Somebody Screwed up!

The next morning the doc showed up started to tell me what bug I might have as the blood culture results where coming in.

Viridans group streptococci
• The viridans group of streptococci are a diverse group of organisms
• They are respiratory, gastrointestinal and oral cavity commensals
• Infection usually occurs in immunocompromised hosts
• Principal virulence trait is to adhere to cardiac valves and cause endocarditis
• Account for 30 - 40% of cases of endocarditis
• Most occur in patients with valvular heart disease
• Other risk factors include:
o Prosthetic heart valves
o Intravenous drug abuse
• Most are viridans streptococcal species are sensitive to penicillin

Sorry for the cut n paste but the description is accurate. The doctor got a phone call as he was talking to me and came back to me and said that I had strepaureus and penicillin will kill it okay. No need to have expensive drug therapy. Hell the 4 week supply of penicillin cost almost $1000.00 but because I got a generic version the insurance covered 100% of the cost.
Doc said 4 -6 weeks of antibiotic treatment and I should be okay. I had been on the penicillin for about 16 hours now (getting it every 4 hours) and I suddenly realized that I had not had a fever in the last 6 or 7 hours. Also I was starting to feel much better.
Okay back to the mistake. Someone made the great call and had put a center line in. (Picture in previous post) for me to go home and get out of this place I would need to have a Hickman catheter implanted. The center line was not acceptable to the home nurse who would come to the house everyday and change out the penicillin, clean and dress the wound and basically make sure I was okay.
This was Thursday morning, plan was to change the line and get me out Friday or Saturday. We all know how plans can get screwed up!

posted by lostinthetriangle @ 8:08 AM Comments: 2