Posted on 03/15/2003 5:59:45 PM PST by sneakypete
Some of you may have read a while back on the prayer thread for Yellow Rose of Texas that I was also sick,and had been in the hospital for a operation. There were only a few FR posters who knew what had been going on,and I asked them to keep quiet about it until I had healed.
I am now healed (mostly),and after thinking about it for a while,I have come to the conclusion that I need to post about what happened so others may be warned in time to save themselves. I fully expect some of the posters here on FR to use parts of what I write as ammunition to attack me on some threads,but there is nothing I can do to prevent this. If they do,the shame is on them,not on me.
Ok,boys and girls,here it is. I had a flesh eating bacteria infection. Like most of you probably think,I also thought this is a bogus "National Enquirer disease". It's not. It's as real as a heart attack,and deadlier. According to the docs I've seen,fully half of the people who get this die within hours. It is VERY rare,and even the surgeon who operated on me told me it had been over 3 years since he had seen a case. I am going to try to explain the whole process I went through so that others can learn from my mistakes,as well as learn from the right things I did accidentially. DO NOT blow this off as BS! Read and remember,and if you or a loved one starts showing these sympthoms,go to the hospital NOW. Do NOT wait until tomorrow!
Ok,here goes. At first I thought I was coming down with the flu. Had a fever,and just felt "out of sorts" like you do when the flu is just starting to hit. I did my best to ignore this because I had the plumber coming by to finish the plumbing in my new workshop,but when he ended his work for the day and told me he would be back on Monday to finish up,I told him to not bother because I was going to be at the VA Hospital then to get my flu treated. This was late on the Saturday afternoon right before New Years.
I went into the house to lay down and rest,and hope I would be better on Sunday. I wasn't. I was worse,and I had developed a new problem. My scrotum had filled up with fluid,and was swelling. It didn't hurt,but it was swelling and getting numb as the blood flow was restricted,so I made up my mind I would go to my local English-speaking doctor the next morning,instead of the non-English speaking docs at the VA hospital. By the time Monday morning arrived,my scrotum was swelled to probably twice it's normal size,and it was becoming a problem to walk or even sit. My local doc said I had some kind of infection,and gave me some anti-biotics and told me that if it wasn't better by Thursday (Tuesday was New Years Eve)to come back and he would send me to see a urologist. I got back home a little after noon,and by dark on Monday the swelling had increased to a unbelievable size. My fever also seemed to be getting worse. I decided then that I would go to the VA hospital 70 miles away first thing in the morning,but that I needed a better diagnosis before I had to deal with the happy Hindu's up there.
Many of you already know this,but for the benefit of those who don't,I used to be a career Special Forces NCO. I am still in contact with a lot of the SF guys I knew in the 60's through a private restricted newsgroup,as well as many SF guys that I didn't know. I decided the thing I needed to do was contact a few SF medics and get their diagnosis. Many of these guys spent their entire careers being deployed to places where they were the only doctor within hundreds of miles,and they have seen stuff most doctors in the US never see. They are so good I trust them more than any GP I have ever met. Anyhow,I posted a short note to the web site describing my swelling and my fever,and within a couple of hours had 5 replies from SF medics. ALL said the same thing,"Do NOT screw around with this crap or you will die. Do NOT wait until tomorrow to go to he VA hospital,get your ass to a emergency room NOW!". These guys aren't prone to panic,so when they tell you something like this,it's a good idea to do what they say. The amazing thing is that with the fever I was running I had enough sense to listen and obey. I did foolishly wait a couple of hours until I thought my fever had gone down,and then drove myself (I live alone) to the closest hospital. It is about 25 miles away,and the VA hosptial is 65 miles away.Because of my fever I wasn't clever enough to call a ambulance,or I could have gotten there a couple of hours sooner.
Did I cut it too close? Well,my scrotum burst from the pressure,and I walked into the emergency room dripping brown and black pus. It had soaked all the way through my pants. I was told later that it had swollen to the size of a bowling ball by the time they operated. Even though I thought my fever had gone down and I was thinking a lot clearer than I had been thinking,my fever was 102.9 when I got to the emergency room. The surgeon later told me that if I had waited one more hour I would have probably died,and there wouldn't have been anything he could have done to prevent it.
I got REALLY lucky with the receptionist there,as she figured out something was seriously wrong,and put me at the head of the line. In fact,she even had me come right in and sit down so she could have a nurse take my temp and blood pressure. Remember,this was at midnight on New Years Eve,and there were a lot of people there that night. Maybe it was th smell from the pus? I dunno,but I know she jumped right on my case and started calling people.
I got less lucky with the bozos working there as nurse's aids. The surgeon later told me that when the hospital called him he asked if my infection was draining,and they told him "no". He said that if he had known my scrotum had burst that he would have come in right away to operate,instead of waiting until 6 AM or so. Evidentially when it bursts it's a sign that it's fully developed and spreading,and they need to start cutting right away.
The surgeon comes in at around 6AM,and checks my records and comes to talk to me.He can smell the infection from the pus leaking from me,and right away he knows he has to operate. I have never smelled anything so foul. He goes off to do whatever it is he has to do to prepare,and when he comes back,he has the "permission to operate" paper for me to sign. I have no relatives,so he tells me that he needs to know right NOW how radical I am willing to let him get with the surgery,because if it's as bad as he thinks it is,he may need to cut off my testicles and my penis to save me,"and even then I'm not optomistic about your survival." He said that chances are I would wake up without the radical surgery,but that I would not leave the hospital alive,and that I needed to think about making arrangements. I told him to do whatever he had to do,and he left with the promise that he would "do the best I can do to save you without radical surgery.".
The good news is that I woke up with all my original equipment,even if some of it had been cut on. The surgeon cut me from myanus to the top on one side,and from side to side at the bottom. He had to do this to cut away the virus and get to the healthy tissue. He also cut two drain holes so fluids could continue to leak out. To give you a idea about the seriousness of this,they kept me in the hospital as a patient for 11 days after the surgery. When they released me,it was under the condition that I have home care nurses come by every day to change my dressings and check for new infections. This went on for another 3 weeks.
Am I fully recovered now? The answer is "No". I am mostly recovered,but still have some fluid that I am getting rid of my taking diarethics. It's working,but not as fast as I wish it worked. The surgery itself is totally healed.
I have been back to both my local doc and to the surgeon several times since I was released from the hospital,and the surgeon still shakes his head and smiles as he says,"You really don't know how lucky you are to be alive.One more hour and you would have been dead." every time he sees me.
The moral to this story is that men seem to get this disease in their scrotums,and most men have the "I'll wait a couple of days,and if it doesn't go down I'll go see the doc then." attitude. This attitude will kill you with this disease. I am VERY lucky I had the contacts with the SF medics that I do,or I would have died,too. My local doctor missed the diagnosis after seeing me,and these guys knew what it was from my description. Most people aren't blessed with contacts like these,and that is why I am writing all about this personal matter. My experiences may save your life,or the life of someone you know. If your scrotum starts to fill with fluid or swell,go to the emergency room or your local doctor NOW! If it's a false alarm,good for you! All it has cost you is a doctor's visit and maybe a lost half-day of work. If it isn't a false alarm and you don't go,it will cost you your life.
BTW,women get this disease too,but they obviously don't have a scrotum for it to infect. The infection is internal when it's in the scrotum,and external with women.The thing is that women will go to see a doctor if they suspect something is wrong,and men try to tought it out and not go. This is why more men than women die from this disease. From what I have learned,it usually shows up on women as a external rash on their legs or arms that itches. My surgeon told me the last case they saw of it at this hospital was a 16 year old girl,and they had to amputate her leg to save her.
LOL! Thanks for the genuine belly laugh!
No doubt about it,those guys are the best. If the day ever comes when I can't count on SF guys,that's the day I will be ready to check out.
No doubt about it,those guys are the best. If the day ever comes when I can't count on SF guys,that's the day I will be ready to check out.
Guys and gals,it was Jeff's comments above that reminded me that I didn't post a sympthom that was a possible link to the skin-eating bacteria.I am a Agent Orange vet,so I have a lot of trouble with infected lymph glands and boils anyway,so I don't know if or how this will apply to others,but here goes.
I sometimes get a boil right at the base of my scrotum. I understand this same thing is what kept Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich out of the draft,but I never got any until after I was already out of the army. I have had this boil cut out twice at the VA hospital,and the doc there told me both times to expect it to come back. I have also had it start to come back several times,and I would soak in the bathtub in almost scalding hot water 3 or 4 times a day for a couple of days,and it would burst and go away. I already had the fever going when this boil started coming back,so I soaked in the tub again off and on all that day. This time something happened that had never happened before. It burst,but it burst on the inside instead of the outside where it could drain the pus and infection away. I think that it is POSSIBLE this boil bursting and dumping this infection internally MAY have been a "trigger" that set the skin-eating bacteria off. I told the docs about this,and neither of the two that I have seen had any comment. If you are prone to getting these things,a word of caution is advised. Go ahead and treat it like you normally do,but if it bursts and starts to go away without draining on the outside,go see a doctor immediately to get anti-biotics to be on the safe side. If your scrotum starts to swell after seeing your local doc,do NOT screw around any more. Go to the nearest emergency room and notify them that you MAY have the skin eating bacteria,and you need to see a surgeon right away.
I may be wrong. There may be no connection at all. I'm not a doctor,and don't even play one on tv. None the less,it costs almost nothing to be on the safe side and get it checked,and everything if you ignore it and are wrong.
That phenomenon has been becoming more the obvious!
I assumed a mod threw you in the cooler for a time.
Seriously, man - scary s**t. Glad you're doing OK.
WFTR
Bill
Be well, Pete..thanks for warning us all.
sw
FReegards...MUD
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