Fusobacterium Necrophorum
I had to wait until the chaos died down and the emotions were absorbed until I could sit down and write this all out.
Forrest is home for good. His right arm is still mostly unusable (though he can sign his own medical forms now!) and will need to keep his PICC line in and continue administering antibiotics daily for at minimum 8-10 weeks. Fusobacterium Necrophorum, a bacteria that is present in our gastrointestinal tracts, was the culprit here - usually this bacteria is filtered out through the liver but for some mostly unknown reason about one person in the state of Utah is hit with this infection per year. The infection almost always occurs in young adults (age 18-32) who are otherwise very healthy. In every case documented the infection seeds itself mainly in the blood or the knees - not ONE recorded infection has seeded in the collar bone/shoulder area, making Forrest's case a medical first.
The PICC line is a kind of intravenous tube inserted in the upper innermost area of the left arm and fed through the system of veins all the way to the right atrium of the heart.
Check it out:
This is done in lieu of a standard IV because the kind of antibiotic they are giving my brother is actually corrosive to the veins unless properly diluted in the bloodstream. The atrium lays right before the largest chamber of the human heart and provides an environment with lots and lots of constant, high-traffic bloodflow, diluting the antibiotic properly as well as getting it quickly to the vital organs (here the goal is the abcess-covered, bacteria ridden liver).
For the next several weeks I will be playing nurse, hooking Forrest up to a bag of antibiotics for 30 minutes a day around 3pm. First the gloves, then the alcohol swab, then the saline flush, then the antibiotics, then more saline, then the Heparin. We have to be constant and thorough - apparently this is the kind of bacteria that unless totally and completely eradicated will come back and continue to grow within the body. Adding to the changes around the household are the dietary needs of my brother who, now sans appendix and gallbladder, will be switching from red meat and cheese to a mostly vegetarian diet (on that note, if anyone has some good vegetarian recipes, send them my way!).
It is sobering to think that without the medical advancements of the last 10-15 years, my brother probably would have died two weeks ago.
Forrest is home for good. His right arm is still mostly unusable (though he can sign his own medical forms now!) and will need to keep his PICC line in and continue administering antibiotics daily for at minimum 8-10 weeks. Fusobacterium Necrophorum, a bacteria that is present in our gastrointestinal tracts, was the culprit here - usually this bacteria is filtered out through the liver but for some mostly unknown reason about one person in the state of Utah is hit with this infection per year. The infection almost always occurs in young adults (age 18-32) who are otherwise very healthy. In every case documented the infection seeds itself mainly in the blood or the knees - not ONE recorded infection has seeded in the collar bone/shoulder area, making Forrest's case a medical first.
The PICC line is a kind of intravenous tube inserted in the upper innermost area of the left arm and fed through the system of veins all the way to the right atrium of the heart.
Check it out:
This is done in lieu of a standard IV because the kind of antibiotic they are giving my brother is actually corrosive to the veins unless properly diluted in the bloodstream. The atrium lays right before the largest chamber of the human heart and provides an environment with lots and lots of constant, high-traffic bloodflow, diluting the antibiotic properly as well as getting it quickly to the vital organs (here the goal is the abcess-covered, bacteria ridden liver).
For the next several weeks I will be playing nurse, hooking Forrest up to a bag of antibiotics for 30 minutes a day around 3pm. First the gloves, then the alcohol swab, then the saline flush, then the antibiotics, then more saline, then the Heparin. We have to be constant and thorough - apparently this is the kind of bacteria that unless totally and completely eradicated will come back and continue to grow within the body. Adding to the changes around the household are the dietary needs of my brother who, now sans appendix and gallbladder, will be switching from red meat and cheese to a mostly vegetarian diet (on that note, if anyone has some good vegetarian recipes, send them my way!).
It is sobering to think that without the medical advancements of the last 10-15 years, my brother probably would have died two weeks ago.