Ironies

[unixronin]

As those of you who have been keeping up know, I just spent a week in hospital for bilateral knee replacement.

Most of you probably don't know that eight and a half years ago, I picked up an enterococcus infection in my left foot after surgery.  It turned out to be quite annoying.  It wasn't a multi-resistant superbug, but it was gram-negative and laughed at intravenous clindamycin, so they ended up exercising the nuclear option — a PIC line and two weeks of vancomycin.

Somewhere in the intervening eight-plus months, it appears a medical records transcription error has caused that "enterococcus treated with vancomycin" to mutate into "was infected with vancomycin-resistant staphylococcus aureus".  Or maybe MRSA rather than VRSA; there seemed to be some confusion on the point.

Anyway, both hospitals involved took swaps and did lab checks, and in the end the results came back, no resistant staph present.  But in the meantime, they had me marked for contact precautions, and no medical staff were permitted to enter my room unless gowned and gloved, to try to make sure no-one picked up æ resistant infection from me.  (Most of the folks in the ward with me were 20 years older than me and possibly getting shaky on the immune front.)  All turned out to be completely moot in the end, of course, when the labs came back negative.

So what's the irony?

Well, after all the precautions the hospitals went to in order to make sure nobody caught anything from me ... I came down with oral thrush for the first time in my life.

Bah.  And humbug.

Comments

[plutosonium.livejournal.com]

FWIW, I believe you don't so much catch oral thrush as it takes over. The organisms live in our bodies full time. They often multiply out of control when the acid balance or the body's natural immunity changes for some reason. Hormonal change, stress, and chronic disease will do it. But antibiotics are the most likely cause.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, technically speaking. Formally it's candidiasis — candida albicans — and basically, yeah, it just gets out of balance and runs amuck.

Anyway, treatment proceedeth apace. Could have been a lot worse.

[motomuffin.livejournal.com]

Yogurt yogurt yogurt!

Happy to see you've made it through ok.

:-)

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

Yup, live-active yogurt, plus I have a Nystatin oral suspension for rinse-and-swallow. The two together have pretty much eliminated it, but it was pretty unpleasant for a while — my mouth and throat felt like they'd been sandpapered (about 80 grit) and were so sore I couldn't eat.

[cymrullewes.livejournal.com]

I had assumed that the hospital would have a yogurt option on their menus and he would pick it because he was on antibiotics. No such luck. And then he was in Concord which was too far for me to schlep with children to give him yogurt.

STUPID hospitals.

The FIRST thing we do when someone gets an antibiotic script is go buy yogurt with active/live cultures.

[hrrunka]

Ugh! Hope it doesn't last long...

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

It's on the run.

That thrush is NOT a pretty bird.

[dakiwiboid.livejournal.com]

My sympathies on all of the vile fungi and bacilli. Healing, strength and protection to you, and speed to your recovery.