Infections Continue

March 26, 2024, at home

It seems to never end. I now have developed over the past few days a rather large, seemingly infected wound within the front of my right ankle.

PHOTO: If blurred, to see the photo, just click/tap on "Learn more," then on "See photo." It's not that bad.

I am actually coming to the end of a scheduled six-week-long daily regimen of powerful intravenous antibiotics infused through a PICC line in my upper left arm, with the last day being on or around March 28, 2024, just a couple of days away. I require the antibiotics for an infection in the bone of my right ankle and for an infection under the surrounding skin.

I receive two bags of intravenous antibiotics at home every morning and one bag of intravenous antibiotics every evening every day for six weeks.

I have contacted my podiatrist yesterday and today. He has been tending to the almost constant infections in both of my feet and legs for many years due to diabetic ulcers. I sent him a text message with two photos of my new wound and requested that he forward my information and photos to my infectious-disease doctor. My podiatrist has been making housecalls due to my recent surgeries: quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery and two chest surgeries in 2022 and two spinal surgeries in 2023.

Now, in early 2024, I am back to fighting yet another infection. I have done this six-week-long regimen at least ten times in recent years, but I don't think the infection has ever become worse toward the end of the regimen.

This morning, I had a follow-up appointment with my general doctor in regard to my most recent infection at the hospital. 

My Recent Surgeries

March 2022: quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery (including removal of vein in left thigh for procedure)

May 2022: chest surgery (loose screws in sternal plates; chest left open for a out a week to remove the infection)

May 2022: chest surgery (close chest by reattaching my chest muscle flaps to my body)

September 2023: spinal surgery (disk infection)

October 2023: another spinal surgery (bone infection; attachment of metal rod to "collapsing" spine; length of surgery: six hours)

Fairly Recently: nasal-sinus surgery; and four surgeries on my left foot for the removal of bone, bone fragments, scar tissue, and a benign tumor growing within a diabetic ulcer; two separate thoracentesis procedures to remove fluid surrounding both of my lungs, with the most recent 22 ounces from around my right lung

As I have mentioned, I have used PICC lines and the shorter midlines many times that enter my arms and led through my veins close to my heart. One complication that recently arose is:

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 then another test which involved the insertion of a camera into the right side of my groin to look at the blood vessel between my heart and my lung determined that the best course of action was and is for doctors to leave it there rather than to 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.