Midline

I have still been going into the infusion center daily to get my IV treatment of 2g of Ceftriaxone. It has been fun getting to know all the folks there. It seems like we are family now, the kind of family that mercifully takes blood out of my body and puts the antibiotic drugs in me like I'm some sort of drug addict. I now have pricks all over my arms from the IV lines (which they have been leaving in for four days at a time, then changing it to a new location).

Yesterday I saw the infectious disease doctor, Peter Brookmeyer, who wants me to continue the antibiotic therapy for a minimum of four weeks total, most likely six, and then do a few more weeks of oral antibiotics. Since the wound is so close to the bone, everyone involved feels like this is the best course of action. In fact, he said there is no sure way to know right now that the staph ISN'T in the bone, so this is the safest thing to do. I agree.

So to make things a little easier, they put in a "midline" catheter in my right arm (see picture at left). This thing has a little line that goes about ten inches up in my vien, and it which can stay in for the next two weeks. It will also make it easier for me to travel to Seattle next week for business. All I have to do is take a bunch of drugs with me and inject them daily into the midline. It's called SASH--first inject saline to clean the line, then hook up the antibiotic bag and let it empty out into my vien, then clear the line with saline again and finally inject Heparin to make sure the blood is flowing nice and easy.

As for the wound, they have decided to let it heal over, which is great because I was, admittedly, getting tired of having them force it open each day to pack it full of gauze. So let's hope that it doesn't abscess again and keep the infection going. I'll report back in a week or two, but for now, know that I am hanging in there and seemingly doing just fine!