4/16

1:40pm
Appointment with BugN. She started off with a little expose on the state of Victoria's condition with this little goodie: the bone infection is persisting. Really? What infection? Well, the one that is visible from the X-ray. I asked about the culture of the bone? She said that doesn't always show an infection.

(So, understand. She gets a chunk of bone and finds no infection but she LOOKS at a picture of the bone and proclaims it infected. Does ANYONE think this makes sense?)

She looked at both of us and asked: "Is this something new?" Ah, yea. We were informed there was NO infection in the bone. She returned to the X-ray and I stopped her. I said shouldn't a culture determine if there is an infection? I said I had no issue with the course of antibiotics daily for such an infection as I think having a 4" hole in the foot is just BEGGING for an infection and antibiotics help prevent such, but to claim a picture indicates an infection but a culture is inconclusive just stunned us.

So, she says: the bone shows infection and therefore there is, ok? NO was my response. No, I don't see how a picture can show infection that a culture doesn't. She then brought up that because Victoria had been on antibiotics, there would be no infection in the cultures. Sorry, but if there is no infection in the cultures HOW IS THERE AN INFECTION???

The meeting went DOWNHILL from there. She continued to insist on the infection. I continued to insist that we were going to continue with the antibiotics, but that her position was not defensible. We then talked about the anemia. Sue (Victoria's friend and retired doctor) was with us. She asked a question about the antibiotics and opened up a line of thought. I asked if BugN had access to the blood tests taken so far. She did. Victoria's blood count was 8.2 on the first blood tests. The tests taken 6 days after being on the antibiotics showed a drop to 7.1. This was the test that got DrPRI all riled up. The question became, did the antibiotics cause the drop? I am researching this. BugN didn't think so, but it was clear that the first batch of antibiotics she was one was doing damage. The latest test (blood drawn Tuesday) showed the blood back up to 7.5. This is a good improvement.

The conversation on the anemia went no where with BugN. It is outside her range of responsibilities. She left after giving us another item. Our appointment next week with her department is with someone we have never met. She said we would like him but that he wants a fresh X-ray...obviously to see if there IS STILL SOME INFECTION.....

From there we went to IN for the IV. It was a nice, pleasant visit with the staff and we left to drop Sue home.