First trip after life changing medical issue

[Yooper Rocketman]

 Well, I haven’t posted a recent life changing medical issue I encountered 6 weeks ago.  I got a simple, routine, small cut on my pinky finger on Tuesday, January 22th.  An antibacterial soap cleaning and bandaid was all that was required and I went 54 hours with no pain or swelling, seemed a pretty benign situation.  Then swelling and pain started, and within 3 hours of first symptom I had every finger and thumb swelling and in extreme pain.  I even had pain in the palm, wrist, and shooting up to my elbow.  Holy crap..... I went straight to my local hospital emergency department.  Something was seriously wrong!!!

After 8 hours of a pain level of 10, with nothing knocking out or even reducing the pain, I was sent to emergency surgery with an infection radiated from the finger, through my tendons, to my carpal tunnel area on Friday morning.  An 8” cut to my wrist and complete open of the pinky (5-6 stitches) and 3.5 days of IV pain killers and antibiotics got me discharged by noon the following Monday.

Transitioned to oral antibiotics and pain killers, it only took about 8 hours at home to realize this was going south again.  Back to the emergency department, thankfully the same crew, with the doctor putting me under since he knew nothing from his pain killer arsenal was going to give me relief.  Back into emergency surgery again early Tuesday morning, with a stitch count now exceeding 25 as the infected areas were expanded, my surgeon thought she had the infection cleaned sufficiently now.  They installed a PICC line for a 21 day antibiotic regimen and I started a 10 week therapy program.  It was determined to be Strep, which a pilot doctor later told me LIVES on our skin, as the strain of infection.  I was also told had I delayed treatment at all, it would have spread to my bone, resulting in amputation of my left hand.   HOLY CRAP!!!!

So, although recovery has been excruciatingly slow, with no ability to squeeze fingers into a fist, yesterday and today were milestone moments. I have barely enough squeezing function to hold the side stick on my Lancair, but decided to fly with my flight instructor yesterday with an ace wrap holding my hand to the stick in case a gust came up that could jog the stick out of my hand.  It went really well.  Today I performed a medical flight and it went very well.  Nice to be back in the air!   Now just hoping I will not need further surgery to get finger function back!!!

And......... 20 knot headwinds aren’t so bad in this plane.   

Tom

[Shadrach]

Glad you’re on the mend Tom. I once had a catastrophic injury that spiraled out of control while on a flying vacation. A left knee injury precipitated what’s called compartment syndrome. I went from running on the beach at night to 18 days in the hospital with 14” incisions open on each side of my leg from my ankle to my knee. I have an idea what you’re going through. You will get back to normal.  Even if your hand is never quite the same, it will be close enough. Scars are built in conversation pieces!

Edited March 13, 2019 by Shadrach

[LANCECASPER]

Wow glad to hear things are improving. That sounds scary.

I had something very minor in comparison. Back in 2014 I got an infection from a scrape on my arm (I think from changing out a landing light on a Mooney Encore). The infection got into my arm and I understand on a small scale the type of pain you are talking about. From that point on any break in my skin and I put on a prescription anti-bacterial ointment immediately.

Glad you're back in the air!

 

[Yooper Rocketman]

8 minutes ago, Shadrach said:

Glad you’re on the mend Tom. I once had a catastrophic injury that spiraled out of control while on a flying vacation. A left knee injury precipitated what’s called compartment syndrome. I went from running on the beach at night to 18 days in the hospital with 14” incisions open on each side of my leg from my ankle to my knee. I have an idea what you’re going through. You will get back to normal.  Even if your hand is never quite the same, it will be close enough. Scars are built in conversation pieces!

It IS AMAZING how we take so many things for granted until we encounter something that really wakes us up.  I was running 20-30 miles a week, doing 2 hour daily work outs, lost 20 pounds, getting in shape as a 63 year old competitive soccer referee, and had this crazy medical issue surface.  Makes you appreciate life itself!

Tom

 

[Marauder]

Tom - wow! Really sorry to read about this. I used to laugh when I thought about the times my mother would drag out the bottle of Lysol to “clean” out a wound on me. She was a nurse in the war zone of Europe during WWII. And would always say if you didn’t take steps to thoroughly clean a wound, you were asking for trouble.

It’s amazing to read that such a small wound would result in what you had to deal with. Mommas are always right...

Speedy recovery!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[apenney]

Glad you're on the recovery side of this.  Were you at Dickinson hospital?  I do some work in Iron River a couple days a month and Dickinson is the next closest hospital.

[Yooper Rocketman]

Yes, Dickinson County Hospital System.  

[steingar]

Oh my goodness that was you!  This is indeed life altering, and could easily be life ending.  Sorry, I have to give you a short biology lesson.

Whenever we give an antibiotic to a culture of bacteria (like the ones running around in Tom's body) what we're doing is applying selection.  99.99% of bacteria will die, but the remainder (0.01%, which is still a LOT of bacteria) are resistant and can return to making infection.  Expect this to return, and keep a sharp eye out for it.  Sepsis can onset quickly and is very dangerous.

Edited March 13, 2019 by steingar

[1964-M20E]

WOW glad to see you are recovering.  I hope it continues to get better.

[Shadrach]

On 3/13/2019 at 12:07 AM, Yooper Rocketman said:

It IS AMAZING how we take so many things for granted until we encounter something that really wakes us up.  I was running 20-30 miles a week, doing 2 hour daily work outs, lost 20 pounds, getting in shape as a 63 year old competitive soccer referee, and had this crazy medical issue surface.  Makes you appreciate life itself!

Tom

 

Your health and fitness will likely contribute a great deal to your recovery.  I was also in good shape when I was injured but not in quite such a wholesome place. My best friend and I were staying down at the beach with a gaggle of 20 something coeds. I was sprinting up the beach around 1:30 AM when I stepped in a hole and effaced both cruciate ligaments in my left knee. I had spent the previous hour body surfing in the dark, but was taken out by a hole likely left by a rug rat earlier that day.  It goes without saying there was a fair amount of tequila involved in the whole affair. It took 18 months to fully recover. I’m at about 97% of preaccident functionality. The only remnants of that night are the racing stripes down my leg and the fact that I have somebody else’s Achilles’ heel standing in for my cruciate ligaments. 

 We are fortunate that medicine has progressed to where it is. If this had happened to me 50 years ago there’s a good chance I’d be an amputee. The odds favored that even as it was given the trauma my leg endured.

Devote yourself to your PT regimen and meeting or exceeding every metric they’ve set. That’s how I got through it. Given your fitness level, you should have no problems. Be well my friend!

Edited September 13, 2019 by Shadrach

[Danb]

Holy crap Tom, totally unreal, mend well you'll be back soon...wow!!

[DXB]

Wow that sucks!!   Sounds like it was treated with appropriate aggressiveness -  good news is you didn't lose your arm, or worse if it was necrotizing fasciitis. 

Glad you're on the mend and good luck with PT - hope you get all your function back quickly!

[carusoam]

Great pirep, Tom!

Do you get mandatory time off from the exercise?  Or does the exercise’s improved circulation, add benefit to the healing process?

Stay strong! 

Best regards,

-a-

 

[steingar]

Mrs. Steingar is now recovering from a pretty major bout with the flu.  Not the 24-hour variety virus that most folks get, but honest-to-Odin influenza A.  One thing I have to keep reminding her is that depression and negativity reduce immune function and prolong disease.  She's been pretty miserable, and its been along climb back to health that isn't done yet.

I would say the same to anyone.  The number one thing to do is keep your spirits up.

And Tom I'm glad you're on the mend enough to fly that gorgeous airplane you built.  You will never understand the level of my admiration to anyone who can pull off a trick like that.

[mike_elliott]

Glad you are mending, Tom. 

[EricJ]

Is that the sort of thing that's classified as MRSA?    Bad stuff if so.

 

[steingar]

15 minutes ago, EricJ said:

Is that the sort of thing that's classified as MRSA?    Bad stuff if so.

 

MRSA stands for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.  It is a particular pathogen that is unfortunately commonly found in hospitals.  It is devilishly difficult to treat, as it resists most antibiotics.  It is possibly our valiant OP was infected with such, though I suspect it was some other pathogen.  Were it MRSA it wouldn't have been knocked out so easily.

Not long ago Mrs. Steingar had an infection that went from asymptomatic to delirious with fever in a few hours.  She spent a week in hospital.  I believe it was just antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli.  These things can go downhill quickly indeed.

Edited March 13, 2019 by steingar

[kris_adams]

glad you are back in the air...fingers crossed for no more surgeries!

[ilovecornfields]

27 minutes ago, steingar said:

MRSA stands for Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus.  It is a particular pathogen that is unfortunately commonly found in hospitals.  It is devilishly difficult to treat, as it resists most antibiotics.  It is possibly our valiant OP was infected with such, though I suspect it was some other pathogen.  Were it MRSA it wouldn't have been knocked out so easily.

Not long ago Mrs. Steingar had an infection that went from asymptomatic to delirious with fever in a few hours.  She spent a week in hospital.  I believe it was just antibiotic resistant Escherichia coli.  These things can go downhill quickly indeed.

Glad @Yooper Rocketman is recovering well. I believe his post said this was a strep infection. MRSA is a staph infection therefore different bacteria altogether. Most MRSA infections are community acquired now, not hospital acquired.

What he described sounds more like flexor tenosynovitis which is a purulent infection that travels along the flexor tendon sheath and can be quite damaging. Sounds like he was lucky that they found it quickly and intervened aggressively. Usually not caused by a simple prick to the skin, but something that punctures  the flexor tendon sheath. 

I agree with physical therapy being your best friend now. It’s a combination of working hard and taking it easy that will help your recovery. Keep at it!

[jaylw314]

Everyone makes such a big deal out of MRSA, but in the end it's still just Staph aureus which lives in everyone's nose and skin.  You're not going to have a problem with MRSA unless you were going to have a problem with run of the mill staph, and that generally doesn't happen.  We get pissed off about MRSA because people keep bringing the damn thing into hospitals, where there ARE people who are vulnerable.

[tigers2007]

Tom I just read this thread for the first time; not sure why I never saw it. This is an INCREDIBLE experience. Considering all of the cuts we get all the time, this scares the crap out of me. I'm going to start washing my hands and forearms more often. Let me know if you need a hand with anything   

[Guest]

WowTom!

That’s really nasty, glad your on the mend now.

Clarence

[Mooney in Oz]

I'm really sorry Tom you went through such a painful and stressful ordeal, but glad you have beaten this horrible thing and recovering well.

I remember in my much younger days a friend of my mother's died from an infection from what started out as a simple cut to one of her feet while gardening.  We humans are really fragile and it is difficult to believe anyone of us can come so close to losing a limb or our life through such a simple mishap or not even a mishap when we not so infrequently hear of a person dying from meningococcal disease after contracting the bacteria from air-conditioning units in large shopping centres resulting in meningitis or blood poisoning ending in either loss of a limb or life after only a matter of days for just being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

From this side of the pond stay healthy and keep on flying that beautiful Lancair. 

[alextstone]

Wow!  Thank you for sharing this.  It reminds me to be more careful and to treat those annoying little cuts and scrapes more seriously.  

[Bob_Belville]

Tom, thanks for sharing here. Life is sometimes pretty fragile and something like this reminds us that we live in medically marvelous times. Praying your recovery continues without further set backs and we'll see you at AirVenture.