Medical Update

February 13, 2024, Delray Medical Center

Yesterday's MRI determined that I have osteomyelitis (bone infection) in my right ankle. I have had many bouts with osteomyelitis and cellulitis (deep-skin) infections in recent years, including four surgeries on my left foot: three to remove part of a decayed bone and bone fragments, and one to remove a benign tumor that was growing within a diabetic ulcer.

I have now been receiving many intravenous antibiotics (two different kinds) here at the hospital every day. The plan is for me to receive one more dose of one of the intravenous antibiotics here at the hospital to complete today's doses and then to go home this evening.

At home, I will receive three doses of intravenous antibiotics every day (one dose of one kind and two doses of another kind) though my PICC line in my upper right arm for a total of six weeks starting from when I entered the hospital on February 6, 2024. There was mention of the possibility of myself taking antibiotic pills every day after that for the rest of my life to deter my recurring infections.

My breathing is better with the help of nebulizer (breathing) treatments here at the hospital and possibly due to my intravenous antibiotic infusions. I take nebulizer treatments at home already, which I will continue. I entered the hospital with shortness of breath and a painful, swollen right ankle on February 6, 2024.

After an X-ray and a CT scan of my chest, it was determined that I have a six-inch-long "wire" about the width of a hair embedded in a blood vessel between my heart and my lung. Another CT scan (this time with contrast) and the insertion of a camera into the right side of my groin to look at the blood vessel between my heart and lung determined that the best course of action is for doctors to leave it there rather than cut me open to remove it. It does NOT seem to be the cause of my recurring infections because my body has since coated it. The wire is either a broken part of one of my many PICC lines over recent years or a guide wire that was broken when installing one of my many PICC lines.

I have had five surgeries in the last two years, so NOT cutting me back open is the prudent decision:

March 2022: quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery

May 2022: chest surgery (open me again)

May 2022: chest surgery (a week later to close me again)

September 2023: minor spine surgery

October 2023: major spine surgery