So my dad is having "minor" surgery in a few hours. He checked into the hospital yesterday after a few days of discomfort. He seems to have a skin infection called cellulitis, and he had elevated blood sugar levels (he's never been diabetic, hopefully it's just a side effect of the infection). They got him on an IV, antibiotics and insulin.

The surgery is to remove a patch of dead skin...right now I'm trying to forget the fact that after my mom told me he was in the hospital I looked up cellulitis and found that it happens to be the early stages of the flesh eating virus.

Dr House would say to lay off the internet. ;)

I'm sure everything will be fine. Dont worry yourself by reading too much, and everything will be great.

This is what BT had, I'm pretty sure, and he came through it with life and limbs intact, so I hope your dad has the same good fortune. IV antibiotics are the standard treatment, just so they get into the system faster/more effectively.

You know, if I told Ralphie about that, he'd think of nothing else for days.

I hope your Dad's surgery goes well. My best to him.
:)

Worrying is good. I find that 99% if the things I worry about never come true. I think it's all that worrying. ;)

I hope you're Dad gets better quickly.

Oh, how I wish that were true now...

Just got a call from my mom. My dad is NOT in good shape and it's his own damned fault.

See, it seems that, oh, 10 years ago his doctor DID tell him he had elevated blood sugar and was at risk of diabetes. At the time he was pretty significantly overweight. So he, of course, got all the imformation he could on diabetes and worked with his doctor to monitor it and keep it under control, right? Ha! No, he said, "I'll just lose the weight and eat less cake, I'll be fine." To his credit, he lost the weight with no trouble, but he never bothered to follow up and keep an eye on his blood sugar.

So here we are. Now, the other thing about my father is he patholigically avoids hospitals at all costs. So when he first started having symptoms over the weekend...he waited 3 days before saying anything and going in. Seems that had another 24 hours gone by, he stood a good chance of being dead (remember what I said about the early stages of the flesh eating virus?).

So now he's recovering from the "minor" surgery (I knew there was good reason to put "minor: in quotes) in a sensetive area that will require 3 months of recovery and plastic surgery in the form of skin grafts down the road. The think they've got it all, but won't know for sure for a couple of days (and this is where I try to forget about the article I read last week about the lady who, with the same infeciton, went from healthy to "we think we got it all when we amputated her leg" to dead in the span of a few days).

I'm a little out of it right now. Scared, and a little bit angry. Among other things, as my sister pointed out, how times have we answered questions from doctors and on medical forms in the past 10 years? "No, we have no family history of diabetes."

DAMN! I understand both your anger and fear. Sometime you just think a good slapping would help, but it's a bit late now.

Diabetes can be VERY serious when it comes to skin, circulation conditions. I hope that they ot in there early enough. I'm hopeing and praying that is the case.

GD- I'm so sorry; I know how you feel on many counts there. My mom wound up with acute pancreatitis and damned near died- spent 5 months in the hospital and is now a surgical diabetic. (Absolutely no pancreatic function, so she does two types of insulin and takes digestive enzymes). Brought it all on herself, and still engages in very risky behavior despite her tenuous health. Very worrisome and incredibly frustrating to stand by and watch such things happen, isn't it? I feel for you and wish you and your family all the best.

Very sorry to hear of this news. Our thoughts and best wishes go out to you and your family, GD. Please let us know if there is any way we can be of help.

So very sorry to hear of this, GD. I will keep you and your family in my thoughts.



This is a scary subject for me as well. My dad has been the victim of many self-inflicted medical problems over the years. Drinking too much, smoking too much, heaping salt on everything he eats (I'm serious, you cannot eat anything off his plate. Disgusting!), and on and on. I lecture him but it's in one ear and out the other with him. Though, to his credit, he did stop drinking. But only after his doctor told him quit drinking or die. My dad also pathologically avoids hospitals and doctors at all costs. He never changes any of his bad habits until he gets scared by a medical situation. Stubborn old goat.

Dammit, now I'm scared and all worked up.