2 morphine shots in 3 days -- not quite a record

Well, the rough times continue. On Wednesday, I had my mom take me in to the ER, which wasn't as troublesome for her as it might otherwise have been beause she was already going in to the hospital to visit my father. She came with me when I checked in and talked to the nurse to let her know that she really was there, since the nurses won't give a narcotic without seeing my driver in person. Then, she headed upstairs to spend time with my dad.

You see, my dad was in the hospital because the nasty ulcer in his foot got infected again with staph. He has a badly collapsed arch whose bone has gotten into his blood vessel. It has led to a nasty ulcer that it always there and that he get treated every week by a team of nurses. The doctors want to recreate the foot, but that would require keeping him off his foot for six months, and he couldn't even stay off it for two weeks when he had minor surgery. But the ulcer got infected with a staph infection, leading to his being in the hospital for two days, the cost my dad is willing to pay to keep from having that more severe surgery.

The doctor in the ER was pretty good and gave me 10 mg of morphine IV and later another 5. I stayed in bed on Thursday and then ended up in severe pain on Friday. Fortunately, it was October 1, so my primary doctor could then write me one of my two scripts for October. It took a while to get the doctor to write the prescription, but finally I got my 25 mg shot.

I'm still dealing with everything, but that's why I've been away lately!

hi vicky, had wondered how you were doing? big hug.

I'm glad you have good pain relief.

I'm fighting a little staph infection in my arm pit. Pesky little boogers aren't they? It's not a big cyst it's not responding to antibiotics.

How common are staph infections?

Hope the morphine nips the migraine in the bud pretty soon for you, Vicki. It's high time for some good days for you. Please take care.

It's a week later, and I'm still struggling. I just can't seem to break this cycle! I've got the international students coming over tomorrow night, and I'm really not up for that at this point. However, come this will, so host them I must!

As for how common staph infections are, I've read that 1/3 of everyone has staph on our bodies in some form, but most of us have a benign form that doesn't infect us. I think (although I could be wrong about this) that most of the time the infection comes when we have some kind of cut or injury that it then enters. I remember my uncle getting a staph infection when he got cut playing handball. He had to shower three times a day for two weeks to make sure it didn't spread!

I also know that it is much more common in the hospital because it is pretty contagious, so that is one reason they try to cut short people's hospital stays, so they have less chance of getting exposed to staph. When my grandfather was in a coma before he died, they were actually going to release him to go home once he got stabilized because my grandmother didn't want him in a nursing home. I thought it rather creepy, but she planned to still sleep with him and everything. But he got a staph infection, so they had to keep him in the hospital, but moved him to an isolated unit, until he could be cured of the staph because my aunt had a brain tumor and was on chemotherapy. That meant that her immune system was gone, so she would have easily picked it up from him, and it would have killed her. In the end, my grandfather's heart went out before he got over the staph infection, so he never did come home.

Hey Vicki,

I don't have time to respond now, but wanted to say you are in my thoughts and prayers.

I am still fighting all this bull that I have been fighting and will eventually fill all of you in. Sorry I haven't yet, but, has been hard to talk about.

Just wante to say, luv ya, stay strong, you know where I am if you need to talk.

Will email you on FB when I can.

Lots of hugs!!