I sit awake in my quiet room which is centered in the house. No door, instead a beige curtain separates me from the dining room.
I've got chills and my head hurts. I rub my infected ear only to discover pus oozing. Just as well, I figured it would come to this. Silently worried, I decided to Google "Pseudomonas a." and read a little bit. The page tells me "It is a pathogen that takes advantage of the weakened immune system of an ill person and causes different infections. Thus these types of pathogen are called 'opportunistic pathogens'." Nothing I didn't already know. I continue reading, reviewing its gram-negative stain and how it is diagnosed, the short incubation period of one to three days... I read on to the last paragraph which tells me something I don't want to know: "Mortality rate due to Pseudomonas a. infection is almost 50%..."
My heart drops. I'm actually worried about this now. So you may understand, my history follows.
August of 2004 I awoke with blood on my pillow. I examined my mouth, nose and hands. Nothing bleeding. As i stood up i got so dizzy i wanted to vomit, and sat down on my bed which did nothing. I grabbed my head on both sides with the hope that it would ease. It didn't. At the time I was 16, living in a residential girls school. A member of the staff came to get me becuse i wasn't in the hall with the other 15 girls. "Jees Adrienne!" she said. "What is going on with your face?" I only gave her a look. I couldn't even see straight. "Whats bleeding?" she asked me as she grabbed me by the arm to help me get up. "I don't know, but its not my face" I told her. She disagreed as she noticed the blood on my pillow.
All 16 of us girls made our way down stairs to the dinning room to have breakfast. I stumbled, staggered and ran into everything around me. "I FEEL LIKE A DRUNK!" I exclaimed as i sat roughly on a couch. "and you look like one too..." said a girl from across the room.
Another staff came to my side, looked in my eyes looked at my hands, arms and then starteld me, "WOAH!" she said as she got up. The discovery had been made. It was my ear.
"We're going to take you to the infirmary as soon as we get to the main building" she told me.
And I agreed it was a good idea.
When we arrived, the nurse immediately got on the phone with a doctor... when she hung up she turned to me and said, "Have you been eating?" "What does that have to do with my ear?" I asked. "Nothing, but you look like you've lost a few pounds. Would you like to lay down?" She pointed to a cot in the adjacent room.
"Laying down makes the room spin more, no thanks."
"The doctor will be here in about half hour. you can stay put here or try to go to class." She told me.
"I'll go to class."
Sure enough i couldn't focus. But I sat and pretended anyway. Moments later i was called back to the infirmary.
The doctor looked in my ear, eyes and mouth. then paused and told me, "you're scheduled to see a specialist tomorrow. Hang in there."
The next day... CT scans of my head revealed what was feared, I had a Cholesteatoma (tumor) that needed to be removed. "You're down for December 6th." Said the surgeon as she explained what she would be doing and handed me pamphlets.
December came around... the surgery was cancelled.
Finally, age 18, August 3rd, 2006 i go under the knife. The surgery takes 4 and a half hours to remove all the tumor. As i awake my dad tells me, "It was worse than they thought, you were under for quite a while, scared the shit out of me. Glad you're awake" And all i could say is, "I have to pee"
Surgery went fine, i was on drugs and nilla waffers for three days then went back to work.
A year passed without any major problems aside from complete hearing loss in that ear and taste changes.
When i got pregnant with my son i started having some ear problems again, and my OB doctor suggested i see someone for it. I neglected. Went another year.
Half way through my college school year i decided to see my primary doctor about my ear. He insisted over and over i was taking the ear thing overboard and nothing was wrong. I explained to him, "My ear smells like baby poop and i'm getting black drainage, how is nothing wrong?" He still insisted everything was fine.
September of 2009 I was doing my externship for my college at a medical facility in Santa Fe. About a week and a half into it my ear started bleeding. The female doctor at the time took a look and said, "Shit, you need to see someone about that, it looks like a tumor." I told her about my history with the Cholesteatoma and she told me it looked like the same thing.
Two days later i hit the floor at the back of the office, to be awoken by Dr. Taylor. "whats going on?" he asked me. "I'm not sure, i passed out"... barely able to talk. He left me for a moment and got amonia. "This will help get you back" he told me as he broke it and waved it in front of my face. after about ten minutes he assisted me in sittin up. there was a puddle of blood on the floor where my head way, blood on my clothing and a few drops leading from the bathroom to me.
"you need to see your doctor tomorrow" He instructed.
"No, I can't miss a minute of my externship, I need to get an A" I insisted.
He laughed and told me a colleague would be taking me home, there's no way i should be driving without an equilibrium. I hesitated but accepted.
The next morning Dr. Taylor handed me a half-sheet of paper and said, "you have an appointment at 1:00. If it takes longer than your lunch, we'll lie to your school so you don't get docked time" and smiled. "This is how you get there...."
I saw the ear doctor... who didn't know what was going on at first. I saw him again and again... diagnosed with the reccurence of the Cholesteatoma. "Surgery on march 1st, 2010" Got a fancy head scan again.. which said no cholesteatoma. Surgery was called off.
Mid-March i got a roaring infectionin that ear sooo bad.. it was a tuesday night onset. I was up every 20 minutes. when i sat up pus literally poured form my ear down my face, neck, and on until i caught it. I had a fever of 102+. Dr Brown (ent doc) was out of town. I got my kids to the sitter and went to work but by 10am i was crying, trying to work but the pain was too much. Narcotic pain medication didn't even touch it. I went to the Doctors office and agreed to see anyone who would see me!
I sat in the exam room for an hour, crying hysterically, waiting for the doctor. When he came it he saw how distraught i was, performed some procedures which cause pure agony. Finally stopped, appologized and gave me a bunch of free samples of Levaquin, an antibiotic that would help rid the immediate infection. "you'll be on these for a while, we'll call you in a few days to see how you're doing, and Dr. Brown will be in next week so make an appointment for his soonest opening." I took his directions, and cried as i walked out the door.
Just two days later the infection seemed to be under control. I was able to work and shocked that this antibiotic was doing something for me since i'd been on EVERYTHING else and nothing worked.
So my ear was gettin better, i was seeing the doctor 3 times a week for a cleaning procedure. He did a culture of the drainage and told me, we don't want to see "blah blah blah...", if we do its very serious and we'll have to operate for sure. We'll call you with the results. I didn't really care, ear was better... but my feet were killing me. I must be working too hard, i thought.
the following week the doctor gave me the bad results and we shceduled surgery.
another week... my appt was at 8am, i was late. "sorry i'm late, doctor Brown, I couldn't get out of bed my feet have been killing me like you wouldn't believe." Well, it turned out the wonderous Levaquin gave me Peripheral Neuropathy. "Stop it immediately!" he said.
Finally, May rolls around. Surgery was May 3rd. In and out in two hours. I got an Rx for pain meds, and antibiotics. "See you wednesday!" He said as we wheeled out the door.
That evening was better than i expected. Aside from some post-op nausea, dizziness, and mild pain, I was up and ok. Scott helped me get around and even helped me get to the toilet. He went to work the next day, I layed on the couch.
He came home for lunch, I was sitting in agony... a tooth ache. Scott didn't go back to work that day, instead we went to an emergency dentist who told me the tooth should be pulled. I opte dout of the extraction since i had just undergone surgery the day before.
The drive home was not fun. I developed a fever.
99.8 degrees....100degrees. Scott and i went to bed, with the thermometer close by. Evert hour i'd awake with sweating chills, and he'd awake to my awakening. lol. "check your temp" he'd tell me every time. at 10pm it was 100. at 1130 it was 100.4, at 12am it was 100.9... at 130am i felt like hell. "do you want to call the doctor?" Scott asked. "No, it can get to 102." I replied. "What is it now?" ...... "101.5" Half a degree to go! at 200am Scott woke me up, "Adrienne, check your temperature, I can feel your heat from my side of the bed" I checked it, and sure enough it was time to call the doctor. "Scott, its 102.5" "Call the doctor, Adrienne, NOW."
So i picked up the phone. Got to speak with Dr. Brown directly. "I know i have an appointment with you tomorrow at 100 but I have a fever of 102 and its been going up steadily all night. what should i do?"
"Come in at 800am. I'll see you then."
Scott drove me to the doctor that wednesday morning. I was in agony and he was starting to not feel good, complaining about his throat hurting. I looked at it and was immediately certain that it was Strep.
Dr brown unwraped my bandage and told me my operative site looked fine. no redness, nothing out of the ordinary. No explaination for the nasty fever i had.
"Aren't you supposed to get a piccline placed?"
"yeah, i thought they wanted it done while i was under for my surgery," I told him.
"Call Dr. Palestine and see what we're gonna do about it. Actually, I'll call him and see" He said as he pulled out his phone and left the room.
A few moments later he ruturned. "His office will call you in an hour or two to set up the procedure." Until then, here's a script for some nausea medication"
Most of the conversation was between scott and Dr. Brown as i was barely conscious.
hours passed, no call.
Finally after the two of us napped in Scotts car in an empty parking lot for a while i suggested we just go to Dr. Palestine's office. (Dr.p is infectious disease specialist). And we went.
When we arrived I sat down, Scott told them was going on. Dr. P came out to the area w/o knowing we were there, did a double take on me and you could tell he was thinking... and he was concerned.
what seemeed like forever was probably only about ten minutes. we sat in the lobby waiting. And without having to tell him anything, Dr. P took us to his office.
"You look like shit, whats going on?" He asked me.
"I feel like shit. I have a horrendous fever and i can barely function."
He did a quick exam, yelled at some people on the phone about me and faxed some papers over to the hospital.
"Go to the OPPC, we're getting that line in today" he said as he directed us out.
At that point Scott was feeling so bad he called his parents to come help. When i got the OPPC scott was feeling about as bad as i was. I was taken to a gurney, asked a bunch of questions then given an antibiotic IV in my hand. My temperature at that point was 103 degrees. I would barely talk, barely think.
Scott got a gurney to lay on next to mine, and some water. hours and hours passed. The sun set. Scotts wonderful Parents showed up. at 500pm they moved me to the Cath lab. It was an empty and cold room with a dozen gurneys set up. No one seemed to be there. Scott sat beside me as they got some vital signs on me. He was upset that no one was paying attention to me, with my 103 fever, he was worried sick, stressed and pissed off. He took his temperature, 101.5. He left my bed side and his mom sat with me.
A nurse came and took my temperature, finally. She freaked out and got me some tylenol which brought it down to 101 over a period of time...
Finally a couple professionals came to my area and told me about the procedure they were going to perform. I was frightened but at the same time releaved.
The procedure was done after 40 minutes and i was able to discharge. The following day i was given antibiotics in IV bag form. I was instructed on how to infuse myself, 3x a day. Two bags each. I learned quickly that the medicine made me vomit. EVERY TIME. I lost a few pounds the first week.
Scott was very supportive... until about two weeks post-op. When he dumped me. A few days after the break up I got the piccline out. A few weeks after that i was told that everything was healing right.
Unfortunately.. It doesn't seem so and now i'm where i am. Hoping this ISNT was that was.
Reference: buzzle.com/articles/pseudomonas-aeruginosa-infection-symptoms-and-treatment.html