update

[Guest guest]

I've known for close to 10 years that my luck really and truly sucks,

but it is getting worse....I think. Back in April I had to have my morphine

pump implant replaced as after 7 years it was at the end of its' life. The

surgery went very well at the time, but a hair over a week later I was back

in with a viscous headache. Not much new there, but this was in May, a time

when the headaches usually start to diminish until the cold weather

returns...which after spending countless amounts of money and driving all

over the Eastern seaboard the best diagnosis anyone could come up with is

" New Daily Persistent Headache " which was diagnosed by Dr. Wm Young (great

DR!) but no one has a solution for them other than incredibly strong

narcotic type of meds that I have no choice to use as little as possible if

I want to be in control of my life and mind, which I do.

This summer we had planned our 1st major vacation since we married 16

1/2 years ago. We were taking the kids to burg,Va. to go to Busch

Gardens, Water Park USA, Historic downtown burg etc.....Roughly 3

weeks prior to the vacation I bumped the area where the morphine pump

implant was and felt horrendous pain. I lifted my shirt and almost shit

myself as it was as red as an apple, swollen and hot. I immediately

contacted my Neuro Surgeon who saw me the next day. They drew a lot of

blood and put me on Keflex. Nothing showed up in my blood work or on the

cultures. They wanted to rip it out at that point but I convinced them to

let me take my family on vacation..so they gave me another few weeks worth

of Keflex and written orders in case anything happened while I was away.

I wasn't able to enjoy much of the vacation, but the wife and kids had a

blast, which was good enough for me. Than roughly 10-12 days ago I knew I

was in trouble as it was starting to get ugly again. I had an appointment

and was to be admitted and have it removed but I never mad it that far as I

wound up with fevers, chills, a blinding headache and in my

absolutely least favorite place to be, which is the ER!! I've come close to

slugging a couple of assholes that work there and love to look at my

med list and assume I am a druggie, which is about one of the worst thins

I've ever been accused of yet have never, ever been nor do I plan to be. I

had enough friends that I grew up with go down that road enough to know

that one would have to be as dense as hell to even think of trying any of

that shit.

The first day+ was absolute HELL on earth, again but luckily my neuro

surgeon was working this past weekend and it was removed on Sunday. It is

frightening how good death looks like when you're in that kind of agony.

After 2 days I started to feel somewhat human again, but they had yet to

break the headache. One thing that caught me off guard was severe diarrhea

and of course when they did a culture they found C-Dif. OUTSTANDING!

I know I need to lose a bunch of weight but this isn't how I had

envisioned beginning it. Once they found that out I was placed in isolation

which compounded matters as when my back would start to kill me I'd walk

the halls for a few minutes at a time (well, what I call walking at

least.... cane and all..which still beats the walker I had to use for 16

months earlier in this disease.

Now I've gone 8 days with a total of about 14-16 hours of sleep as I

can't get comfortable as my back and neck kill me when I lie down. To

make matters worse they found the cause of the infection, which was a staff

infection.....more damn meds! The worst part is that they have to wait at

least 2.5 months before they can implant another due to the increased risk

of infection.

So much for me getting to enjoy my summer, which is what I look forward

to each and every year as it is the only time of year when I feel halfway

decent. I'll still coach football, but won't be able to be as hands on as I

like to be which is going to kill me.

Oh well. Just thought I'd give this update/rant. I also figured out that

I should never, ever gamble due o this shit luck I have.

Kirk.,

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Everything in life sucks except things that should!