Guest guest Posted December 31, 2007 Report Share Posted December 31, 2007 hello all, i am new to this group and wondered if anyone has experienced osteo myelitis??? my husband is currently in icu at indy university hospital and the infection that he has is reisitant to antibiotics. this has been going on for a year and i would like some support. thanks! julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted December 31, 2007 Report Share Posted December 31, 2007 Hi , I've got chronic osteomyelitis of the jaw. Also resistant to many drugs. I've been on i.v. abx for extended periods in the past but I never ended up in the icu (although I can tell you that more than once I thought I should be.) What's your husband's situation? It sounds pretty acute. Which bones are affected? How are they treating him, etc? Hoping you get some good news in the new year. penny juliegushw55 <juliegushw55@...> wrote: hello all,i am new to this group and wondered if anyone has experienced osteo myelitis??? my husband is currently in icu at indy university hospital and the infection that he has is reisitant to antibiotics. this has been going on for a year and i would like some support.thanks!julie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted January 1, 2008 Report Share Posted January 1, 2008 What's the organism called.... You really need to know what your dealing with. tony > > hello all, > > i am new to this group and wondered if anyone has experienced osteo > myelitis??? my husband is currently in icu at indy university > hospital and the infection that he has is reisitant to antibiotics. > this has been going on for a year and i would like some support. > > thanks! > julie > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 cannot say much about Osteo Myelitis, but there is much research suggesting that diabetics can reduce their problems by removing gluten from their diets.http://www.iddtinternational.org/healthissues/coeliac.htmStrong Antibiotics for extended periods of time would be my preferred action for the latter.On 18 Jul 2008, at 14:43, juliegushw55 wrote:Hello all,My husband is a 41 year old diabetic who has spent the last 12 months fighting Osteo Myelitis. He has had 7 surgeries total and the last 2 were performed at the Indiana University hospital which involved debredment of the pelvic bone and antibiotic beads. He was then sent home with a picc line and Vancomycin to treat it. He is doing well at this point, however, I am concerned with the fact that it may come back. The doctor's really don't give me straight answers when it comes to advising me of the likelyhood of this infection returning. I am wondering if anyone in the group has any first hand info on the chronic aspect of this infection. I would appreciate any info at this point.thanks so much for your help! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 18, 2008 Report Share Posted July 18, 2008 Sorry I didn't respond before. Am in the middle of moving. I have chronic OM of the jaw. The treatment your husband got sounds like the most up-to-date treatment out there so that's encouraging. And it's a whole lot easier to debride bones from the neck down than the neck up, so he's got that in his favor. On the down side, this is an extremely difficult infection to eradicate. Once it gets into the bone it's hard to reach, that's why complete debridement is so necessary. But his docs sound like they're doing the best they can. The beads are fairly new treatment approach and I know people who've had success with them. Plus the i.v. vancomycin shows they're taking it seriously (or that the bugs are very resistant) Did they identify the bugs and their drug resistances? In a way, he's actually lucky it's in his pelvis and not his foot. Otherwise, a lot of these docs tend to go for amputation (to save insurance costs) or hip replacement, etc. There's lots of stuff that relates to this topic throughout this message board if you do some digging. but like I said, it sounds like your docs know what they're doing. I wish those of us with the OM of the jaw had orthopedic docs who'd treat us, because dentists and the vast majority of oral surgeons are completely worthless. :-( I wish him and you well. Please keep us posted. penny On 18 Jul 2008, at 14:43, juliegushw55 wrote: Hello all,My husband is a 41 year old diabetic who has spent the last 12 months fighting Osteo Myelitis. He has had 7 surgeries total and the last 2 were performed at the Indiana University hospital which involved debredment of the pelvic bone and antibiotic beads. He was then sent home with a picc line and Vancomycin to treat it. He is doing well at this point, however, I am concerned with the fact that it may come back. The doctor's really don't give me straight answers when it comes to advising me of the likelyhood of this infection returning. I am wondering if anyone in the group has any first hand info on the chronic aspect of this infection. I would appreciate any info at this point.thanks so much for your help! Recent Activity 2 New MembersVisit Your Group Meditation and Lovingkindness A Group to share and learn. Health Achy Joint? Common arthritis myths debunked. Change your life with balance nutrition, activity & well-being. .. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 20, 2008 Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 Yes, unfortunately it's difficult to debride the jaw very aggressively without causing all kinds of other problems. A good friend of mine has had so much debridement that another surgery could cause her face to collapse. Each time I've had surgery, I've gotten sicker because the infection which was previously walled off gets opened up and agitated and spreads somewhere else . The jaw bone is different than other bones in the body and infection can travel pretty easily when given the opportunity especially since the immune system is hindered in that area due to a lack of blood supply. Add that to the hypercoagulation that comes with infection to begin with (sticky, gummed up blood) and we've got a big problem. One of my own big problems is that the infection has eaten through into my sinuses where it is very comfortably entrenched and nothing, surgery or drugs, can completely get rid of it. The biofilms are impervious to drugs, etc. I was on i.v. antibiotics for almost 9 mos. and I improved immensely during that time. But I haven't been able to eradicate it completely and if I go off oral antibiotics now, I get really sick. So I'm still looking for answers, new ways to get this thing gone. It may be impossible as I've lived with this infection for a very long time. I definitely feel like it's speeding up my mortality. I'm going to a new sinus/immunoligist this week to see if he can give me any new ideas. I've heard he's helped some people. We'll see. Fortunately, your husband's infection is in a place where experienced orthopedists can (and are willing to) treat it pretty aggressively. In other locations, other problems arise. So many diabetics have their feet amputated just because it's cheaper than dealing with it (this is documented in studies). My home care bill alone with the i.v. antibiotics was $125,000 and that was just the nursing, not the drugs or other treatments. Many insurance companies really pressure docs not to go there. So I'm glad your husband is getting treated. If I were you, I'd still educate myself just as much as I possibly could so that you don't get hit with any surprises. I really think you have to be vigilant about any signs of the infection spreading elsewhere, to organs, etc. There's lots of good information on this list, as well as numerous accounts of people's experiences with chronic infection in general, most of which appy to OM. I personally think a lot of chronically ill people are probably struggling with undiagnosed variations of OM or sinus infections, they just don't know it because the symptoms are too vague. Also, you want to be sure you stay on top of any fungal infections that could be created or made worse by your husband's treatment. Fungal infections create all the same problems as staph a. and friends. And then there are the residual effects of ongoing infection. Depleted minerals etc. There's a lot to stay on top of. If you can do it, you've got a good chance of complete recovery. We have at least two people here who're completely recovered from raging infections and illness, and others who've made great strides. Thanks to them, I am much better now than I was, but still have a long way to go before I'm "cured". penny From: Gushwa <juliegushw55@...>Subject: [infections] osteo myelitisinfections Date: Saturday, July 19, 2008, 5:38 AM Thank you for sharing your experience with OM Penny. It sounds like you have it in an area that is hard to treat? Have you had the infection come back at all after it was taken care of the first time? It's aso hard to detect hat it has returned until the pain sets in according to the doctor's. The bug is class a staph aureus. The last surgery that was done in December was pretty aggressive with the debreadment of the bone. It's great to talk to someone who has been through this. Thanks again for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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