where I've been/currently am

I am currently a resident of St Joseph's Wayne hospital room 503 bed 2. I have been here since 8/26.

how? you ask? here we go.

on 8/17 I wake up with back pain in my lower left back. I've had back pain before but this was different. I figured I pulled something in my sleep. grab some Aleve on the way to the office and grin and bear it through the pain.

the next day I wake up, and I knew I had to hit the Dr....pain was ramped up. I go to the Doc, he says I sprained the muscle, he gives me prescription strength ibuprofen ans another med i cant remember and I'm on my way with instructions to stay home from work for 4 days and to check in.

he pain basically laughed at the ibuprofen, I go back to the doc, get percoset and he orders me an xray (with eyes toward an MRI afterwards), he also gives me percoset. The Percoset would give me a half hour of relief, then more pain.

Then the fever came, with increased pain.......holy **** kids, this pain was no joke. I've been hit with fists, chairs, barstools and the occasional bat, but this pain had me on the floor.

Enter my first trip to the ER, I believe 8/23 or 24. They check my blood, do a cat scan to check fo kidney stones. white blood cell count is fine and therefore they assume the temperature is from a viral infection....they give me muscle relaxers and send me on my way. The muscle relaxers thanfully give me an hour or so of pain relief, then pain galore. 8/25 I spike a fever of 102+ and the pain is literally making me cry. back to the ER.

things get blurry here, so this will include what I remember and what others told me. At the ER my temp went up t 104. I'm babbling incoherently a this point. I start getiing broad spectrum antibiotics. after 14 hours in the ER I get admitted (waiting for a bed, geting antibiotics and treated the whole time) I dont remember much, but I do remember someone giving me a quick rectal exam by shoving what I assume was his thumb up my ****. he walked out of that room under his own power...........now you know how in bad shape I really was.

from what my wife told me, she thought she has since had her last rational conversation with me.

I get admittd, I barely remember my first 5 days....I know I thought they were building a special bunker in the stall next to my bed and that some enemy force/aliens were holding me against my will. I was NPO during this time (IV only, no food or water). I actually said to my wife "if you were a good wife, you would get me some ice chips". I dont remember it, and I feel terrible about it.

lond story short, MRSA somehow enterred my bloodstreem and seeded in the muscle of my lower left back into my upper left leg. ye[, f&*ing MRSA!!!! how? no clue. Some say it was on my hands and somehow got in through a cut. I also have a persistent GI doc who thinks I had diverticulosis and it came from there. I dont know who I want to be right. I've been in he hospital since getting a full 6 weeks of vencomycin. I am looking at another 2-3 weks in the hospital.

I had a drain installed from the front of my bely to the infection sight in my back in the first week...they said it wouldnt hurt much.....they lied. in there defense, they pumped alot of painkillers/sedative in me which my body apparently has a high resistance to. in the last push of the the Dr drilling into the target, I told him to just do it. He did, I screamed but told the doc not to stop. at least one nurse was crying when it was over.

the drain got some of the pus out but not all, luckily the fluid in my leg gets less as time goes, if it didnt, I would be looking a surgery and it is looking like I ducked that bullet


I am feeling ALOT better now. still some back pain, as there is some onflamation in a joint in my left hip that I cant remember the name of, but a huge nerve runs through it, so any litle inflamation = pain.

I have a pic line in my arm ( for IV and blood draws) and am still getting vancomycin (an antibiotic that if it didnt exist, half the people on this planet would be dead)

I thought me popping my knee 10 yrs ago was my brush with mortality....it wsnt. this was

silver linings here?

a) in terms of the infection, I am ok. the antibiotics are doing there thing
b) I always knew I made out like a fat rat in a cheese factory in the wife department. I didnt think she could convince me more than I kne how much she was in my corner....again, I was wrong. she has been my rock through this. I worry for her and have my friends checking in on hr making sure she is ok. I shodder to thing where I would be without her. I hate that I am putting her through this and that I scared her so much.
c) I lost 40 lbs so far. the weight is staying off. my lifestyle is changing. I am not indestructible anymore.

thanks to the wife for getting me the netbook I am currently writing this on. the only rig I have is an IPOD and Sony earphones....it will do.

I'll keep y'all posted.