Another Medical Adventure

 June 28, 2022

Another Medical Adventure

I learned something yesterday that I think I already knew: Never pedal a stationary bicycle for 10 minutes when you have a Foley catheter installed. LOL ... I did that as part of my physical-rehabilitation regimen yesterday, and it certainly was a mistake.

Yesterday afternoon, shortly after physical rehab, I went to the emergency room of Boca Raton Regional Hospital via stretcher in an ambulance because I had severe pain in my downtown area. I was given a prescription for pills that reduce bladder spasms, but that's not exactly where the pain was. It gets better.

While at the hospital, I had CT scans of my abdomen and pelvic area. Everything is good down there, but the doctor told me that I have gall stones. Terrific (sarcasm). Anyway, I took one of the pills and just remained in a bed in an examining room in severe pain for many hours, often screaming with pain. I also learned that the staff at hospitals and rehab facilities tend to ignore a screaming (and crying) man. I finally received intravenous pain medication through my PICC line that I have been using for a six-week-long, daily regimen of antibiotic for various infections. (See below for details.)

I arrived back at my rehab facility at 4:05 a.m. because the hospital couldn't get an ambulance for transport to come sooner. Back at the rehab facility, I was able to get some of my usual pills (pain pill, pain pill/neuropathy reducer, and muscle relaxer) at 5:15 a.m. after about an hour of screaming with pain due to neuropathy in my feet and possible developing edema in my legs.

After all of that, this morning, I feel fairly well.

VIDEO: Below is a 10-second video of my rather-quick, return ambulance ride with two cool, portly dudes.

Why I Am In Rehab

Prior to arriving at my rehab facility on June 3, 2022, I was in the hospital since May 13, 2022, enduring and recovering from two (more) surgeries last month.

I had quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery on March 9, 2022, and two plastic reconstructive surgeries in and on my chest in May 2022. For my surgery on May 19, 2022, my plastic reconstructive surgeon removed metal sternal plates from within my chest due to an infection. For my surgery on May 25, 2022, he cleaned out the remaining infection from within my chest, and he partially closed my chest by first clipping off the tips of my ribs and then by reattaching my chest muscle flaps to my body.

My surgeon used seven spaced-out sutures to close the eight-inch-long, vertical incision in my chest initiated by my open-heart surgery in March 2022 and made worse by my two subsequent surgeries in May 2022, leaving me with seven holes in my chest to heal. My sutures (and wound vacuum) were removed on June 20, 2022.

I am in the midst of receiving daily intravenous antibiotic infusions for six weeks for a staph infection within my chest, a blood infection, and osteomyelitis (a bone infection) within my left foot. My last infusion will be on July 1, 2022. (In recent years, I have endured many of these six-week-long regimens for many cases of cellulitis in both of my legs individually and for the lingering osteomyelitis in my left foot.)

While my pain has been constant, I continue to heal quite well. However regaining my strength has been next to impossible.