Going Against Conventional Medical Treatment

On March 7th, I saw a new doctor at a different wound center for my wound. I was switched to another antibiotic – Cubicin. The previous doctor put me on Rocephin after I had an allergic reaction to Vancomycin. The bug I have, Enterococcus, is resistant to Rocephin and my wound went downhill very rapidly. The doctor at Ohio Valley General Hospital Wound Care Center did not consult with an infectious disease doctor. I learned a very important wound care lesson – if you have an infection, make sure you have an infectious disease doctor involved. I now have an infectious disease doctor and am on the right antibiotic.

The bad news was that the wound is now down to the bone and I was told that without surgery, it would not heal. I am again faced with having surgery that I do not want to have. Regardless of whether I choose to have surgery or pass on surgery, it is not going to be an easy path.

I don’t expect anyone to understand my decision – in fact, most people who I have talked to really don’t understand, but I am not going to do surgery. Some people seem to think that because I am not going to do surgery that I am choosing death. That is far from the case. I am choosing life and I intend to put up one h*ll of a fight to keep mine!

No one else has walked in my shoes and have been thru the things that I have been thru to be able to understand my reasons. Although there are a bunch of things that have gone into that decision, the path I am going to choose to go down really boils down to two things: 1) I am going to pick the path that I believe that I have the best chance of surviving and 2) my quality of life both long-term and going down that road.

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Trip to the Wound Center

Friday, I made a trip to Pittsburgh to go back to the wound center at Ohio Valley General Hospital where I went back in 2006. It was a very good reminder of “good” versus “bad” medical care and why I have my leg today.

The woman at the check in was there when I went there before and she remembered me. The woman that took me back to the room also remembered me. She did the vitals and took pictures.

The next person slightly threw me because when I made the appointment, I was told that I was considered a new patient now and I would have to see a nurse practitioner before seeing the doctor. She said a name that I did not know. The NP that came in the room said she remembered my face. It took me awhile to place her but she had a different name than I was told would be seeing me. Once I heard her name, I knew exactly who she was.

I was very impressed that the NP recognized that a diabetic can have an infection without a fever. Sadly, a lot of medical people don’t understand that and insist that you don’t have an infection because you don’t have a fever. When I told her that I was impressed that she knew that, she said that they see it all the time there.