 12-14 hour days all last week and most of that time consisted of sitting in the sweeper truck. With having almost no movement other then driving his circulation slowed down and brought it on. So my Mr. Gotta Go Go Go was stuck there in the hospital until yesterday at 6pm. They gave him a doctors note to be out until next Wednesday but already was pushing to go back on Monday. He talked to his boss today and his boss decided he is going to lay him off because he knows if my husband isn't physically strapped down he won't stay still and off that friggin leg. And if he doesn't stay off the leg he won't heel in time for his WLS. His boss said I need you but I need you healthy and this is the only way its going to happen. My husband is so bad about staying still I had to take his car keys to work today just so he wouldn't leave the house but now that means he's gonna call me all day, every day at work like he did today to ask me "what are ya doing??"!!! My husband's worst then my 9 y/o with A.D.D. when it comes to staying still..lol Good Heavens, Welcome To Our World Where There Is Always Some Sorta Episode... Accck its going to a LOOOONG month.. lol

oh no! my thoughts are totally with your husband, Nadene. Cellulitis is so joke. that is painful stuff!!!!!! i ended up in the hospital after one of my hernia repairs with a major cellulitis infection of my incision. It spread like crazy! it was a little pink spot the size of a quarter at 9am, and "angry" red by noon -and took up about 3/4 of my stomach area. By that night, my skin was peeling off and continued to for days. I remember those sharpie marks... LOL God, i couldn't keep anything on my stomach it hurt so much. I can't even imagine having it on my leg. I hope it's on the top, so it's not resting against the bed, anyway. i was in the hospital for almost 2 weeks waiting for Brigham and Womens to get it under control. Apparently I had contracted the infection from my cat - yes, cat scratch fever truly does exist. LOL I got sent home with a PICC line, some serious antibiotics and instructions to stay the hell away from my cat until my incisions were healed. I really do wish him well and hope he can stay in bed. LOL. it's tough, but it needs to be done!! good luck! kristen*