Life after Alpha Strep/Strep Viridans

[Gretchen]

Hi - I am a 39 year old healthy female who spent a week in the hospital 2 years ago due to an alpha strep/strep viridans infection. Diagnosis took several days before hospital admittance and during it because of my age and good health. Sepsis had set in and I had to have a shoulder operated on to remove the infection that was in it. After the hospital stay I had an IV port in my arm for 6 weeks to continue intraveneous antibiotics.

As soon as I could I started exercising again regularly but I find that I am very lethargic and have an energy level that is nothing like it was before the strep infection. I am a very positive upbeat person with a great job and very happy life. I exercise regularly and do what I can to minimize stress in my life. I just don't feel as healthy and energetic as I did before that illness. Has anyone had a similar experience or know that this is a common aftereffect? I have spent a lot of time trying to research this on the internet but can't find anything.

Thank you for any thoughts, comments, etc. you may have.

[pichuu123]

Hi,

I also had a bout with a strep viridian last Dec. went into hospital before Christmas and was discharged 3 wks later, post surgery.
My illness is called Osteomyelitis which is an infectious disease with a strep viridian, I was very much in pain and need to have my collar bone removed a rib removed and my sternum was scrapped due to the strep invading the bones, also had a large abcess in my chest due to the infection was placed on antibiotics during the time while test were done to find exactly what was wrong and was on 10 days when discharged.

At this time I;m still in quite a bit of pain and recently was put on Neurontin which is used for nerve pain,but normaly it is used for epiletics seizures.

Cannot use Vicadin or percacet or any of that stuff as it makes me feel sick...
my options are limited is what my doctor says.


Good luck

[hollyb]

Pichuu123- I know Im busting in on your post BUT I was wondering how it"s going with your OSTEOMYELITIS or bone infection. I'm on the long road and would love any advice.
Take care- Hollyb

[pichuu123]

hollyb,

Thank- you for asking,I notice that theres not too much on the health boards about osteomyelitis ? My doc says it's rare,but....
So far this year 2007, I had an MRI and all good news for me right now, however I know it can change like the weather here in Maine.

I will see a new bone doc the end of this month and will also see a new pain management doc as well, things move very slow when it comes to appt.s with these kind of doc.s , they are VERY BUSY and takes for ever to get an appt. So glad my appt is coming up soon!

I do still have on going pain all the time never a day with-out it, yet, I'm so hoping that'll be old news soon.

Did you have Osteomyelitis? If so what type;staph or strep? My type was a strep viridian which is rare,I've read alot about MRSA or the staph but not much at all about the strep?

Let me know,
Thanks Pichuu

[hollyb]

Pichuu-
Sorry to hear about your pain. It is awful. I know.
I wish there was more on the www. about osteomyelitis or bone cavitation ( it's other name ).
It's good that your MRI is clear....BUT - my story will possibly complicate the idea of trusting imaging. I have had ostemyelitis since 1989. After years of constant pain and every imaging I could squeeze out of my insurance ( x-rays, bone scan, MRI, ct scan and many gallons of blood removed for testing ). Still- they sent me to mental health---I was told to let this imaginary bone pain "idea" go. But being the +
person who had to lay in bed every night and cry my self to sleep with heating pads placed on my sore little bones...I never could come to terms with the idea that it was just some mental illness manifesting .
Lucky for me. In 2005 I walked in to a dentist office of a dentist I hadn't ever seen and asked him to check out my jaw ( he didn't know i was "crazy", so it seemed like a good idea). He did a small dental x-ray...the ones they slide between your check, then came back with a very concerned look on his face. "So, see that little dark gray shaded area? There is some thing in your jaw bone where one of you wisdom teeth has been removed." YIKES!!!!!!!!!!!!
Seems like a done deal right..........my insurance should now be kissing my **** and get me treated a.sap????? Not quite- even after two bone cultures out of two different spots in my jaw came back from the lab positive for chronic osteomyelitis. By the way I live in N. California and have KAISER ( they stink). Last summer my darling husband had a melt down and canceled our insurance ( for a noble, but dumb reason). I am now sort of screwed. We aren't financially in a good place at all and so I am just sitting and waiting. Bone pain and all.
I am not sure if my ostomyelitis is staph or strep......I just know that the labs came back "chronic osteomyelitis and that it has spreed over the years to other injured bones (left ankle, left foot, left shoulder and sternum. ).
I am trying to find a teaching bone clinic that will let me be there guinea pig. That seems like the only way I will get the correct treatment.


How long have you have osteomyelitis? Where did you finally get diagnosed at..a bone clinic or regular MD.? Is there any muscle weakness or tendon pain with your osteomyelitis? Do regular NSAIDS work for your pain control? What is the origin of your osteo? When do you believe you injured the original bone?

Thank you so much for re-posting.
hollyb

[pichuu123]

How my infection was found is I was in extreme pain with pain traveling up my left arm and into the neck area a constant pain that wouldn't let up so after three days of it I went to my p.m. doc who thought I had a torn muscle in my left arm...so was put on steroids for two days along with a muscle relaxer, nothing seemed to help so my p.m. doc admitted me to his hospital to rule out other stuff by doing a few x-rays and some blood work and again nothing showed up and the pain was so bad the doc gave me a morphine drip and a butten to push when I needed it, which was alot! After three days he transferred me to a larger hospital where again a ton of procedures were done and after all the scans ,x-rays an MRI picked up a huge abcess was deep into the left side of my chest and it also showed that the left collar bone was infected as well as the sternum and a rib , I still have some of my sternum as it was scrapped but the doc did remove all the other bones that was infected. Not sure how/where the infection came from only that my infectious doc said to look into my teeth since the lab work stated it was a strep viridian and thats from the mouth, I have gone to the dentist and so far nothing has shed any light on this.
I've had osteomyelitis since Dec.22, 2005 and it was a fast acting infection which in dr.s words is ;acute, however since I'm still in major pain and cannot use my left arm to sweep the floor or many basic chores it is now called chronic pain, I've noticed that the right collar bone wil start aching for no reason and if I use my right all day then it is very hard to do anything since it's the right arm that I use 24/7, yes there is very much tenderness near the scar site to touch it sends needles through the chest area and directly on and slightly around the surgery site it is still numb in that area the doc says it may or may not come back to feeling. No I can't take NSAIDS as they all make me very ill, the only thing that works for me is morphine and methadone at least it did when this infection first started, At the moment I'm not on anything and yes, I'm in pain, will be seeing a bone doc this wk. and a new pain management doc next wk. also wanted to mention is my incision (scar) has" Keloided" it has become very raised and very redish/pinkish and has gotten bigger all on it's own, one pain doc told me to see my surgen and have him take care of the Keloid, however the surgen says to see a plastic surgon for that kind of fixing , the only reason I can see to do anything about the Keloid is bacause of the pain and I'll ask my new bone doc on Friday about how to go about getting it done.

Keep me posted on the events of your illness.

Thank-you for posting

Pichuu

[Dontrust Docs]

To all with chronic pain / infections. Another reason for antibiotic resistance, and for the infections themselves, could be that they are secondary infections, to a systemic fungal infection. Read up on Candida, and other fungal types, and see if you may also have some of the other symptoms. I do, and there are very many seemingly unrelated symptoms that you, and possibly your family members could have.

[jimmyvq]

I had osteomyelitis too, but it was from staph. I had a staph infection a year ago, did the picc line antibiotics for 8 weeks and it seemed to go away. Almost a year later, I had similar pain to what you had and a fever--went into the ER and they did bloodwork. They admitted me that night and the infectious disease doc came in and said they were removing my clavicle the next morning. They had also given me vancomycin in the ER and that caused my kidneys to fail and I also lost hearing in my left ear.
The clavicle surgery went well, but I still don't really understand how I am supposed to function normally without a collarbone. I am a barber and use both arms for my job, and can't raise my left arm at all yet.

Does clavicle removal cause a disability? If so, I was never told about that part. It just seems odd to not have had a plate or pin put in to take the place of the missing bone.

How long have you been healing and what is your prognosis?

[pichuu123]

This is the first time of actually talking to someone with Osteomyelitis and someone who also had their clavical removed.

Can you tell me more about why you ended up seeking medical help and were you in pain, just need to hear someone elses story other than my own.

To answer about the disability part of not having a collar bone in my case yes it is a handycap,and the remaining bone will often move in such a way as to cause extreme pain and it's not getting any better as time goes.

I recently had sharp pain in my left shoudler and saw a bone dr. and he found two large calcium deposits on the bone and decided to give me a steroid injection, that was two wks ago and now it's still hurting couldn't do much before with my left arm and now can do even less, I start p.t today and hope like h^#@ that this will be the cure all, I'm still hoping and not giving up that someday I'll be pain free

[jimmyvq]

Thank you for replying...you are the only one I know of who had their clavicle removed from a staph infection too!
I had the worst pain in my life in my left shoulder and chest and that caused my trip to the ER. The first time I had staph last year, it sounded very much like your situation. I had arm pain but they kept mis-diagnosing me. One doctor even said it was arthritis! That was until I got a huge red mass on my clavicle and they did a CT scan and saw it was infection.
They didn't take my clavicle out last time, which I think was a mistake because the staph came back to that same spot.
I just got my stitches out and haven't started PT yet, but I am a barber and unable to raise my arm to cut hair. I will be on my IV Antibiotics until the end of this month.
So you are a bit ahead of me as far as healing goes! Make sure you advocate for your own health when you see your Dr.'s--this experience has left me really feeling like doctors are more concerned about themselves than with me.