It Happened That Night

Hey guys! So once again, I am writing this while inpatient at Children's Hospital Boston. I am currently here due to another cellulitis infection which initially began Wednesday evening. It was around 9pm that I awoke to a tremendous headache, scorching pain in the left buttock of my KTS area, a fever and a slew of other worrisome symptoms. As many of you who deal with these infections know, the onset of one is hardly pleasant. Since my pain was not yet out of control, I talked to my mom and dad and we decided to check in about how I was doing in about half an hour or so. I think we all knew that it was only a matter of minutes before I would be on my way to the ER, though. Still, I fought to remain optimistic in my mind while all of this was going on. I tried to convince myself that the pain may not get worse, and that I could perhaps hang on until tomorrow when my primary doctors were in and I would not have to go through the whole ER ordeal. However, the pain got substantially worse over the next half hour or so and suddenly it felt as though various steak knives were being jammed into my left buttock – it's a pain so intense, so deep, that I shudder when merely thinking about it. At that point, the hurting was unbearable and my mom and I were out the door to the ER in no time.

Emotionally, this was a rather hard experience as well because I had been taking Keflex twice daily at 2000 mg (a preventive dose Infectious Diseases put me on after the severity of my last infection). Once again, my body was breaking through yet another medicine and it was not only disheartening, but scary , too.

Perhaps this is the real kicker, though: For the past three weeks leading up to that infection, I had not been able to walk on my left leg due to severe pain that started at my frontal thigh area and stretched down past my knee cap. Throughout this time period I was in contact with Dr. Trenor and Dr. Fishman, but Dr. Alomari was out of town and I knew he would be a key component in getting to the root cause of what was causing me not to walk. So, just earlier that day (Wednesday), I had been at Children's and had a somewhat lengthy doctor's appointment with Dr. Alomari (who had just returned from his time abroad that day) in regards to this new and very problematic area. He ultrasounded my leg, and within minutes was able to diagnose me with “acute thrombophlebitis.” To treat it, I would have surgery on Monday, February 24^th in interventional radiology with Dr. Alomari. I came home from the appointment incredibly fatigued, so off to sleep I went. Little did I know my body had a bit of a surprise in store for me just a couple of hours later...

So, as I rode to the ER the night of the infection, I was not only dealing with the sensation of stake knives going into my butt but the pain from the widespread thrombophlebitis as well. Between not being able to walk nor sit, making it downstairs to my car proved to be quite an obstacle in itself.

Anyway, I am now here being treated with three IV antibiotics and go for surgery tomorrow with Dr. Alomari. The teams are doing a fantastic job of providing me with great pain relief, and everyone is so incredibly friendly! While the redness in my buttock has certainly gone down, it is still rather uncomfortable which tells me this infection will not be a quick one to treat.

I will update more soon! If you have any questions, please feel free to leave a comment below and I will be glad to answer it.

Below are recently taken pictures of the area with Thrombophlebitis.

I got to spend some time with my younger sister tonight too which was so incredibly awesome! I love her to pieces. Here is a picture of us from a mere few hours ago.

I will be in touch very shortly! Wishing you all well. - A