Second Hospital, Fourth Week

After the hour drive to Dayton Children's Hospital, I was situated into a small room in the emergency section of the hospital. Three nurses checked me over, and they were astounded at my current condition. They had found that I had bed sores on my back, and that I had an extreme yeast infection that covered from my lower back, down to the back of my knees. It also covered from below my lower stomach down to my inner thieghs. Not only did this shock them, but also, the fact that they put in a port into my chest. The nurses and doctors at Dayton Children immediatly removed the port from my chest, since it was very dangerous to have for a girl of the age 18. They would later do a new surgery to put a port into my arm, also going through a vein into my heart. For now though, they were working on getting me a room, and contacting their Infectious Disease doctor. As I waited they gave me some apple juice to keep me hydrated, and hooked me up to IV's. Another shocker to the nurses, was that I was so mal-nurished, that I should have already been dead. The other hospital didn't force me to eat, or attempt a feeding tube. Within a half hour, I was moved to a room. Everyone in the new hospital was amazing so far, they asked me how I felt constantly, and always took my temperature, and were on top of the situation. Finally, after the first fifteen minutes of the nursing staff and emergency room doctors looking over my files from Upper Valley Medical Center with the infectious disease doctor, they had finally found out what was wrong with me. I was diagnosed with Lemierre's Syndrome, a very rare disease. The incidence rate is currently 0.8 cases per million in the general population, leading it to be termed the "forgotten disease". Only three drugs combined together are known to kill the disease off, and stop it from killing... Penicillin bening one. I just so happen to be allergic to that drug, lucky me. However, they used a similar drug to Penicillin, hoping that I wouldn't have an allergic reaction. I got a small rash, but they said I would have to suffer through the rash because it was my last option to save my life. I agree'd. During the time in the new hospital, they did another surgery within the next couple of days. They put a new port into my arm, like I had mentioned above, and they also put another draining tube into my second lung. Also, put me on a feeding tube to bring up my nutrition. They gave me protien through IV during my stay there, as well as many vitamins. At one point, the feeding tube decided to come out on it's own, I had choked on it, and they had to pull it out. After that, they let me try to eat normal. I was drinking Ensure protein shakes 8 daily. And I also had to eat three meals a day. It was very hard, especially after being so used to not eating at all. But I did it! After I was starting to recover and able to respond more, they began to reduce my pain medications. They let me do breathing treatments on my own, one of the things I haven't mentioned yet that I had to do daily while in both hospitals. By the fourth day, they had me doing excercises to build muscle so I could learn to walk again. The Lemierre's Syndrome had me so weak I had to realearn to walk and pretty much move any muscle. I started off with baby steps. I became easily frustrated, and often ready to just give up. I remember wanted to go back to heaven and leave all of this behind, because maybe it was better than suffering. But I fought my way through it, regardless. Then, by the 6th day in the new hospital, I walked all the way to the nurses station and back to my room. Of course this was with a walker, I was still too weak to do it alone. I was so excited. My doctors released me on the 8th day there, finally! But I'd be recovering at home with a home nurse. Also, I was put on blood thinners for six months to desolve the blood clot in my neck. It's part of Lemierre's, if you don't know much about it, look it up on Google Search, there aren't too many sites about it, but there are enough to fill you in on the details of the disease. As for learning to walk normally again, it took about three more months after I got out of the hospital.