Infection in Left Knuckles Infected & on another round of antibiotics Still with me, along with more issues, now the city and my road a mess they have made!

SO! I STILL HAVE AN INFECTED "HAND" joints, whatever! I have been through hell this past 10 days or more. Between this hand, worrying about having to postpone the pacemaker AGAIN! (no way they will do a pacemaker when I have an infection still going), then the city had FRIGED UP MY ROAD! I found out THEY SCREWED UP, HAVE HAD US HALF WAY BLOCKED IN AND WE NEVER KNOW IF WE WILL BE ABLE TO GET IN AND OUT OF OUR DRIVEWAYS -

they did this AND NEVER WARNED ANY OF US! I talked to neighbors yesterday and found out they did NOT get the materials in they needed so now they are "stalling". They keep putting truck loads of gravel type almost a sandy rock mess and if it were not bad enough, rolling that down, and then if it is not wet from rain they come along and wet it. So, either it is WET AND MUDDY! OR it's dry and the dust flies everywhere!!! No one "SEES" that they are driving and kicking up mud, dust, rocks everywhere driving over it. I blame the city for that also, they should have SIGNS UP WARNING THESE IDIOTS NOT TO DRIVE FAST OVER IT.

Then they have "built up" the road so high (my property already has water that runs on it if it rains very much, because they have the other side of the road high enough, so all of the water runs to my side and into our ditches and under my carport, and my back yard looks like a landslide has happened. I know they can't help the rain BUT they dug out "some ditches" but like mine is full of water it needs to be dug out and the culvert is so old, it's bent down and won't allow water to run thru so now it's standing in water, causing mosquito's (but they gripe at us) for letting water stand if we have anything ti can stand in....

and now they are running I guess mice into my laundry room... and (suddenly I had the bars out just disappear 3 times now since this began) and then something (which could be a possum etc or a stray cat we have and so forth) run under my house and die! For the 3rd time in 2 weeks I woke up now to my laundry room with a stench worse than anything else you can imagine! I have every hole blocked, but they can weasel their way under anything if they are desperate! I am in the process of trying to type an email (I can barely type my left hand hurts so bad).. to the guy over this mess of a road they have made, and give him a piece of my mind... who is going to fix this mess, details our cars covered in dust and grime? Who is going to get that water out of those ditches... I hate to sound prejudice but I "live on the wrong side of town"... if I had a 500,000 dollar home, I bet it would be concreted, with a walkway, and they would have the water properly running out and away from the homes.... I am just so fed up. I pay MY TAXES ON TIME! Believe me if I didn't they would FINE ME 10 or 20%!!!! I should tell the city each day this is a mess they owe us on this road back a portion of the taxes we pay! Anyway, so keep me in your prayers... I NEED this hand well, so I can get this pacemaker in and go about my life... why is it that it is ALWAYS SOMETHING WITH ME?????"

I have to wonder if the pain in my hips that I still have after the injections, is not also something to do with this infection. both hips especially the right one still hurt. I was at the market on Monday, and when I was trying to finish up and get checked out, my right hip and side started to hurt. It scared the hell out of me. I came home with a LOAD of groceries, since they had my road so messed up I could NOT get out of my driveway all week last week! So, my groceries were in about 7 bags (the reusable ones) plus 4 gallons of water. I did not think I would ever make it in with it all, and get it put up.... but I managed.

I worry my RA and Lupus could be getting worse, or something else is going on, and they have not found it yet. My labs they did a couple of weeks ago when they found the infection, were really all messed up. My white blood cell count was at 15. But, there were other labs that were also really "off" that usually were not that bad, so I have to wonder.

As Usual NOTHING is simple when it comes to MYSELF and MANY others with COMPLICATED AUTOIMMUNE ILLNESSES!

                            DO COMPLICATIONS EVER END????

Once again, my autoimmune illnesses play a difficult part when it comes to my health, my life, and after something like a major surgery.

Many of you know I had taken a hard fall on my hardwood floor on December 13th - which led to 2 fractures n my right hip. I had staples in it, due to two incisions, but I had a rod and screws put in and did not have a complete hip replacement, which we hoped meant I would be home sooner. SO MUCH for that thought! I should know better by now to :"assume" anything I have done will be "simple".

The surgery, the rod and screws, which I got to see on an X-ray yesterday January 6th, are healing well. I had a complication with my foot, thinking it was fractured, but I found out I have a torn ligament, which probably began when I twisted my ankle back in June so severely, then the fall, in which also involved my foot being "hung up" and caused the fall, then probably tore that ligament the rest of the way, thus now my right foot is in terrible pain, when I am standing or trying to rehab the hip. I've had to learn to work past the pain in my foot, thus the rehab portion on my hip is going very well.

Even my orthopedic surgeon said yesterday, that in spite of my complicated health problems, I am doing extremely well, and past schedule in a good way, compared to what he thought I might be. He was telling his nurse, that due to my attitude and willingness to work with therapy, I am doing very well. Yet, between the anemia, the liver enzymes being high, and now this "hematoma" that developed on top of the main incision after the hip was repaired, I face another surgery this coming Tuesday.

He has to go in and drain the "grape jelly" as he called it, the blood that has accumulated like a huge blood blister under the skin, and put a drain in it, so we can get rid of the huge "mass" right on my thigh, that makes me look "deformed". He said in his report, it is big as a softball. WOW! I knew it was large but "softball size"? So, rather than GOING HOME EARLY NEXT WEEK, I face yet another SURGERY! So, that delays me getting on home and back to my life, as I wanted to.

It certainly takes the idea of my neck surgery that I need so badly, completely out of the picture, and makes me want to "run" if I could somewhere that not a soul could touch me, and just be totally alone, perhaps with my puppy, Peanut, and the new puppy that awaits me once I get home.

Here are a couple of pics of my new little boy

who awaits me: He is apart of what keeps me on focus to hurry up get well and GO HOME!!!! along of course with Peanut also a Fox terrier....

Chest Xrays, Cellulitis, RA, Swollen Joints, Fingers, Hands, Unable to take my RA meds, Lawns, Neighbors, and Dealing with all of the daily stuff of Life

Well once again we face another Friday! This week has been anything BUT GOOD... in about 4 billion ways, I thought I may just lose my mind, or the tiny bit of it I thought I had left.... FINALLY and who knows for sure but Urgent Care called yesterday afternoon and after over 2 WEEKS of back and forth from them to the Rheumy, I think they have the correct Order for the Chest Xray!!!! Sometimes miracles "can happen"... although lately NOT for me! I believe I mentioned I DID FINALLY FIND a Surgeon who is thankfully just over in Waxahachie to probably remove this lump on my left thigh. But, what I have NOT told the doctors at all, is that I have this other one that formed several weeks back on my right thigh, in just about the same spot. But, since I am seeing the surgeon a week From today, I felt I would bring it up then. BUT< once again I ran into another issue... now that lump that never really was "red" or what they call "agitated" on the outside, or really was never sore, now in the past few days, had become more red on the outside of the skin and it is extremely sore... and so it the one on my right thigh... not really red but very sore to the touch. Since I still have a week before i see the surgeon I called my PCP this morning and told them to let him know, and that I felt I needed another round of antibiotics until I can get in to see the surgeon. I fear now that the infection could be growing outward, and that is the very last thing I need right now... so I am waiting on a call back to see what they say. I hope he does not want me to come in... there is really nothing more to do, but get back on the antibiotics, and wait to see the surgeon,... and then I have to run over across town and get that chest Xray I hope done today. PLUS I DO have to take Mom's care to be inspected today, since they have made the changes in how we register and inspect our vehicles in TX, as of March 2015.So, we can't get the registration sticker until I get it inspected.... but not a big ordeal, I just have to go get her car, and take it to be inspected... I DID get the "bug granules" finally yesterday and I broadcasted them from front, back and sides all over my lawn. I HOPE that curbs the fire ants, which I have already put stuff on all of the mounds, but this other stuff also gets rid of other ants, fleas and so forth, which I can tell what I put out in the Spring has stopped working... thus I needed to do it again... ONE GOOD NOTE FINALLY... OR I HOPE SO... MY ECHOCARDIOGRAM CAME BACK THAT MY HEART FUNCTION IS "BETTER" A BIT, THAN WHEN I HAD ONE DONE IN 2011!!!!! NOW THAT DID MAKE ME HAPPY! But, as I told Mom, I "hope" the heck it is "mine" and is accurate!!! Knowing my luck, hell it could be read wrong or someone else's - anything is possible with me and my stuff.... nothing is usually ever that easy..... but if so, that means I should be good to go for the lumbar surgery dammit if I ever get RID of this damned whatever is going on with the lumps on both thighs... there is no way, no how they will do surgery on me until I am all clear of that, along with now I will NOT be able to get back on the Orencia or the Xeljanz UNTIL I am all CLEAR of infection!!! WHICH MY RA IS so MUCH worse! Both of my hands, wrists and fingers, I can barely use... I have hell from opening a jar, a lid, or anything, along with I can't carry stuff as well... my hands are just so swollen, even this morning worse than ever... my ankles, my shoulders, neck everything to do with my "joints" seem to be so much worse that ever... and I am extremely concerned... not only am I so stiff and swollen, the pain is bad again in my hands, fingers and wrists... PLUS I GUESS since my neighbor had chosen to all of a sudden ignore my existence... O am going to have to fix my lawn mower (the rope broke that pulls it to crank) fix that, and mow the lawn myself... I am sick and tired of seeing it like this, and I will be damned if I ask him... he has a "bee" in his bonnet over something, I have NO CLUE what the problem is... but my yard looks like hell and I intend on getting it mowed dammit... well I have to get dressed and get going... or I will never get all of this crap done... more later, and happy Friday to All!

Lupus Patients in the Hospital and Infections on the Rise....

I certainly find this very frightening... Since I have "cellulitis" which I am still not so sure may land me in the hospital on IV antibiotics, plus I need to get my back surgery... even thinking about having Lupus, RA, Sjogren's and other autoimmune "compromised" issues... this is something we should ALL take into consideration. Now I feel we ALL need to be very proactive when we must be in the hospital, clinics, have surgery and so forth... we know that the "antibiotic resistant" bacteria's are out there and prevalent. Never would I have thought I would get cellulitis... yet I went in due to this "lump" on my top thigh... just in time before I did have to be admitted and given IV antibiotics... and even now, I've been on the two different ones now for 5 days... and this lump may have went down a tiny bit, but it is still there... so infections as even with my own personal experience as nothing to put off, and even more difficult to try and avoid...


http://www.medpagetoday.com/Rheumatology/Lupus/52814