ProfessorTomoe

Crisis averted - the abscess was below the bones of my amputated toe, not on the bottom of my foot. The podiatrist says he got all of the pocket of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa in my toe, but he's put me on Cipro just in case. Fingers crossed!

That's one way of going about it, but with Pseudomonas aeruginosa, it's developed resistance to so many antibiotics that doing it that way would be a crap shoot. What the CDC and others recommend is taking cultures and testing them out against antibiotic agents until you find an agent that works. I'm not looking forward to having a second round of cultures taken, since that probably means opening up my foot again. I'll find out more at 2pm CDT today.

One infection leaves, and another is discovered. Sigh. If you'll recall, I had a sliver of metal get into the bottom of my right foot last summer and cause a very nasty infection. The sliver was removed and the infection went away, but callouses kept coming back along with inflamed areas of tissue in the area. An MRI found an "opportunistic" situation developing over and over in the area. It caused pain, not just in the callous spot, but deeper in my foot. My podiatrist told me he would address the situation while he had me on the surgical table last Thursday. Apparently, he "dug out the core," as he'd been saying he would, and took a culture of what the subsequent report described as a "deep abscess." The report's findings? "Rare Pseudomonas aeruginosa," verbatim from the report. You can find more about pseudomonas aeruginosa from the Centers for Disease Control's website at this link. Apparently, it becomes drug-resistant quite easily. I know for a fact that it doesn't react to Augmentin or doxycycline, or I would be rid of it by now. What the hell am I going to do? I guess I'll find out at my post-op follow-up with the podiatrist. This is almost as scary as having a dose of COVID-19!

I'm on Xyzal and hydroxyzine 2x a day each for my allergies. I was taking allergy shots for about a decade, with scant improvement. At one point, I was getting 4 shots - 2 shots in each arm - twice a week. That's 8 shots a week, and that went on for years.

First things first: the infectious disease specialist let me off the doxycycline. Hooray. I'm feeling slightly better day by day. Now, for today's events. The toe amputation went rather well. No major issues, just a tiny bit of post-op nausea (phenergan and Zofran dealt with this) and some post-op amputation wound pain (which fentanyl took care of). There was a brief moment's scare when the nurse couldn't find my glasses, but they were eventually located and the crisis was averted. The reason the nurse took care of finding my glasses and not my wife is that my wife was not allowed into the hospital with me. You see, we were met at the entrance of the hospital Thursday morning by masked and gloved COVID-19 disease screeners. They cleared me, but they hung my wife on the "do you have a cough?" question. She's been coughing for weeks due to ridiculous pollen levels causing allergy trouble. They said she'd have to wear a mask in the hospital, and for that reason she'd be denied entry past the screening point. I wound up going through the entire operation by myself, all the way through to dismissal. Meanwhile, Mrs. Prof. did a bit of driving around after giving hospital staff her phone number. She managed to find a grocery store just opening and bought some bread!!! for a change - even managing to find our favorite brand. Another trip for some home repair supplies ate up more time. She finished that and got a phone call from the doctor immediately after checking out, with word of how the surgery went. Thankfully, she returned to the hospital to retrieve me. Since returning, I've spent the day fighting off the anesthesia and trying to stay ahead of the amputation pain with my oxycodone. I think I've finally managed to catch up on both counts. We shall see how things go tomorrow.

The good news: I've lost weight to bring me just below 300 lbs. again. The bad news: I've been eating Zofran anti-nausea medication like it's candy. I suspect I'm getting sick from prolonged exposure to the doxycycline antibiotic. I'm on two antibiotics (Augmentin being the other one), but only the doxycycline has ever given me trouble in the past. I'm going to call my infectious disease specialist on Monday and basically beg to be let off of the stuff. I can't stand it any more.

I wish I had a Doofus and not a Loudmouth-slash-barfbag. That cat urps on everything. He urped on the computer chair I use for my Music System late last night. I got out the pet stain cleaner and sprayed it at my chair, but it seems like the foam rubber seat just absorbed it. I'm still waiting for it to dry so I can vacuum it out.

Well, speaking as an American, it makes me mad. I'll say no more lest I breach forum protocol.

Wrong thread. "Things that make you mad" is the right one.

If Baker, one of our cats, had done this while we were gone, we would have returned to a house fire. He knocked over a bedside lamp so that the light bulb was in contact with the lampshade. Thank goodness it was a compact fluorescent bulb, but those things still generate enough cumulative heat to ignite a lampshade over time. If it'd been a 60 watt incandescent, it would have burst into flames almost immediately.

Some things Chtuwin, somethings Chtulhus.

TB or not TB ...? That is the congestion.

I have finished mastering Derivations and am in the process of having a CD cover designed. I've got a couple of other things I've got to wait for before I can release the CD, like toe amputation surgery and so on. In the meanwhile, I'm going to release a digital single in the upcoming weeks. Would anyone here be interested in nabbing a copy?

Saw the foot doctor today. One issue was easily resolved - the black spots on the bottom of my foot were dried blood from some unknown source. Easily scraped off. No infection. The other issue ... not so easily resolved. My second toe continues to be a source of discomfort and infection. The antibiotics are still not working like they're supposed to be working. Intravenous antibiotics would not be worth the hell that they put me through - I'll be damned if I have to go back to a nursing home again. So, we amputate. Partial amputation of toe number two of my right foot. This will get rid of the infected bone, and it will get me one step closer to a knee replacement. Two thumbs up. Amputation day is about two weeks from now. Bad timing, but you do it when the doctor can do it.

Saw the knee replacement surgeon on Monday. He has - praise all that is holy - agreed to replace my left knee. However, I must overcome the osteomyelitis (bone infection) in toe number two of my right foot first. Sadly, the oral antibiotics are having little effect on the osteomyelitis. Mrs. Prof says my toe is starting to look a bit worse. On top (or on the bottom) of that, there is now a large black spot in the middle of the callus on the bottom of my right foot. This does not bode well, since my last case of osteomyelitis was preceded by a black spot on the tip of toe number two. Fortunately, I have an appointment scheduled with my foot doctor this coming Monday. We will discuss possibilities and probabilities at that time. Will I have amputation surgery? Will I have surgery to remove the core of the callus? These will be decided then.