My dad (the "healthy one" of the family) has staph!

I posted on Tuesday how my dad was the one to go to the ER this time. He is the "healthy one" of my family, yet he has had his share of medical problems. You may remember that a year ago, he got his artificial knee infected and had a really hard time recovering because they had to go in and replace all the plastic parts to his knee, and he had to give himself IVs of antibiotics every day for 6 months!

On Tuesday, his elbow got swollen, so my mom and I talked him into going to the ER, since he is leaving for Kenya in a week and a half. The doctor then said it's just bursitis, an inflammation of the elbow, and nothing to worry about, but he sent samples of the fluid to be analyzed just in case.

This afternoon, my dad got a call from the doctor that he has a staph infection and to get himself to the ER right away. At first, they were just going to give him IV antibiotics, but upon talking to an expert, they decided to do surgery to clean it all out.

But my dad is on a high dose of coumadin because he has had 2 pulmonary embolisms (the second came really close to killing him several years ago). So they won't be able to operate until tomorrow because now they have to thicken his blood up enough. They will probably give him plasma, like they did last year, when it took 24 hours and multiple units to get him thick enough for surgery.

The good news is that the doctor says it's not too major a surgery and that he should be o.k. to go to Kenya.

But I'm still nervous about his going there because it's not very sanitary.

I'll let you all know if anything new comes up!

My mom just got home from the hospital, and she says that the doctors think that the infection hasn't reached my dad's bloodstream yet, which is part of the reason they are wanting to do the surgery. They hope to clean it out enough that it won't be able to do so. He probably won't have it until tomorrow afternoon, both because of needing his blood thickened and because of availability of operating rooms.

I, meanwhile, will be going to see the Mets hopefully beat the Dodgers tomorrow. As a diehard Giants fan, I can't ever wish the Dodgers well. I'm taking 30 friends along too, 15 or 16 international students and about that many people from my church. Since most of our students are from China, where baseball isn't big, it'll be many people's first professional baseball game! I just hope my head holds out. I didn't hold out last time I went to a professional game, and this time I can't leave early either because we'll be taking all the students!

Latest update: My dad finally had his surgery Saturday afternoon. They had been trying to thicken his blood during the night, but it came back thinner in the morning than it was the night before! So he didn't get into surgery until the afternoon. It went well, which is all I actually know about it. We won't go until the morning because my dad didn't want my mom driving at night. Ever since she had the lenses in her eyes replaced for vision correction, she sees an aura around every light during the night. I think it's better now than it was before, and the doctor said it'll go away in time, but for the meantime, she tries not to drive at night, and my dad didn't want her doing so last night. I'll keep you updated when I learn something new!

By the way, the international students had a blast at the baseball game! A bunch especially were thrilled when they called out to a Japanese player, who responded by waving to them! And then others were happy to see a Taiwanese relief pitcher get to play. Sadly for me, the Dodgers won, but I was happy for my friends because they got to see their home team win for their first baseball game. Even an "American" pair had never been to one before. The mother was born in Mexico but has her green card, which is why I used American in quotes. Her 11-year-old daughter was born here. But she has been out of work a lot lately, so they haven't been able to afford treats even as inexpensive as a baseball game, so I paid their way. With the group tickets, it was quite cheap, and I thought they'd really enjoy going. Plus, they bond well with the girls in our group.

Vicki,

How's he doing? I really hope he has cancelled his plans to go to Africa. It takes the body quite a while to bounce back from surgery alone and staph is not the easiest to treat.

Wishing the best.
-mgb

I am very glad to hear Dad's is out of surgery and well.
Now, crossed fingers for smooth and speedy recovery.

But I second Marc's concerns, maybe it's sensible to postpone this trip to Kenya for some other time.
You never know how what may happen there - it is after all, a harsh climate for those unaccustomed to it.
And who needs complications, especially as you say, a person on Coumadin, and freshly out of surgery, prone to lengthy staph infection? I second Marc, truly I am.

Best wishes of quick and pleasant recovery for your Dad, Vicky.

Now for the baseball part - so you are, in two words- a "Fever Pitch", eh?

Sounds like you had a terrific fun with your Chinese friends, and they had , too!
I can imagine what it was like for them as in Poland baseball is practically nonexistent, too. Very much like soccer in USA.
An European (I think) version of of baseball was more popular long time ago in Poland,
but that was soooooo long ago, I would guess way before the first World War.
Then it was soccer, first and last.

Risa

Thanks for your concerns for my dad and his insistence that he go to Kenya. I myself am not very happy with these ongoing plans, but since my dad's doctor doesn't seem to be trying to make him stop going, he is determined to go.

Fortunately, the staph infection never got to his blood stream. The bursa sac had it, but they removed that and therefore the staph from his body apparently. He'll still be on strong antibiotics for a while, but only by pill, not by IV, like he did when his knee was infected a year ago.

But this is probably a major influence on why I can't sleep without having nightmares. And I can't lie down in bed without having day-mares, so I have to play my audio book until I fall asleep to that because I can't tolerate anything that will let me think.

I'm trying to plan a few things with friends for while they are gone. Fortunately, there is a really sweet woman whom my dad "adopted" when she went to Brazil with the church. She has been out of work off and on for quite some time. Her problem is that the job skills she has have all been outsourced to other countries, so she doesn't have real skills for a decent job here anymore. She only went to Brazil because other people in the church thought that she really should go and paid her way. If she is still out of work when my parents go, they are going to try to pay her to help me out, although it'll probably be a fight to get her to let us pay her for helping me. But I was thinking that there's a place near here that gives massages for $20 an hour. They focus on the legs and feet, not th whole body, but that might be something fun to do together "girly," that I'd be happy to pay for her and her daughter to go with me. She has a really sweet 11-year-old too.

And my aunt is going to take me to Huntington Beach and drop me off with my best friend for lunch, while my aunt goes to lunch with another friend of hers. So I've got a few things lined up. But I'm still dreading this whole trip!

And the concern about my dad doesn't help. At the very least, there will be a couple nurses around, including the missionary, who has saved the lives of many children over the years, and a Kenyan nurse who works full-time in the village. Plus, my sister-in-law worked for a year in the ER and can clean out wounds and do other stuff, so although she doesn't have a nurse's degree, she has most of the skills of an ER nurse. Also, because of my time in 2000, when I had to go to the doctor (I now believe that one of my pills didn't dissolve all the way on its way down and burned my esophogus, so I couldn't swallow anything without a lot of pain) and the hospital for tests, my dad now gets health insurance for the team members, so she he need treatment while he is there, he can get it covered, and they can get it from the hospital that treats all the rich foreigners, like I went to.

Vicky,
I am so glad the surgery went well. I wonder if the staff was related to his previous hospital stays? Very strange. How is he healing? How are you and your mother faring? Are you back at home now? I am so glad that they baseball game was fun and distracting. I think that the massage is a great idea. That is always relaxing and doing it in an environment where you will be with other women will be good for them and for you.

Maybe you could do some research on probiotics while you can't sleep? I have come to think that after antibiotic use you need to reintroduce the good bacteria to your body. Antibiotics don't only kill the bad germs

Good luck to you and your family,

Mary Anne

Thanks! I hadn't thought of probiotics (only vaguely heard the term even), but a friend recommended colloidal silver. Her husband takes it because he has skin cancer, but he also claims that it has prevented colds and other sicknesses too.

I think I'm just nervous about being alone anyway. I don't like being on my own all the way. And I wont' even have my brother to call and have keep me company because he'll be there too.

I so badly wanted to go in the first place because it has been 10 years since I have been to Kenya, and the people there are so sweet. They all remember me, since I was the first teenager, along with my brother and a friend, to go, and I am very outgoing, so they all know me and ask about me. It would be so great to get to see them. And I think how fun it would be to show Marina, my SIL, all the places in Kenya and see how much joy she gets out of the children there, but I know it's all impossible. There is no way I could handle it physically. That may also have an influence why I am so dreading their being gone. I didn't think of this until now. I spent an hour today talking with my therapist about why I fear being alone, but it struck me now that perhaps part of it is that I feel left out of everything. Everyone in my family is getting to have this great experience (and I know it's great from past trips -- I've been 3 times), and I am stuck at home. AGAIN. I bet that has at least as much to do with my distress over all this than my general fear of being alone. Because I didn't worry as much when my parents went to Europe last summer. But I'm really freaking out this time.

If I am all over these boards in the next couple weeks, you'll know why.

But can I ask a favor? Are there a couple of you to whom I can give my phone number privately, and if I disappear from the board for a few days, can you check up on me?

When I am depressed, it'll hit me one of two ways. Either I will be super active here, or I will withdraw to the point where I get morbid and won't go near the rest of the world. And I'm afraid of getting to that point. Seeing how bad I've been lately, I'm afraid it may turn out to be the second way.