Several months ago, I think in the beginning of August, I stepped on an old nail. It didn't hurt, I didn't even notice it, but boy did it bleed for a little. It was one of those things that happen. We took down the walls to the second bedroom so we could have a massive living room and one of the nails must've still been about. These things happen, especially to me.
Long story short. It got infected.
Three days after Nail-gate I noticed my foot swelling and getting red. Knowing that it wasn't a good thing, I went to the doctor and said "Doctor, my foot is swelling and turning red. A few days ago I stepped on a nail and now this is happening." The doctor looked at my foot. Now when I say looked, I mean looked. As in she tilted her head so her eyes could see my foot and that it had 5 toes and was red and was swollen. She didn't touch the foot. She didn't look at the part of the foot that got all punctury and infected, she just glanced at the foot and identified that the part connected to my ankle was ,in fact, a foot.
She prescribed water pills. She also prescribed Flomax to keep my from going to the bathroom too often (another on going problem) and told me to come back in 2 weeks.
Two weeks go by. Foot is bigger. Foot is more red. Doctor office calls the day before my appointment to confirm, but then calls day of appointment to cancel and asks if I could call and schedule when the new month hits. (September).
A few days later my foot is warning light red and I'm in agony. Doctor says I can come the next day as a walk in.
I go in. Me and my red flashing foot. The infection and pain is so bad that I'm having coughing fits. My doctor isn't there, this is a dude doctor. He glances at my foot too. I tell him how much pain I'm in, how much it hurts He looks up my symptoms on Web MD and tells me I have con-genitive heart failure. He also prescribes me robotusin and orders chest x-rays because I guess the foot my be connected to a rib and the song was wrong the whole time.
Two days later I'm in the hospital. Hospital looks at my foot and says "Wow, that's really infected, you got cellulitus."
They admit me, put me on IV antibiotics and proceed to torture me by placing me in a bad that makes noise. I stay three days and leave on oral antibiotics. The foot gets a bit better.
After I am off the antibiotics. The infection is back. I go back to the doctor, get two more rounds of antibiotics, and am then sent to an infectious disease doctor. They give me a picc line. I have that in my for three weeks before it get accidentally pulled out. In the meantime I'm supposed to get a CT scan. First it takes over a month to get approved for the PICC line. Then they keep messing up the CT scan. First, they send me to a place that can't deal with my size (i'm a fat elephant) then they send me to a place that doesn't take my insurance, then they send me back to the first place that can't deal with my size. Then they schedule me at the hospital but no one ever bothered to tell me. Then my insurance ran out for the year.
In the new year, I switched to another insurance, one that didn't make the specialist go through my primary care doctor to get approval. It didn't kick in until february. Then it took 2 weeks to get an appointment with my doctor. Then it took a month to get an appointment with the specialist. So finally, I get to drive an hour out of my way to get an MRI to see what is going on with my foot. Doctor said it's something more than an infection because all the antibiotics would have killed that long ago. I think I'm destined to lose the foot. I think it's a quick 20 lb weight loss.
Comments
Foot & Ankle Specialist for severe puncture wound infection
Sounds like all of your doctors have been seeing an exotic zebra in the room instead of a plain horse. If you are in the Tampa, Florida area maybe one of these Foot & Ankle Specialists know how to look at and treat a severe puncture wound infection? I am in Minnesota and know nothing about these doctors but they did come up in a web search.
TAMPA, FL
Dr. Paul Beyer DPM
Dr. Alicia Kanhai DPM
Dr. Eric Roberts DPM
WESLEY CHAPEL, FL
Dr. Guillermo Donate DPM
Dr. Stephen Levin DPM
ST. PETERSBURG, FL
Dr. Bonnie Sanchez DPM
SARASOTA, FL
Dr. Craig Conti DPM
Dr. Candice Kepich DPM
OCOEE, FL
Dr. Myles Samotin MD
more...
US News and World Report thinks very highly of Tampa General Hospital. Have you thought about calling or going to the emergency room, starting off the conversation by telling them that you have a severely infected puncture wound in the foot which is swollen, red, and painful, and asking them what they recommend you do about it? Or was it Tampa General Hospital when you said you ended up at the hospital?
TGH
It was TGH that I was in. Nice place. I helped build one of the buildings in 2007 (kind of sort of)
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
Time for a visit to Baltimore
Sound like you need to visit Johns Hopkins
Could be an osteomyelitis
which means the infection has got into the bone. Bone doesn't have a good blood supply so it's difficult to get antibiotics to the infection. This should have been sorted at the beginning - if what you say is correct, your doctors have been either incompetent or negligent.
Despite its shortcomings, we Brits have much to be thankful for with the NHS.
Angharad
bone scan
I had a bone scan and do not have a bone infection. Unfortunately, due to my weight, I cannot find out what is wrong with my foot.
Katie Leone (Katie-Leone.com)
Writing is what you do when you put pen to paper, being an author is what you do when you bring words to life
First suggestion:
Find someone with a good foot so he/she can apply a heavy, weighted boot to your first doctor's tender bits. One question - how old are you? (don't answer, it's rhetorical)
'Cause at a certain point in one's life in a country without some level of mandated health care, you are declared a lost cause, fit only to die quickly and reduce the surplus population. I don't know exactly where this point is, but I do fear I am aproaching it myself, and far too quickly for my liking. I wish I remembered the names of the actual antibiotics I was put on, during my two major bouts with no-identifiable-source cellulitis, 'cause they did take the nasty bugs down and save my legs, but it was recommended and supplied by emergency room doctors on rotation while developing their post-university careers, and as such should be readily available to the minds of any competent medical professionals.
sorry, but it is a multi-factor thing
How old you are plus how poor you are plus how "out of shape" you are then they run you through the de-cashing machine and kick you to the deadwood pile