Well after a 22 day stint in the hospital my mother, Stage IV colon cancer 3 chemo treatments, was re-admitted (after being home only 3 days). She has severe pain in her right shoulder. Thought it was her rotator cuff again, she's had issues with it before. Noticed in the ER that her port site, which happend to be just below the right shoulder is red and hot to the touch. Literally could see the red get larger before our eyes. Temp. 102.2. They say her port is infected which in turn is causing her shoulder pain,Xray showed nothing amiss. Back to ICU. They pulled the port, said they saw some infection inside when they pulled it. Next day said it was positive for a staph infection. She seems to get these when she enters the hospital every time. Next day said it was MRSA. Shoulder more inflammed, but because they put her on warafin(had a clot on her right neck, this seems to happen when you remove a port) they won't aspirate her shoulder to see if they can get fluid and test for the mrsa, that is all ready flowing through her blood. We have to suit up when we visit her. A little delusional, not sure if it's from the meds or what? She has been on these same pain meds at home and has dealt with them fine. Dr.'s and nurses seem really non-chalant about all this. I read online about mrsa in the blood, it's not good. Especially in someone in her condition. Her liver is failing, heart failure, we had hoped to get her home and bring hospice in. They asked her if she wants to be treated for the mrsa, or if she just wants to die. She doesn't want to go in the hospital, she wants to go home, so Yes, she wants treated. Once hospice is mentioned do they all just give up? I told the doctor that we wanted to take her home get her well, which means no chemo treatments, and if she gets strong enough then maybe we start again. Did I mention that in the 22 day visit, they gave her too much fluid and she gained 70 lbs in water weight? That is why she was in there for so long. We finally got her down to 10 lbs within her normal weight, then we had to go back. Also about a week in, after she was all ready losing some of the weight, she got a nasty red inflammed rash that we watched rise on her legs and lower abdomen. Cellulits? Nope dr. said it was caused by the excess weight, tried prednizone, when that didn't work they biopsied it, nothing came back. I have seen this same type of rash, she gets "staph" infections on her legs all the time. Nope I'm wrong the dr. is right. Wondering if this is when this MRSA crap started. Worried now that it's in her shoulder joint, but they won't even think about doing anything until they get her off the warfin, maybe tomorrow or next. Like I said, very non-chalant. Worried she is not getting the right care since we mentioned hospice. I am praying we can get her out the hospital and home. They said her blood cultures have to be clean for two days before she can be released, then it's home with 3 weeks of antibiotics via an iv drip. She's all ready started the "water gain", even though she is not on the iv, except for antibiotic, and on a fluid restriction. Also need to mention, that when she was in for 22 days, we saw, 3 different dr.'s in the icu, and 5 on the telementry floor. As of now, we are 3 days in and have all ready seen a different one every day. Each one has a different take on things, very frustrating!!! Still pissed because they didn't bother to call us to let us know that she had a blood clot, or that they moved her to a different floor. Found out when I went to her ICU room and it was empty, talk about a "sick"feeling!
Sorry for the vent!!
Donna