Sunday Stroke Survival: Dangerous Abscess

On Thursday, I awoke and got out of bed as usual. Except I couldn't bear weight on my AFO clad foot without a knife stabbing like pain in my ankle. Where it bulged out a bit, I couldn't visualize it. My daughter was off from work because of catching COVID-O. She's been fever free for 5 days, so she wasn't contagious anymore. She was going to take me for my ultrasound of my triple A at the hospital.

There was no help for it, I was wheeled everywhere in the transport chair. When my daughter had looked at it and barely touched it with a yelp from me, she said it looked like cellulitis to her. I scoffed at her but still had her to draw around the margins with a Sharpie to monitor size of it. If it wasn't better by Friday, I'd ask my neurologist before my Botox.

By Friday morning it was worse. Definite heat poured from the area. The redness reached down to my toes and to about three inches above the ankle into the calf, but the abscess was still the same size. By my appointment time, the pinkness and swelling areas reaching my mid-calf. I couldn't fasten two straps on my AFO on my old AFO. Remember, it's 3" too big. There was so much swelling that I couldn't put my shoe on.

Anyhow, the neurologist came in and looked at it. Ignoring my yelps of pain from me as he pressed and prodded it. He said it wouldn't interfere with the Botox, so he proceeded. He recommended going to an urgent care or hospital ER to have it drained and be put on antibiotics. Rather than waiting for hours in the ER, we opted for a soc in the box. It would be faster. There was one less than a mile away. It was also sponsored by my hospital of choice.

The nurse practioner came in and examined me. She wanted to drain it and start me on antibiotics. She didn't think she'd get much out because while raised, it didn't feel too liquidity, but she'd try. We discussed a *caine drug first, or to go ahead and just do it. I opted for just doing it and getting it over with. Cold spray and a bit of pressure as the scalpel sliced the skin. It was done before a yelp could form on my lips. Then came the painful part, the squeezing to get the pus out.

"So much is coming out," she exclaimed. She'd changed position of her hands to squeeze more out. Then, "Oh!" My daughter who was helping hold my foot from jerking, "It got you."

The nurse practioner laughed, "It sure did, but we got it."  

I was thinking the whole time she was talking that she was talking about pus (infection) was coming out, so I asked my daughter when the nurse practioner left the room to find a bandage, "How much pus did she pull from it?"

"About an 1/8th of a teaspoon onto her scrubs," my daughter answered. "It looked like the core came with it too."

"Then what was she talking about so much is coming out?"

"That was bloody tinged fluid."

The nurse practioner came back in. Keflex or Bactrim?

Most definitely Bactrim. Keflex gives me a nasty vaginitis as a side effect. It was called into my pharmacy. I was told to come back for a recheck in 3 days which we'll do.

I was sore and bruising, but none the worse for wear.

Saturday was a strange day of the feverish type. I went from hot to freezing in my 76℉ room still unable to bear weight on the leg. My old AFO held in place by my swollen leg even without straps. Now, it's evening and my temperature is 100℉ by my digital thermometer. I knew I hit 100 even before the thermometer reading because it felt like my eyeballs were boiling in their sockets. My daughter asked what I did in these cases because I'm allergic to analgesics. I sit in a tepid bath. I couldn't do that here because we have no bathtubs in this house. The shower it was. It brought my temperature down to 99℉ so I felt better and got out.

The redness was back to my mid-calf too. My daughter's diagnosis may have been right, after all. Cellulitis. Well, the Bactrim should take care of it. Sulfur was used quite effectively during WWII as an antibiotic. Unless the cellulitis is MRSA based. The next twenty-four hours will tell me a lot since the pus wasn't sent to a lab.

If the redness and swelling do not go down some, I'll be hitting the ER for a stronger antibiotic. The site of the incision is still oozing a little bit but trying to heal. I imagine there can be some fluid caught on a swab to be sent to the lab with little trouble. Especially since there is no new cyst like raising to be had. In the mean time, it's back to bed for me.

Nothing is impossible.

Thursday's Tumbles and Stumbles: The Lump

I'm happy and relieved to report no tumbles or stumbles in Murpheydom this week. At least nothing major, that is. So now a story...

"Honey, can you come check my back for me? I feel a painful lump back there and it's hard," my beloved asked me this weekend.

He's only has about 10% muscle mass and the rest is just skin over his skeleton. His wrist is less than six inches now. How do I know? The breadth of my left pinky to my thumb tip out stretched is six inches. Well, I can wrap my hand around his wrist and overlap my pinky finger with my thumb.

But I digress...
I walked over to his bed thinking now what? I was mentally running through the would of-could of-should of ignoring my own advice of don't borrow trouble. Don't I already have enough trouble in my life? 

Had he been bitten by some creepy crawly? Had it been after the aide and I changed his clothes the day before? We both do a through skin check on him. Could it have festered into an abscess so quick?

Either way it had to be drained and dressed. Depending on how big it was, I might even have to call the weekend duty nurse for a different antibiotic. Maybe whatever bit him was still in the bed with him? I'd have to catch it and kill it after seeing exactly what it was so I'd know how to treat my hubby.

I unbuttoned his shirt sleeves and his shirt. I'm inching it off him in case whatever bit him was still in his shirt. Nothing. No redness that I could see. "Reach your hand back and show me where it hurts?"
He did and I'm searching all around the area. I'm poking and prodding none to gently looking for a bite or abscess. Nothing! I asked him to point it out again and he did.

Then it dawned on me that the lump that he was feeling was his vertebrae! When I told him he just shook his head in disbelief. So I was borrowing trouble for nothing. I taped abdominal pads up his spine so it formed an upside down "T" from his hips up to try to prevent the bones from breaking through the skin. The added padding also makes him comfortable.

So no creepy crawlies, no abscess just care and comfort issues. I'm in a holding pattern waiting for the 17th when I have my next dry needling. My Botox should be kicking in about then too. So it should be interesting to see what happens.

My arm hasn't drawn up into the usual pinned against my chest position. In fact, it is still resting comfortably on my leg. Yippee! I've had one episode of spasticity this week and it lasted an hour. I've had no reaction to my reduced amount of Botox either. So I've been good. Still no more voluntary movement of my foot either. Shucks! Not that I haven't tried but the muscle tightness is preventing it. So I'm waiting on St Paddy's Day for more miracles. So with the luck of the Irish behind me and faith in the Father holding me up, I'm literally waiting on pins and needles.

How has your week been?