RV Adventures

Jim asked me to put out a quick paragraph with his health status.

First, thank you to everyone that has reached out to us with prayers, offers of support, a willingness to join us here, offers to drive the RV home, etc. A huge thanks to Dr. Matt for being my personal life-line to explain what is going on and to help me figure out the questions to ask.

Jim’s surgery on Sunday went well. The procedure was a debridement and a revision. The knees were washed out, the synovial fluid and lining removed, and the polyethylene parts of the artificial knees replaced. The surgeon said that he has seen worse infections…I’m not sure if that is reassuring or not. The knees were cut open along the same incisions as the initial surgery, only longer. No laparoscopy surgery here.

The culture of the fluid from Jim’s knees finally grew some bacteria. It’s a systemic E. Coli. We have no idea if it was food borne or came from another source. It’s a totally mystery where he picked it up from. But now that we know what the cause of the infection is, they can target it with a specific antibiotic, ceftriaxone. He’ll be receiving it via IV for the next six weeks. A PICC line was installed on Tuesday.

I failed before to mention that Jim does not have a spleen due to a car accident when he was 13. That helps explain why his platelet count was so high when he was first admitted to the hospital.

Jim was discharged from the hospital yesterday and is now in a rehab facility in Las Cruces. He is weak and finding it difficult to move around on his own. We are hoping that a few weeks there along with some intense physical therapy, can get him stabilized and eventually get him home. I can now go to Janelle’s graduation this coming weekend and not worry about him.

The Elks Lodge here in Las Cruces has been wonderful. The lodge has 6 dedicated RV sites with full hookups. Typically you can stay only 10 days. The lodge secretary has told me we can stay as long as we want. Thank goodness.

So, that is where we stand. We are hoping the antibiotic does the trick and Jim won’t need further surgery on his knees. Only time will tell.