Awakened this morning in our bed at home after more than six weeks away in the hospital or a therapy facility. Drove home in a pickup truck provided by a friend.
My left leg remains bandaged from a severe wound suffered over the Memorial Day weekend back in May, a massive wound that gouged out a large chunk of skin and muscle where six strains of bacteria infected skin, bone and blood. A large abscess under the wound grew and festered.
Nearly two months later, the wound was not healing and our doctor told me to go back to the New River Valley Carilion Medical Center emergency room because of more swelling in the leg. I figured they would treat it again and send me home, so I rode Amy’s CanAm motorcycle over to the Montgomery County facility for what I figured would be an examination and a new dressing before ridding home.
Wrong. A vascular scan showed the abscess and the doctors said I could lose the leg or go into fatal septic shock without immediate action, so I was in the operating room that night. A surgeon cut open the leg and drained the abscess. I woke up in recovery with tubes in my leg attached pumping medical vacuum. A second operation and blood cultures found more problems and I told I was told I could need to stay on the vacuum for weeks or months.
On Aug. 1, I was transferred to Radford Health and Rehab Cenbter for at least a month of therapy and constant monitoring. The vaccum pumped 24/7.
On Monday, the social services department told us iI would be released this coming weekend. The pump showed no new or existing bacteria in the abscess was gone, but the wound still needs time to heal, even after more than three months, and I will continue rehab on it from home. It will still take time to completely heal and I will be watched to make sure new infections don’t hit any parts of the body.
I also stil lunder threat of heart problems from the rare bacteria that infected my blood. A heart monitor used in the rehab center came back clear but additional monitoring may be necessary and I’m ordered to take it easy and mot overdo things until further notice.
I’ve faced death oftem ih a life that includes a helicopter crash nearly 60 years ago, a motorcycle crash in 2010 and too many trips into combat zones as a photojournalist. Yet, this close call shook me. Maybe it is because I’m 76 and too many friends younger have died.
Doctors say I heal fast for my age, but the past six weeks in the hospital and rehab felt like a very long time.
It will still take more time for the wound to heal and doctors and nurses will still have go make sure that the infections don’t come back.
My thanks to those who kept track of the progress and, especially fellow motorcyclist Nick Piazza who visited often and retrieved Amy’s CanAm from the hospital parking lot and brought it back to our garage. Other thanks to Bill Kavorick and Bob Stepno, who provided help and support during the ordeal and Leon Moore, who checked in often to make sure we were doing all right.
And always, my eternal thanks for wife Amy, who has spent far too much time tending to me in hospitals over the past 50 years or so, taking on doctors who thnnk they are God, and saying “no” when needed.