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UPDATED 3/3: Urgent prayer needed, my sister is in the hospital

MiniBlondes

By MiniBlondes,
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MiniBlondes

MiniBlondes

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Updated 3/3:

I just got a call about an hour ago. She's coming home! She should be here at some point this evening. Her creatinine levels with her kidneys are still elevated but there's not much more they can do for them at this point. She will begin home healthcare and outpatient therapy for it next week.

 

Thank you all for your prayers, well wishes, and positive thoughts!!!

________________________________

 

About a week ago my sister called me and told me that she had a large boil on her back and that it really hurt. We joked about how gross that was and how she should put it on Youtube, etc. The next day she was jokingly saying that she thought it was going to kill her and she was telling me her last wishes, etc. I told her she needed to go to the doctor, and she did last Wednesday.

 

The doctor tried to lance the boils on her back but the infection was too hard so they gave her antibiotics and wrote her an excuse from work for 4 days. During those 4 days, I spoke with her daily and she was progressively getting worse, unable to eat or drink, in a lot of pain, and very weak. So Monday she went back to the same doctor. They immediately sent her to the hospital for IV antibiotics. The hospital decided to admit her and our mother drove to be with her. The idea was that she was going to have surgery today to drain the wounds and then she'd probably be on her way home this evening.

 

This afternoon my mother called and said that my sister had been diagnosed with Type II diabetes and the infection was most likely from that. My sister seemed to be in good spirits and the nurses all loved her and were teaching her how to control her insulin. My mother called me approximately 30 minutes ago and said that she had made it through surgery but that the wound was much worse than they'd originally suspected. The surface wound stretched from shoulder to shoulder across her back but once he got in there he found that it extended much further down her back. He kept cutting away layer after layer until he cut down to her muscle to finally get the infection. He is concerned about her body's ability to heal such a large wound, especially given her recent diabetes diagnosis. He said that it will likely take a minimum of 6 months to heal and most likely much longer. She will have to have almost round the clock care to keep her wound cleaned and dressed.

 

My sister is only 40 and we are quite concerned over what all of this will mean for her long term. Her name is Melanie, and we would all sure appreciate any prayers or positive juices that you could send in her direction.

 

Thank you!

 

UPDATE #1:

 

Thank you ladies!. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

 

I spoke with her on the phone about 30 minutes ago. She was surprisingly lucid and in good spirits, although I'm not sure how much of that was because of the anesthesia. I am driving down tomorrow and will spend the rest of the weekend there with her. We discussed that when she gets released from the hospital, she will come stay with me during the healing process since I will be able to help her on a more 24/7 basis than our mother, who works full time.

 

So we shall see. I'll keep you all updated. And thank you again, so so much.

 

UPDATE #2

 

Well, I had originally typed out this long response and then I accidentally deleted it. Great.

 

Just a quick update. She's in good spirits and he sugar is improving. It was 157 tonight and although that is still high, it's an improvement of 100 from yesterday. Her pain is being managed well and she's comfortable. The only real issue that she had today was inability to keep anything on her stomach. They have her on a liquid diet and even that is not staying down. So they said that they will get her in to see a GI specialist in the morning.

 

Thank you all so much for your continued prayers. It really, truly means a lot to us!!

 

 

UPDATE #3 2/26:

 

She is still in the hospital. I came home on Sunday and switched places with my Mom so that we could try to get some schoolwork done here. Her diabetes is under control, as is her wound which is actually healing a lot nicer than we expected. However, her kidneys are now giving her a terrible time. So we are waiting that out, and hoping for the best. There's not a lot that the doctors can do for her kidneys, so it's basically a waiting game. She says that she feels fine, although she is still struggling with keeping any food down. At this point, it's mainly her kidney function and her personal spirit that are struggling the most.

 

 

If anyone would like to see her wound, here are some links to photos. The wound is not nearly as bad as how it had originally been described to me over the telephone. The black that you see there is a sponge, and the tube is a pump. You can definitely see the amount of healing that she's already had.

 

Warning, these photos may disturb some. Viewer discretion.

Taken the day after surgery - http://i56.tinypic.com/egbjoy.jpg

Taken yesterday - http://i51.tinypic.com/2rf8t9c.jpg

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MooCow

MooCow

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Posted

Thank you ladies. I'm just sitting here, in shock. I know that diabetics have issues with healing of wounds. Does anyone know specifically about back wounds?

 

 

 

I am not familiar w/back wounds. I've had foot/toe/hand/nose wounds, and they do take a really long

time to heal. I do know that the better she keeps her blood sugar under control, the better she will heal.

Keeping them clean is of course essential. I had toe surgery back in Oct. and it took several weeks

to heal.

 

I have found the fastest way to lower my glucose levels is eating a low-carb diet. Luckily for me,

that was exactly what my dr told me to go on.

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MiniBlondes

MiniBlondes

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Thank you ladies!. Truly, from the bottom of my heart, thank you.

 

I spoke with her on the phone about 30 minutes ago. She was surprisingly lucid and in good spirits, although I'm not sure how much of that was because of the anesthesia. I am driving down tomorrow and will spend the rest of the weekend there with her. We discussed that when she gets released from the hospital, she will come stay with me during the healing process since I will be able to help her on a more 24/7 basis than our mother, who works full time.

 

So we shall see. I'll keep you all updated. And thank you again, so so much.

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butterflymommy

butterflymommy

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My husband and kids are susceptible to boils and we have never been able to figure out why. They are all healthy except for eczema, and DS has some lupus symptoms. 2 kids have been hospitalized w/ boils and DH had surgery on a boil. Very nasty and scary. Does she know if it's MRSA? (ours were not)

 

If she is susceptible to boils she might want to consider doing bleach baths (you can google for instructions) and she should be fastidious about clean sheets, towels, bathroom fixtures. We use bleach and anti-bacterial soaps, it is the only thing that has kept boils at bay.

 

And I cannot sing the praises of DESITIN enough. It is zinc oxide, an anti-microbial. If she can catch a boil before it develops and put zinc oxide on it, it will stop developing 9 times out of 10. She can also put desitin on any problem areas if she is prone to boils on a particular spot on her body. It is smelly and thick but it's been miraculous for us. I even put it on one of the girl's surgical wounds when it was healing.

 

HTH and she will be in my prayers.

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