Are you kidding me!?! So, just a reminder, Steve was released from the hospital as a new amputee on Thursday, 10/27. He was doing so good!
On Sun, 10/30 we were over at Steve’s brothers house for dinner and he ended up having excruciating pain. Muscle cramps and shooting nerve pain. He tried hard not to freakout, but I was concerned about the possibility of an infection so we took him back to the emergency room - this one marking the 4th time.
He was admitted to the hospital, being treated for an infection and pain management. Although we weren't clear if he truly had an infection or not. The ultrasound and CT scans didn’t show anything. They took blood cultures and it will take 72 hours to “grow” in order to make a solid decision.
Sadly, nothing is stopping his pain – they even gave him a shot of Morphine, which did nothing. His leg has been bent for several hours now and that’s not good. They said that in order for proper healing his leg should be kept straight and in his brace at all times (minus showering and PT of course).
Steve had been doing this, but when he was in so much pain he took off the brace to massage it and then couldn’t get the brace back on. After the Morphine didn’t work in calming him down they have him a bolus of Dilaudid. When that did nothing that gave him a 10 minute PCA of Dilaudid (that's a push button, where he could self administer the drug every 10 min). Guess what? It did nothing. The Morphine and Dilaudid are, of course, on top of the 30mg of Oxycodone that he’s on every 4 hours.
I’m super concerned because they can’t figure out why he’s in so much pain and can’t figure out how to get it under control. Plus, how many drugs can the human body take and what is this going to do to him in the long run?
Here's my actual text to update people:
Date: Tue, Oct 31, 2016 at 7:31 AM Steve was admitted back at Anchutz University last night. He was having a lot of pain – muscle cramps & shooting nerve pain. ER was treating him for an infection, but his vascular team isn’t concerned. His CT scan & Ultrasound came back normal. He has some swelling & redness in his remaining limb, but said that’s normal – they’re still giving him antibiotics & focusing on trying to get him back out of the hospital (NOT tonight). We’re not understanding what’s going on. Please pray for healing, no pain, answers & peace of mind.