1st surgery- July 31, 2018
Aug 31, 2018-stitches removed, surgeon said everything looked ok.
Nov 4, 2018- back to work
2nd surgery-Jan 6, 2019- infection found, did washout, debridement, and new antibiotic loaded spacers. Sent home on oral antibiotics, Rifampin, and IV antibiotics for 6 weeks, Cefazolin.
Feb 6, 2019- bad virus, fever, uncontrollable shaking, could not get warm
Saw primary doctor, she sent me to Univ of Mich emergency, from there, I was sent to St. Joe 10th floor, which is a floor that both U of M doctors and St. Joe doctors can see patients. Was taken by ambulance. They at first thought I had some kind of infection with the PICC line, or was septic or had MRSA. It was none of these, but it scared the hell outta me! I was on too many antibiotics, apparently. So in the hospital, I was put on IV Daptocin, got me better, sent me home on 2-12-19, finished my 2 weeks of iv antibiotic, Cefazolin, and picc removed on 2-19-19.
Started oral Keflex on 2-20-19, stopped on 7-2-19, started Keflex again on 7-5-19.
3rd surgery 2 stage-7-15-19 - removed knee prosthetic, put temp knee in. Sent home with PICC line again, to do 6 weeks IV antibiotics, Cefazolin, no oral this time. PICC removed 8-26-19. Did bloodworm, was infection free. Put new prosthetic knee in on Nov 15, 2019. That was surgery #4.
Was doing okay, had stitches out late November, 2019. Went for one month follow up, not walking well, actually hurt to walk. Drew out some fluid, it was infected again. That was Dec 23, 2019.
Surgery 5- 12-27-19. Did another washout and debridement, new antibiotic loaded spacers. Sent home with IV antibiotics for third time. Was told after this 6 weeks of IV antibiotics, I will need to be on oral antibiotics for the life of the prosthetic! Scary! I don't feel safe being on antibiotics for years at a time! Read about some new infection intervention at Massachusetts General hospital, but still in testing phase. Another study is where they find a way to remove the biofilm that causes the infection. Something I might need to ride my prosthetic of infection for good!