I am reading both your posts,
@laralealu and @ crowwood..... I am in awe at all you have both, individually, been through! I experienced an infection roughly 5 weeks after my initial surgery. I was in the hospital for 6 days, & had a cleanout surgery there. My Dr feels pretty sure that it was confined to the incision itself, so I consider myself fortunate. And I had excellent care even though the nurses were understaffed & overworked. I feel every patient there was well cared for, & the nurses were caring & compassionate.
I’m still regularly seeing an Infectious Diseases Dr & having blood draw & 3-6 months of oral antibiotics following the PICC line & IV antibiotics for 6 weeks. I found that I felt much better soon after finishing the IV treatment. My ID Dr said that the IV antibiotics can be pretty tough on the body. Sure enough, I started feeling better soon after starting the oral meds. And I faithfully take a good probiotic. But, during that time, I was Very tired, & slept a lot. I just didn’t fight it this time. Multiple surgeries do take a big toll on your body!
And, the. IV antibiotics!
I love @ Laralealu’s idea of “ creating little islands”! I find myself seeing So many things I want to do, so much was sorta “ shelved” while my knee was in such pain from the bone-on-bone. I had good reasons to fight it & put it off . ( admittedly, one aspect of that was being very hard-headed). One very big reason was having our 6 year old grandson with us 2 days each week to help out his parents, both working from home; they would have been totally supportive had I done this sooner, but, I did not want to miss Any of that time.... and, no regrets! He is started in-person school this fall & is thriving. We FaceTime a lot & see them regularly, as much as possible. The delay was definitely worth it to me... and, to him.
But I am doing so much better now. And maybe some of that is due to my making sure that I did listen to my body this time, and rest, any time I needed to. It took a good while, probably 2-3 weeks, and getting on the oral antibiotics. But now I seem to be rebounding. We are walking daily, and doing exercises, both the ones my PT gave me, and some I did before my surgery. You may need a little more time, I think your surgery was more extensive than mine....or, it might happen sooner. I see more & more, on this forum, we are all different. But, we will all get there. Some of us just have more detours along this journey. I find that I regularly am learning new techniques & ideas here. And, a lot of things that were not necessarily covered pre surgery. My Dr is great, & his staff gave me a folder to study, that covered a lot. But there was sooo much I have learned here, and ideas for coping.... and, so much encouragement. And incredible people.
Btw, just re-reading prio posts, & see that I have repeated some things, in an earlier post, my apologies! And, looking at the date of that post, realize just how far I have come since then... encouraging. And I know you will also. And, as one earlier post reminded me, patience can be one of the most difficult tools we’re all having to learn to use. . Thankfully, we have so many helpful folks here. I’ll be keeping you both in my prayers.
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