What the Dickens?

Week 2 back home has been interesting one.  This is going to be a pretty long post because there is a lot to cover, so hang with me.

Last Friday was Kylie's surgery date.  On the morning of, we got a call from the doc's office saying that they were ahead of schedule (as if the snow wasn't enough of a clue, I knew for certain I was not in Togo when I heard the words "ahead of schedule"!).  They were waiting for US!  Imagine, docs waiting for patients??

We left right away for the hospital and when we got there, we registered and then were zoomed through the paper work, taking Kylie's vitals and getting ready for surgery. 

Here we are in the little surgical waiting room:

And here we are gowned and ready to rock and roll about 3 minutes later.  These guys waste no time.

Before we went off to the OR, two of our pastors and my mom and my sister came in with us to pray.  Above photo is our little group who stood to pray for Kylie.  So awesome.

The hospital has a program where parents can go right into the OR until the child is "out" so I walked with Kylie right into the OR.  The surgeon was a little concerned that since I was in all her procedures in Togo that I might want to stay for the whole thing.  I assured her that I was NOT interested in watching them operate on my child!!  Kylie was so brave.

Here we are, ready to roll!

 Another clue that told me that I was no longer in Africa was when they asked me to refrain from taking photos in the OR.  So, no nasty pics of them opening her foot up.  But I quickly snapped one in recovery when the nurse wasn't looking.  Here's our sleepy head.  Surgery - done and done!

 

While Kylie was getting operated on, we had a little group in the waiting room.  Here's Nate's mom and my mom and below is my sis and Nate's sis.  It was a family affair.  Thanks to Nate's dad, our 2 pastors, and Bill for hanging out with us while we waited.

 

 

The surgeon came out to talk with me after she was finished and said that everything went well.  They were able to get out some of the nastiness in Kylie's heel bone and were hoping to culture some of the bacteria so they could find out what we were dealing with.  We thought we'd be able to go home that night but the plan changed -- don't they so often do that on us?  We were moved to the children's ward so that Kylie could get IV antibiotics until we could see the infectious disease doctor.  

She slept well Friday night (I stayed with her in the hospital) and on Saturday morning, they removed the dressings.  Beware - nasty pic below - but not nearly so nasty as some of the others I've posted.

You can see the surgeon's initials on her foot here.  Just so they get the right one!

Her wound looked good and they had her up and walking with a little walker and an air cast by Saturday afternoon.  She was doing great! Walking around, watching some TV in her bed, eating hospital food that she deemed 'delicious'!

We found out that Kylie needed to see the Infectious Disease doc (herein known as ID Dr.) but that we couldn't/wouldn't see her til Monday.  So our hospital stay was dragging out.  The surgeon wanted the ID Dr. to see her so they could make decisions about what kind of meds, how long etc.  Most of the docs who came in the meantime thought we were looking at 3-6 weeks of meds and then we'd be back to Africa.

Monday afternoon, ID Dr. enters our lives.  And blows us away.

Disclaimer:  This next part is the very dumbed-down version of what I understand this brilliant woman said.  And believe me she said A LOT.   She even began her explanation going as far back as World War 2, so there was a lot of info coming into my rather non-medical brain.

ID Dr. went through all Kylie's medical history from December to now with us and then asked what we thought might happen.  I told her the 6 week scenario.  Her next words were, "Okay, then what I'm gonna say next is gonna blow your mind."

Lovely.

She explained that the original infection in Kylie's ankle was indeed a staph infection.  It was the nasty kind that tries to kill you.  It was treated and we thought we were totally on the path to recovery. We knew back in January that this particular kind of infection is what they call MRSA (I can't recall the true interpretation of this acronym but here's what it means to me:  Medically Resistant to Scads of Antibiotics).  Meaning that the only med that will fix it is the big guns. Vancomycin.

If you recall our Tsiko days, we used Vanco until we cleaned out the whole country.  Then we moved to a different med.  The ID Dr. told us that they cultured what came out of Kylie's foot last Friday and turns out it is a completely different strain of staph.  In fact it's two different strains that are entirely new to Kylie.  So somewhere along the lines of our last few months, a new kind of staph found it's way into her foot.  

This NEW staph is entirely different.  It doesn't want to kill you but it does not want to be killed.  It will look as though you've beaten it and then it will rear it's ugly head and you're back in the ring, fighting it again.

The answer then?  Kill it.  With (at least) one year of IV antibiotics.  And yes, vanco is the one. 

Basically after that, ID Dr. and I discussed the three very solid reasons why we can't do this in Africa:

1.  We might very well run out of Vanco again.

2.  When you're taking Vanco, you have to have continual blood work done in a specialized test so that you can make sure you have enough in your system to kill the bug, but not too much to fry your kidneys.

3. Vanco in a regular IV will kill your veins, so Kylie needs a pic line put in - which is an internal IV that runs from a little port on the outside of her arm, inside her veins to the big vein that leads to her heart.

And we have to do this for at least one year.  Possibly more.

This was overwhelming to say the least.

The last few things that ID Dr and I talked about were how fortunate we are that Kylie is alive, how this could have gone so very wrong and how fortunate we are that her foot is saved.  But we all know that those are miracles from the hand of God, so really, He gets the credit for all that.  (As do the docs, nurses and technicians in Tsiko that we know and LOVE who saved our daughter.)

I think we are just so naive.  So spared from the tragedy that could have been.  So covered in prayer and love and grace that this kind of news just sorta bounced off us as unbelievable.  

Our time in Togo is done?  It hasn't even sunk in.  It's disappointing.  It's heart-breaking.  It's so NOT what we had hoped for, dreamed about or imagined.

But it's our reality.  And in it all, we totally need your prayers.  There are a lot of things to figure out right now.  Decisions, discussions, changes-in-plans, and Nate and I are far, far, far apart.  

As of right now, Kylie and I are still hanging out in the hospital.  She's sorta bottom of the list of importance for a pic line because she isn't in a state of emergency.  It could be days til she gets that in.  Please pray that it's done soon so we can get home, organize home-care for her meds and begin to figure this out.

And know that we are pressed, but not crushed.  Knocked down but not destroyed. 

He is still good.