MVD Diary - Sandra Gerstner
Monday, August 25, 2008 - Date of Departure:
Started for Pittsburgh after my husband got off work today. Will drive for a few hours and stop for the night.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008 - Date of Arrival:
Arrived in Pittsburgh today. Took it nice and slow. Rested up!
Wednesday, August 27, 2008 - "The Day Before":
EMG this morning at 9:30 at Allegheny General Hospital. I was afraid of this test after all I’d heard about it, but it was a piece of cake. The pain from the shock at its worst was minimal. The only real pain was from the injection of the one needle near my eye.
Thursday, August 28, 2008 - "MVD-Day":
Got up at 4:30 AM to be at Allegheny General Hospital by 8:00 AM. Greentree Hill is a mess and we are coming from that direction into Pittsburgh. Took over an hour to get there from the top of Greentree Hill. Reported to the 11th floor and was taken back within 15 minutes. Worked up by the Physician's Assistant and nurse and then waited until about 9:30 AM. Then it's off to the holding area on the 3rd floor. Wow! That’s a busy place, but you don’t get bored watching everything going on. Got the usual IV, questions, etc. So crowded beds were far enough a part for someone to come between them---no curtains. Beds stacked in halls and around nurses’ station. Taken back to operating room at approximately 10:45 AM. Given the “happy juice” in the hallway and I don’t even remember the operating room. Matter of fact, don’t remember much about the recovery area, although I do remember people trying to awaken me. They really knocked me out this time, and I’m not fully awake until 10 PM, although I do remember bits and pieces. Painful neck, but the nurse tells me that it's from the position they had me in during surgery. I have a lot of nausea and vomiting all night long. Keep giving pain and nausea injections. At about 4 AM they bring another patient into my room and move us around. Don’t wake up again until they change shifts and start vitals.
Friday, August 29, 2008 - The Day After:
Can’t eat breakfast, still very nauseated. Clean up and brush my teeth. Drink very little Sprite and suck on ice. NO SPASMS — how wonderful! Dr. Sekula comes in about 10:30 AM and says it is up to me whether I want to leave or not, I can stay another night. After talking to my husband I opt to leave and get some sleep. Get home to my mother-in-law's; take a shower and go to bed for the rest of the night. Only wake to take Ibuprofen and Phenergan tablets.
Saturday, August 30, - September 01, 2008 - Day 2-4 Post-op:
Rest and visit with family members. Very little pain, some dizziness, and hear some beeping noises. No swishing sounds or any loss of hearing that I can detect. Get up and move around some, but tire very easily. Some mild numbness around incision site.
Tuesday, September 02, 2008 - Day 5 Post-op:
Get up around 5 AM, car is packed up and we are on our way to Allegheny General Hospital for 8 AM appointment. Talk to Dr. Sekula and Dr. Hobbs. They tell me that the first couple of vessels were relatively easy to move, but then there was “a ball of string” that needed to be untangled and a nerve that needed to be stretched out some. Have a Teflon pad in place, but no titanium plate. They used “super glue" to close the hole and incision----NO STAPLES! Very little swelling and little pain at incision site. Instructions to take it easy, walk some, get out of the car several times during 8 hour trip home to prevent blood clotting in legs. No diet restrictions. Of course, no driving as long as there is any dizziness. Long trip home. Stopped at least 5 times to stretch, etc. Very tired when we got home (husband included). Neither of us has slept very well during the past week. Both retire very early.
Wednesday, September 03, 2008 - Day 6 Post-op:
Get up about 9 AM. Still tired out, just taking it easy, watching TV and cross-stitching. What a joy to be able to see to cross stitch and read! Sons and husband taking care of me and the house. Won’t milk it for too long, but want to get my strength back.
Thursday, September 4, 2008 – 1 Week Post-Op
Son comes to take me grocery shopping as there is very little in the house. We stop to eat a sandwich first. When we are done eating, I ask him to take me home I’m too tired to think about groceries or shopping!
Friday, September 5, 2008 - Day 8 Post-Op
My son comes back and we go to the grocery store. I’m exhausted and lean on the buggy. I tell him what to get and he puts it in the buggy. We check out and go home. Feel achy and tired—almost like I have the flu. Go to bed early, but have chills. Check temp and it is up, but not much.
Saturday, September 6, 2008 - Day 9 Post-Op
Awakened at about 4 AM with chills again, fever up to 100. Am very nauseous, take a Phenergan and try to rest. Rest all day and still feel nauseous and achy. Pressure from one side of my forehead to the other and along the base of my skull.
Sunday, September 7, 2008 - Day 10 Post-Op
Chills and fever all night long with nausea. Pressure has not gone away although I have taken some Ibuprofen. Call Dr. Sekula’s answering service at approximately 1 PM. He calls back before I hand up the phone and get back to my chair! Tell him I am having chills, fever, nausea and pressure in my head (forehead and base of skull). He says I can go to my local emergency room or we can try to steroids. He thinks it may be bacterial meningitis. He calls in the steroids and I take them at about 3 PM. By 5 PM, I realize this medicine isn’t helping at all and we head for the Duke University ER. I explain all of this to the them and I taken immediately to a ER room and the work up starts. The physician calls Dr. Sekula who tells him to do a CT scan of the head and a lumbar puncture. Around 10 PM they start the lumbar puncture. When they are pressing on my vertebrae to find an site, I feel severe pain in my spine and hips. I had previously thought this was the achy feeling (like the flu), but when pressed on IT HURT! The lumbar puncture immediately relieves the pain in my spine, hips and the pressure in my head.
Monday, September 8, 2008 - Day 11 Post-Op
I am admitted to Duke Hospital with suspected bacterial meningitis at 4:30 AM. I’m taken upstairs and placed in an “isolated” room. The preliminary culture shows e-coli and non-specific meningitis (talk about being frightened). Saline IV is started. At 7:30 I start seeing every doctor you can imagine! It is a teaching hospital, but wow! The doctor from the General Medicine floors sees me, the ICU doctor and about 20 others that I can’t remember all come into the room gowned, masked and gloved. It will take 48 hours before they will know anything about the culture. I’m started on 2 different types of antibiotics. One takes 90 minutes to drip and the other 15 and they are given to me twice a day. My sugar has gone crazy from the steroids (296) and they start giving me insulin to control the sugar. Then I have to have a blood thinner injection given in the stomach area to prevent clotting. The alarm on the IV drips is going off constantly as the IV site put in at the ER is on the left inner arm right at the bend. Keeping my arm straight and still doesn’t help. It is aggravating me as well as the nurses! They decide to put a PICT line in, I’m on the board to receive this ASAP.
Tuesday, September 9, 2008 - Day 12 Post-Op
4:30 AM the girl comes to put the PICT line in!!!! Of course, she can’t get it in and gives up after one try saying they need to do an ultrasound to place it. Continue to deal with the IV and wait for culture report. All they will tell me is that is “non-specific”. All mention of e-coli has been dropped from their vocabulary. I have been taken off of “isolation”. Visitors no longer have to mask up (makes my son extremely happy).
Wednesday, September 10, 2008 - Day 13 Post-Op
Another person comes at 9 AM to place the PICT line. She finds a vein with the ultrasound and it is placed before you can blink; however, it is in my right arm (I’m right handed). Home Health coordinator comes in and tells me that I will be undergoing antibiotics IV’s at home. She is not sure how long or what kind of antibiotics I will be taking. After I take a shower, I insist they remove the IV from my left arm. The nurse says they will have to put another IV in because they don’t know if they can use the PICT line yet. It is hurting and the alarm is driving me crazy, so I tell them “take it out, I don’t care if you have to poke me somewhere else”. Time for my IV at 10 PM and they still haven’t done a chest x-ray to be sure the PICT line is in properly. They come about 11:30 PM with the portable chest x-ray and we wait another hour before we hear that it is alright. Night nurse starts my IV’s which finish up about 2:30 AM.
Thursday, September 10, 2008 – 2 Weeks Post-Op
Doctor comes in and says I should be able to go home today; however, it might not be until late. I will have to have the 2 rounds of antibiotics (12 hours apart) before I can leave. The culture has shown “non-specific” so the Infectious Team will be by and tell me the type of antibiotic course they will recommend. I see another round of doctors all day long. The nurse assigned to my room this day, has gone home. The charge nurse has to hook up my antibiotics so I can be discharged. The night nurse comes on and I finally get discharged at 9:30 PM. I am so glad to get home!
Friday, September 11, 2008 - Day 15 Post-Op
Home Health nurses gets at my home at about 9:30 AM. My son (fire fighter) is here to help with the IV’s as I’m still not too clear headed. The nurse spends approximately 1-1/2 hours with us showing us how to flush the port, hook up the IV and antibiotics, etc. My son spends the day with me and helps with the IV’s. I have to take Vancomycin for the next 11 days twice a day. Each round takes 90 minutes to drip. I take one at 8:30 AM and then 8:30 PM.
Tuesday, September 23, 2008 – 3 Weeks Post-Op
I go to see my family physician this morning. I have to fill her in on everything that has happened. She pulls up the hospital discharge summary. She cannot tell from the records if I actually had “bacterial meningitis” or what. Says “it must have been something, you were running a fever”. Home Health nurse comes and removes the PICT line. What a relief, for 2 weeks I have had to wrap it up to bath, change the dressings and all the other things that go along with it. I’m not sure I had meningitis, but I do have enough antibiotic in me to kill most anything now! Best news of all---no spasms! I had a little “fluttering” on my left side, but it didn’t persistent. On October 1, my bottom, right eyelid twitched for 3 hours. I was ready to lie down and bang my head; however, it went away after the 3 hours and I have had no other flutters, spasms or twitching since then. God has blessed me in so many ways! I’m so thankful to be spasm free !