Thank God!
The Cippro is kickin' in and Mom is doin' better.
Here's the deal, so that anyone who ever wants to know can come here and learn.
In September, 1999 my mother underwent surgery to remove what remained of her right lung. She'd had a lung resection on the right lung 8 years before, so it was a very complicated procedure to remove the rest of the lung.
Her post operative infections set in beginning in November, 1999. It was learned that she had developed a bronchio-pleural fistula, basically a hole in the stub of her lung that allowed air and mucus and other ugly, bacteria laden things into her pleural cavity.
The pleural cavities are the parts of the chest structure where the lungs sit. They are separated by the mediastienum. You can look it up on line.
In 6 months she was hopsitalized 7 times.
The infections couldn't be controlled with anitboitics, so her surgeon, who is a wonderful person, cut her wide for the 2nd time in two months and tried to repair the fistula. But to no avail. Then he tried a chest tube, which was horribly painful and had her living on darvocet. But draining the cavity did stop the infections. However, the pain of the tube was just too much for her, so in March, 2000 her surgeon performed a thorocostmy, removing a portion of her chest wall, so that the pleural cavity could drain and ventilate freely.
The thorocostomy stopped the post operative infections all together, but by August, 2000, we had found a new enemy. Psuedomonis infection. Pseudomonis is a pernicious bacterial infection that can kill quickly and painfully. Suddenly her cavity just filled up with pus at an incredible rate. From fine to full of pus in less than 8 hours, and she deteriorated rapidly.
That first infection was so sudden and extreme that she damn near died. But she didn't. She didn't! 75 years old, and she made it through. Nobody thought she would, except her surgeon. When everyone else was telling me it was o.k. to pull the plug, he told me to hang in there. And we did and within 24 hours, her temperature came down.
Now we keep Cippro handy and at the first sign of changes in the normal exudate from her cavity, off to the doctor for a culture, and whip out the Cippro. IT works every time, until it doesn't any more.
What's next, I wonder, but for now I'll just be happy that here we are together.
Here's the deal, so that anyone who ever wants to know can come here and learn.
In September, 1999 my mother underwent surgery to remove what remained of her right lung. She'd had a lung resection on the right lung 8 years before, so it was a very complicated procedure to remove the rest of the lung.
Her post operative infections set in beginning in November, 1999. It was learned that she had developed a bronchio-pleural fistula, basically a hole in the stub of her lung that allowed air and mucus and other ugly, bacteria laden things into her pleural cavity.
The pleural cavities are the parts of the chest structure where the lungs sit. They are separated by the mediastienum. You can look it up on line.
In 6 months she was hopsitalized 7 times.
The infections couldn't be controlled with anitboitics, so her surgeon, who is a wonderful person, cut her wide for the 2nd time in two months and tried to repair the fistula. But to no avail. Then he tried a chest tube, which was horribly painful and had her living on darvocet. But draining the cavity did stop the infections. However, the pain of the tube was just too much for her, so in March, 2000 her surgeon performed a thorocostmy, removing a portion of her chest wall, so that the pleural cavity could drain and ventilate freely.
The thorocostomy stopped the post operative infections all together, but by August, 2000, we had found a new enemy. Psuedomonis infection. Pseudomonis is a pernicious bacterial infection that can kill quickly and painfully. Suddenly her cavity just filled up with pus at an incredible rate. From fine to full of pus in less than 8 hours, and she deteriorated rapidly.
That first infection was so sudden and extreme that she damn near died. But she didn't. She didn't! 75 years old, and she made it through. Nobody thought she would, except her surgeon. When everyone else was telling me it was o.k. to pull the plug, he told me to hang in there. And we did and within 24 hours, her temperature came down.
Now we keep Cippro handy and at the first sign of changes in the normal exudate from her cavity, off to the doctor for a culture, and whip out the Cippro. IT works every time, until it doesn't any more.
What's next, I wonder, but for now I'll just be happy that here we are together.