I went into the next surgery fully anticipating the surgeon to remove a small portion of the bone. I was obviously upset that the infection had penetrated into the bone and also curious how it had managed to happen while I was on the Wound VAC.
This surgery was obviously going to be more invasive than the previous, so I was more heavily sedated for the procedure. As such, I do not remember anything until I was waking up in the recovery room. When I woke up I felt fine and was wheeled into my room, with the Wound VAC therapy already having been resumed. Being that the infection was in the bone I would need to be admitted to the hospital for a few days so that the infection could be grown in a lab, so that we could ensure that I was treated with the proper medication. In the meantime I was treated with a broad spectrum antibiotic intravenously.
When I was more alert a bit later that day my surgeon came in and explained that he did take a portion of the bone and while he was looking around he asked for a consult with one of the infectious disease doctors. The surgeon is basically responsible for making sure the wound closes, while the infectious disease doctor's responsibility is to treat the infection so that it would be able to close without all sorts of bacteria in it.
I met the infectious disease doctor and was comfortable with him from the beginning. No alarm bells were going off in my head about anyone that was now treating me. I was confident that with the combination of the two doctors that the wound was getting proper treatment and it would close, with time.
Around day four of my hospital stay the two doctors came into my room and said that they were going to discharge me the next day but that I would need to have something called a PICC line inserted first. The PICC line is a peripherally inserted central catheter. A small tube was to be inserted into my upper arm and threaded up into a major vein of the heart and is used to deliver antibiotics on a long term basis.
The next day a nurse came in to get me so that my PICC line could be inserted. Surprisingly, enough I was not especially nervous about this procedure, even though I would be awake and completely aware of the entire thing. Although the PICC line felt uncomfortable going in I would not necessarily call it a painful experience.
After my PICC was inserted I was brought back to my room to get some instruction on how to use the line. It turns out that after a visiting nurse did the initial dose with me that I personally would need to administer my medication myself. That was the only part that made me uneasy, but I figured that it would not be allowed if it weren't a relatively simple thing to do. I went home with the Wound VAC and PICC line and was told that a nurse would meet me at my home to administer the antibiotic with me and to teach me how to do it for myself from then on. The nurse for the PICC line would only come on a weekly basis to change the dressing and to draw labs to monitor the infection.
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