It has been almost a year since my surgeries and the fear of future infections has not subsided. Of course I didn’t help myself out in the least this morning, as I got pulled into a documentary on FrontlinePBS about Hunting Nightmare Bacteria. My nightmare began as a bartholin abcess from a marsupialization that did not take. While on vacation, or on the way back from Nashville, I contracted some sort of bacteria that made it’s home in the cyst. In the beginning they believed that it was some form of Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA. They quickly learned that it was an unknown (at least to them) strain of Necrotizing fasciitis, that was quickly eating away at my flesh from the inside out and that it was resistant to the incredible amounts of high-dosed antibiotics that they were giving me. They still don’t know exactly what exact strain my body was harboring, ending up having to cut out the dying flesh and do skin grafts, taking skin from the front of my left thigh. All in all I had four surgeries in eight days, spent over two weeks in the hospital at the University of Michigan, spent three weeks total in a bed not being able to walk and am still healing.
Finished packing after 3rd surgery.
Skin graft from left front thigh…
We must educate ourselves on these super-bugs, as they are getting stronger and stronger. I am one of the lucky ones, they were able to catch mine and save my life. What scares me most is that there are strains out there becoming unstoppable, soon our antibiotics will work no longer…
If you would like to watch my recovery journey, I would love for you to visit me on my youtube channel here!
drenredfox 