Quick update…
It’s been a while… So here’s the update as of now. My brother was taken back to the hospital on Saturday night around 11:30 pm. He was once again screaming in pain… At the ER they doctors drugged him up, and around 4 am they sent him home, this time with dilaudid pills that they were hoping would help. They seemed to work for a short period of time, about a day, then he was screaming again…
Monday morning rolls around and my mom is done. At this point he has been screaming in pain for a month, with little to no releaf. She took him in to Urgent care this time and they couldn’t get his pain back down, so they sent her, once again, to the ER. This time they must have called ahead because shortly after arriving, they admitted him. They ordered another MRI, multiple blood tests and an ecocardiogram. They still didn’t know what they were looking at. Finally the MRI was read and they said it lit up and was obviously discitis.
For those of you who don’t know, discitis is an infection of the disc between the vertebrae in the spine. His is so severe that it is also affecting the vertebrae on either side of the disc.
Anyway, we also heard a day or two later that they found bacteria in his blood. They weren’t sure what kind yet, but it was a step closer. They started giving him antibiotics as of yesterday morning. Yesterday afternoon, they heard back that it is S aureus, so they changed his meds to be more specific.
As of now they are testing his blood every two days until it is clear. Once his blood is clear, they will be implanting a PIC line in him and he will have a constant pump of antibiotics for around 6 weeks, possibly a little longer depending on how things go. Oh, a PIC line is basically a semi-perminant IV that he can come home with.
So why did it take so darn long for them to figure this out? Well, according to the doctors, it takes a little bit of time to be readable on an MRI. Also, discitis is very very uncommon. Not only is it uncommon, but from what I have read when researching what it is online, there are only around 60 reported cases in the US of people suffering from discitis over the age of 10. It is more common in children, but essentially unheard of in adults.
What’s going to happen? We have to do a major clean on the house since it has been pretty neglected the past month with all that has been going on before he can come home. He will remain in pain, at least for a little while, while the antibiotics start working, so he will still be on some major pain meds. After that, they can’t say he won’t have any back pain, but given he is only 18/19 years old, they think he will recover and be just fine. He should be able to go into the fire academy again nest spring since he will probably barely be off the meds by August and will not have had any physical therapy to rebuild the increadable amount of muscle mass he has lost through this.
Finally! A light at the end of the tunnel! Off to the hospital to see him.
Posted by
at
00:44:32
wow, i love that u write so much about ur life..it’s cool to read..im very happy 2 hear that they finally are taking care of wat is really wrong with ur brother and i wish him all the best and hope he recovers well.
keep ur head up and stay sane..haha..r ne of us really sane lol hopefully got a smile outta u..have a great day and memorial weekend 
That is just strange. It felt like reading about an episode of House. What do they think caused it in the first place? Glad that they made some progress on the diagnosis at least!! Hope he’s feeling better soon!!