When is it OK to give up?

[Nettan]

Laura this is almost ridiculous that they don't care more..if you go to ER what should they say about it ?
Wish I could help you somehow...
big hug to you !!

NETTAN 

[Flame]

I too think you should go to the ER. That sounds like its infected to me. I hope that someone will help you soon. Keep us posted.

Laura (Flame)

[connie36]

I agree - a general practitioner isn't what you need - you need to get in to someone who knows how to deal with infections and pain management right away.

red, spidery looking marks around an incision is exactly what I was told to look for in an infection.   Not to mention, I find it unbelieveable that there is no particular reason your incision hasn't healed up yet!   

I know it's tiring, and not what you want to do, but this is important.   It's not just your knee either - it's your life.   You need to keep going to the ER or your surgeon's office until they do the correct testing for infection and get this solved.

[misshilde]

Hi Laura, I can't belive the GP wasn't concerned about your passing/blacking  out...did you tell him/her.......my dad has stage 2 diabeties and his leg wound, (from a plane crash) looked like you 're describing....they live in Norway and my mom used this leaf thing (groblad or plantago major)on  the wound....I used it on my daughter(3) when we visited last summer and it healed a bad heal infection......now I'm not saying go out and find some groblad, but I would have my blodsugar checked (Heather mentioned something about that)..and ask you doc about plantago major, some pain and wound clinics are looking into it's healing"power"...and take care..and big hugs to your little guy...you too...

Hilde

[madge young]

Laura, my knee looked just liked yours. I had surgery for a  severed patella tendon and it oozed and dripped x4 months. I stayed on IV antibiotics the entire time. 4 additional surgeries( 3 for debridement and 1 for hardward removal) with a 15" incision each time. The Dr finally found a deep sinus pocket filled with pus. 3 months later I developed osteomylitis in the knee. Another month of IV drugs and then a few months later had a blood stream infection that almost killed me. I can stress enough that an Infection Disease Specialist is who you need to see.  GP's are good but you need a specialtist. Please,please be wise and go. Madge

[Doc79316]

Hey,



This is how my knee looks this morning. I've seen better looking rotten meat to be honest. It started bleeding yesterday so after about 2 hours I managed to get a nurse to have a look at it. I was told it wasn't infected, there's no reason she could think of for it to still look like this, particularly 3 months after surgery and it definitely wasn't infected. The sides are too far apart to be restitched, which I'm pleased about after the hassle I had with the last lot of stitches.
SO, it looks like I'm stuck with it this way for eternity.

Laura x

[Nettan]

Laura...go to ER and stay there until they help you...I know it's not fun but they really got to help you..I don't think anyone here think this knee looks as it should so long postop.
If they haven't run any tests how could she say it isn't infected..it's easy take a sample and run tests on it.
I get so mad when they are not helping you.
BIG HUG TO YOU !!

NETTAN 

[Doc79316]

Hi Nettan,

To be honest I think it's a lost cause. I can't go to A&E. It's not an accident or emergency. My GP is off today as it's the bank holiday weekend for Easter so I'll havde to wait until Tuesday at the earliest to get to see anyone else now.

Laura x

[Nettan]

I don't agree Laura cause when you have a leg looking like this they can't say anything else then it's urgent. No way anyone should be send off from ER in my country if they came with a leg like yours.
Wish I could do anything for you.

HUGS NETTAN 

[Flame]

I too think you need to go to the ER. Something needs to be done for you. I know that you dont want to do it but it is never ok to give up. If you dont fight for you, who will? Something needs to be done for you right now.

Laura (Flame)

[misshilde]

Where in the world are you when they can say  that knee is ok.....find your gp's personal phone number and bug him/her till something is done....any wound that is open and starts bleeding that long after surgery can't be right....and if the nurse didn't think it was infected, what did she think was wrong with it...go back and make her do some tests.....stick to your "guns"...bank holiday or not.....good luck....this just ain't right....

Hilde

[UK Girl !]

OK Laura
at the risk of upsetting you, and I think everyone will agree - GET YOURSELF TO A & E NOW ! We can see from the picture that it is not right, so sit there until they do something - we cannot fix it for you by keep telling you to go to A & E.  You have to do it - I cant believe that your partner has not taken you there and insisted on action -

[Hop skip n jump]

Hey Laura

Please take everyones advice and get yourself down to A&E. I have to agree with Anja. You need to make them listen and get it sorted. You're armed with some really good info from the girls on here, tell them what you want done and don't leave until someone helps you. It's not fair that you are having to put up with all of this crap. They wouldn't treat an animal like this.

Sending you a hug

Hop x

[gavpage]

Laura,

Question?  What woud you advise someone to do if they were in your situation?

From a number of your posts throughout this site, I have seen you encourage others. Perhaps its time to follow the advice of your friends?

Quite often we find it hard to take our own advice (even when we know that it is right).

What have you to lose in going to A&E? I know that in Brum there are out of hour doctors surgeries (for example in Walsall there is Waldoc) as well as the Accident & Emergency departments at hospital.

What right does the Hospital have to say that yours is neither of these (accident or emergency)? To you it is an emergency (from what you have described I'd certainly go to the A&E - might as well wait there than anywhere else).

Please Laura, go.

Regards

Gavin (Local Birmingham resident)

[Heather M.]

Following on Gavin's theme....would you let the hospital dismiss your son if HIS leg looked like this?  Of course not.  You'd fight like a mother lion to get treatment for him.  It's very common for folks who are excellent parents to be very selfless, and perhaps not take care of themselves like they would their children.  They think it feels selfish or something, perhaps they don't have the time.  I don't know.  But the fact is that what affects you impacts your ability to care for your son.  And that means it impacts him.  So taking care of yourself is an investment in him.  How can you take care of him if you are hospitalized for massive infection?  This is a condition that is much easier to prevent than to treat. 

And having this unshakeable faith in the opinions of medical professionals--especially when they are going by 'eyeball tests' rather than scientific tests utlizing current technology--is dangerous.  You are quite literally betting your life that a nurse of questionable skill and experience could tell simply by LOOKING at your leg that you DIDN'T have an infection. 

Frankly, that's not a bet I'd be willing to make.  When someone brushes you off like that, ask to speak to their supervisor.  Be polite but firm.  Say you are not leaving until you see someone who is actually qualified to make medical diagnoses--and not until THEY do some TESTS that have the ability to tell what's going on inside your knee.

Honestly, as long as you accept this behavior on the part of an overtaxed and overworked medical system, you will continue to get crappy treatment.  It's something I've been thinking about a lot, because there has been a rash of infections here in the news recently.  The bug infecting people is Staph A, but it's a rare and aggressive strain that causes necrotizing fasciitis--flesh eating bacteria, in more gory terms.  And in Washington State alone, EIGHT people have DIED of necrotizing fasciitis in the last four months alone.  Eight people.  And without exception, every one of them saw a GP or ER doctor when they first started to feel really ill...and were pooh-poohed and sent home with anti-inflammatories and perhaps painkillers.  Each was dead within 72 hours.  Now, I'm not saying you have necrotizing fasciitis--far from it.  Obviously, you don't, or the disease would have run its course by now.  But the common denominator in these deaths, and this is something the health department investigators picked up on, is that each of these people KNEW something was really wrong with them.  But they failed to communicate this and/or allowed themselves to be brushed off at the over-worked county ER's they visited.  It's a truly frightening thing.  I think there is a valuable lesson to be learned about how we are responsible for our own health.  No one has as much of a stake in us being treated and cured as WE do.  In this day of cost cuts, overworked doctors, and overtaxed health care systems, we simply can't rely on doctors and nurses to be ALLOWED by the system to do their jobs.  We have to fight for whatever scraps the system lets the doctors give us.  And that means there is a whole mental shift required in the patient population...but the shift hasn't happened yet.  So you have people who depend on the OLD healthcare system of caring doctors and nurses who have the time and resources to sit down with patients.  That system just doesn't exist anymore--doctors and nurses can't afford to follow the old ways when they know they have to see literally dozens of patients each day.  So health care is rationed, and only the sickest get rapid treatment.  It's a completely backwards system, because it ignores preventive medicine entirely. 

Okay, enough time on the soapbox here.  Take care of yourself and little Oscar. 

Heather