Mitzigirl

So this begins the with the Dermatologist from Vanderbilt who still sees and checks on me to this day..

We went straight over to his clinic where he was waiting on me..I had been told he will see you but he might not treat..He is chief of Dermatology and may not have room to fit you in his schedule but is willing to look at it and give his opinion..I was so afraid he would look at it and say I dont know what this is like so many before him..By then I had been to Infectious Disease Doctors. The wound care doctors plus many other regular primary physicians who had not a clue not to mention the plastic surgeon from Baptist whos grafts just fell off.

I walked in he unbandaged the arm took a long hard look at it and said my oh my young lady you have one heck of a mess..His said this is a brown recluse bite but has gone on so long now it has turned into pyoderma gangrenosum..He said it means gangrene is eating your flesh away..He said you can develop this conditions with other problems which we may have to check for but from what records I have and what you say I dont doubt a recluse got you..He said so now our plan of action..It was then I knew he was going to treat me..He said I am going to call home health and have nurses come out and do wet to dry dressings everyday and see if we can clean these palaces out enough to get down to some healthy tissue..He said that is the clue to get to healthy tissue so it will start to grow and fill in..He said as long as it is black it will continue to get deeper..He said lets try this for 6 weeks and then I will be gathering all your records to see what all the other doctors have done..

I went home and we did this for six weeks and during that time a large hole grew in my hand that had a tunnel under it..I went to the ER here and they knew nothing to do..So we went back to Vanderbilt the next day hand was twice as big as it was..The dermatology took one look at it and he walked me over to the plastic surgeon who was in another clinic and he said it has to come out..So he cut it out right there in clinic all the way to the bone..The pain was bad but it was out..We packed and dressed for weeks and it did heal but others continued to grow..So at that time he decided that we would go to the surgeon and have them all removed to give them a chance to heal with healthy skin. He said no grafts just open packed from the inside out..That was the first of 8 surgerys that we did to close them..We had many things go wrong..I started keeping Tonisiltis all the time and my throat nearly closed...So hear I have to go to the Ear,Nose and Throat Doctor who decided to remove them because ever infection I got the holes got worse..That same day surgery turned into 10days in the hospital with lots of IV anitbioctics..Finally home with central line..First central line of many..Many picc lines..Many IV's..Many shots and yet still with holes..Finally I started having reactions to everything and chemicals,meds, and some foods..All the while the Dermatologist was telling workers comp. that more was going on that he ran all kinds of test and something was not right..He finally decided we would try something called photopheresis..It would take my blood out and oxygenate it and put it back in..He said more oxygen might prompt healing..We started and was doing two treatments a week..They took about 4 hrs and made me feel bad when done but some hole seemed to be getting smaller..Finally after several one day there I had chest pain and I had said the central line wasnt flushing right..It seemed to pump right..Dont remember much to CCU and I had a PET/VD..a clot to my lungs..After that and I recovered they decided that nothing was working and the Dermatologist had said they used to many antibiotics in the beginning and shot my immune system I had nothing left to fight with and one infection after another..At that time they told me to meet my case worker at Vanderbilt and they would converance call the Dermatologist and talk..He told them I had some sort of clotting disorder but Vanderbilt was not equipped to find out what it was and it he thought came from the bite changing things..I was already experiencing shortness of breath and bronchitis one time after another..Had done stress test said heart was a little enlarged..Was with pain clinic on all kinds of meds...was with Pdoc who said it wasnt in my head..and the Dermatologist who was willing to fight to get them to do more..

After much discussion and talking back and forth he suggested Mayo Clinic in Rochestr MN..So workers comp. said for the Dermatologist to set me up with someone there and they would get me there..He knew a dermatologist he trusted and had studied with so he said I will make the approprate calls..He got ahold of him while we sat there told him all I had gone through and was still going through all the sugeries and procedures some experimental..They even used artifical grafts that would not take..After much discussion He aggreaged to take me so the date was scheduled for me to be there and remain there for 5 day..I was so very upset over having to go but knew we werent making progress...So I came home and wait to get the information as to when we were to fly out..They allowed me to take my aunt with me so I did not have to make the trip alone...So off we got to what I thought would be the cure..The great world renown Mayo Clinic..