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Opioids Infection in my spine from IV drugs

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dayday

Bluelighter
Joined
Oct 18, 2010
Messages
78
I guess I always have to learn the hard way, I wasn't very good about using clean rigs every time. I always thought I was bulletproof and I would never get an infection. How wrong was I? About 6 weeks ago I ended up going to rehab, and this is when the back pain first started. They wouldn't let me see a doctor for cat scans and discouraged me from going to the hospital. All I could do was go to the chiropracter. He told me it was just muscle spasms due to withdrawals. I ended up leaving rehab after 21 days because it hurt so bad. It felt like my muscles were so tight I could barely move my back. I also had a real sharp pain in my spine. I ended up in the ER and being admitted. When I got here, I told them I had an IV drug habit, and that I had just got out of rehab. 5 minutes later they came back to ask me if I wanted morphine. Easy question. They did all kinds of ultrasounds, cat scans, and mri's before they found out it was an infection in my spine. They ended up doing a biopsy and found puss along my spine. Now I have a pick line in my arm, and because I told them I used iv drugs, they want to keep me here the whole 6 weeks for the ant biotics. I guess it's not too bad though, the other day I got6 doses of fentynal during that biopsy, and I get 2 lortabs, iv dilaudid, flexiril, and tramadol every 4 hours. I'm scared when I leave here though, I will go thru withdrawals again. Moral of the story is, if ur gonna use iv drugs, make sure u use fresh ones every time and use an alcohol swab on the poke site every time.
 
Damn that sucks man. I have been pretty fortunate and have never had an abscess or any kind of infection (obvious enough for me to be aware of at least). Thanks for helping people realize the consequences of not taking sterilizing precautions
 
did they tell you what the infection was? im asking because I went thru almost the exact same story as you just 2 weeks ago and I still have the PICC(yea its not "pick" line its "PICC" line..and it stands for so "Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter") line in my arm and am still giving myself IV antibiotics every 8 hrs. In fact I have the antibiotics hooked up right now.
Turns out I got an infection called "Pseudomonas" in a disc in my lower spine that caused the worst pain that I could ever possibly imagine feeling. Like, I literally would have killed somebody if it lowered my pain level....no joke, I wanted to die and they had me on "watch" in the hospital for a while, meaning they always had someone watching me in case I tried to kill myself. They stopped that when they finally realized how large my tolerance to opiates was and they gave me 200mcg's per hour of fentanyl and 8mg's of dilaudid every 4 hr's.
I went through the same shit as you with the lower doses of opiates until they were sick of hearing me scream and cry and they gave me the right amount of painkillers. But I also told them of my past drug use so that is another reason they were hesitant to give me strong painkillers.
I was in the hospital for 2 weeks and then they sent me home with a prescription for the 200mcg per hour fentanyl patches(actually two 100mcg patches) and 8mg dilaudid every 4 hr's, along with soma and a bunch of other drugs. They said it might take 12 weeks to heal. I dont mind 12 weeks of fentanyl and dilaudid. Hehe.
I also have an at home nurse that comes once a week to draw blood, etc, etc...

So yea, I went through the same shit you did I guess. I had the biopsy too just like you.

*This all happened 6 months after me getting clean, so if you think your safe and dont have any infections from IV drug use cuz you dont have any lumps or pain......think again. You never know*
 
That's too bad dayday, but thanks to you and jamesBrown for posting your stories here. Hopefully they will stop others from going through the same pain you have.
 
Dayday, look into the possibility of getting compensation/potentially suing the rehab. That shit coulda gotten extremely serious. Glad to hear the issue was resolved and the hospital is treating you seriously rather than labeling you as a drug seeker.
 
Mine is some kind of yeast, I won't know for sure what it is until Monday. They are trying to makenme stay for 6 to 8 weeks because I will have a pick line in because they think I would abuse it. I'm in the middle of arguing with them trying to get them to let me do my iv's from home. Im going to be kind of pissed if I end up missing Xmas.
 
Damn bro that sucks. :\

Try convincing them to let you go home at least few a couple days around Christmas. Sorry you're having to deal with this.
 
caseface99 said:
Dayday, look into the possibility of getting compensation/potentially suing the rehab. That shit coulda gotten extremely serious. Glad to hear the issue was resolved and the hospital is treating you seriously rather than labeling you as a drug seeker.
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Good idea, I might look into that. I was literally in the nurse's office damn near crying at all hours of the night, and I would get up at 4 in the a.m. Every day and go sit on the bean bags because that's the only place I could lay down that felt alright, and instead of being compassionate and trying to help me be comfortable, security would "write me up", which eventually I got too many write ups, so they tried to put me in a tiny room with a desk in it in fucking solitary confinement for 5 days. I had to wear an orange vest around all day, and eat dinner after everyone else is done. The 1st night they put me on it, I got in a fight with them because they moved my room 3times in one day due to my write ups, and also took away my visits, an acupuncture appointment, and a chiropractor appointment as a punishment. So I got in a fight with them and left.
 
dayday said:
Good idea, I might look into that. I was literally in the nurse's office damn near crying at all hours of the night, and I would get up at 4 in the a.m. Every day and go sit on the bean bags because that's the only place I could lay down that felt alright, and instead of being compassionate and trying to help me be comfortable, security would "write me up", which eventually I got too many write ups, so they tried to put me in a tiny room with a desk in it in fucking solitary confinement for 5 days. I had to wear an orange vest around all day, and eat dinner after everyone else is done. The 1st night they put me on it, I got in a fight with them because they moved my room 3times in one day due to my write ups, and also took away my visits, an acupuncture appointment, and a chiropractor appointment as a punishment. So I got in a fight with them and left.
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was it your decision to go to rehab because if I were you I would just leave that place behind and seek medical care else-where.
 
Wow... Yeah. Sue their incompetent asses. Refusing to give you medication because you could be faking it is one thing, but refusing to let you have tests done to find out what the issue is, i would call that malpractice/fraud/patient endangerment/irresponsible.

Fucking pricks. I'm sorry to hear this, same thing happened with jamebrown doctors wouldn't believe he had pain and didn't run tests, and the infection got so back he also needed the picc line. from what i understand if you had been treated sooner oral antibiotics could have done the trick?
 
caseface99 said:
Wow... Yeah. Sue their incompetent asses. Refusing to give you medication because you could be faking it is one thing, but refusing to let you have tests done to find out what the issue is, i would call that malpractice/fraud/patient endangerment/irresponsible.

Fucking pricks. I'm sorry to hear this, same thing happened with jamebrown doctors wouldn't believe he had pain and didn't run tests, and the infection got so back he also needed the picc line. from what i understand if you had been treated sooner oral antibiotics could have done the trick?
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yea i could VERY easily start a lawsuit....but my family has gone thru so much in the past couple months and we are just overwhelmed right now and dont really have the time, effort, etc, etc, to deal with a lawsuit right now. But, yes, it is true that if my doctors actually listened to me in the beginning when i was trying to get help instead of just classifying me as a junky and ignoring me basically, I could have gotten healed well before this infection got so HORRIBLY bad to where I had to get a PICC line and get IV anti -biotics for 12 weeks and get many many other medications along with seriously potent narcotics. But after you have been through what I have and felt the absolutely excruciating pain that I have, you dont really have a part of you left thats concerned with revenge etc....even though my hospital bills so far have exceeded $120,000(of course insurance will help with that). Its rediculous, $16,000 a night at these private hospitals. Bullshit. And I was treated like shit half the time too. I think I feel my revenge drive coming back.
****For the past week I have only been using my left hand. I lost the ability to type with my right hand. My wrist went limp along with 3 of my fingers. Its a nerve issue extending from my spinal problem. I really should sue those bastards.*****
 
At least sue them for the hospital bills, it will be a hell of a lot easier to get that than it would be to get money for 'punitive damages' or whatever. If you had any visitors while they treated you like shit have them testify, get ALL the records from ALLL of the doctors/hospitals who "treated" you before you actually finally got treated. Getting all the hospitals who refused to treat you to pay your medical costs should be easy, depending on your state it could be EVEN easier. In illinois any hospital, public or private is legally required to treat an individual seeking help, you can't turn them away for any reason, even if you are flat broke, a junkie, whatever.
 
Ksa said:
I think that infection was quite old and the drugs you were taking were hiding the pain so it eventually evolved into a puss.
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This makes absolutely no sense. Why would you think the infection was old?

And "evolved into a puss"? What does that even mean? Pus (not puss) is mostly made up of dead neutrophils from an immune response. This is indicative of an active infection, certainly not an old infection.
 
hospitals in the u.s. are only required to treat a patient until that patient is stable and can safely be transferred to another hospital. "county hospitals" exist in a few states but are the exception rather than the rule now. in general most hospitals in the u.s. are operated by for profit private companies.
i've worked as an RN for 25+ yrs and the healthcare system is far different in 2010 than it was in 1985. it's a whole different world now. anyone who thinks they have a legal case now must prove the doctors intentionally caused harm. not incompetently caused harm -intentionally- caused harm which is a whole different story.
personally from the point of view of a healthcare worker i think the u.s. healthcare system is totally fucked but if you plan on playing, you damn well should to be aware of the consequences and ready to deal w/ the fallout when it happens... cuz consequences will happen and in the present system there is no one there to catch you or soften your fall. it's just the way it is now, not necessarily "right" or "fair" but not much in life is fucking right or fair. take responsibility for your actions and the consequences of those actions.
yeah i'm in a bad fucking mood tonight and i don't usually slam on anyone cuz i've done plenty of dumb shit myself but time comes for everyone where you gotta take responsibility for your own fuck ups.
whatever... for what it's worth.
-izzy
 
that's not true about intentionally causing harm. large verdict med mal cases are almost always based on gross negligence/recklessness.

i'm not saying i think a lawsuit would be a good idea here or anything (or that it wouldn't). i'm just saying that you don't have to prove a doctor intentionally harmed you to bring a successful medical malpractice lawsuit in the united states.
 
^^ Exactly, but negligence in refusing to do tests simply because you don't believe the patient for whatever reason is certainly malpractice. If you do the tests then and nothing comes up then release them. But who in their right mind would pay 10s of thousands of dollars for an array of tests when they KNOW the tests will come up with nothing. That's just retarded. You could buy enough dope on the street to last a year with that kind of money.
 
burden of proof is not the same as degree of fault. some states may require recklessness, while others may only require simple negligence; i don't know about every state. also, some states may cap punitive damages in tort lawsuits, or require a higher degree of fault to be able to get punitives (e.g., at least recklessness). however, i really don't know that any state requires intentional harm to get any damages in a medical malpractice suit. i guess i could be wrong, so maybe i'll check and update w/ what i find.
 
stray cat said:
burden of proof is not the same as degree of fault. some states may require recklessness, while others may only require simple negligence; i don't know about every state. also, some states may cap punitive damages in tort lawsuits, or require a higher degree of fault to be able to get punitives (e.g., at least recklessness). however, i really don't know that any state requires intentional harm to get any damages in a medical malpractice suit. i guess i could be wrong, so maybe i'll check and update w/ what i find.
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yea, I find it EXTREMELY hard to believe that all states in the U.S.(or any state for that matter) require absolute proof of intentional harm to the patient in order for that patient to recieve ANY compensation whatsoever. If thats true, then I am going to get out of this country as fast as I can, as soon as I can.
That means that any doctor can mess up as much as possible, potentially causing horrible damages to the patient(death being a possiblity)...without ANY reprimand whatsoever.....no consequences at all. Thats beyond rediculous and I refuse to believe that any legislation has been passed, allowing this to be the way our American healthcare system is run.
 
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