On the afternoon of Friday 21st February I was bathed in the glorious sunshine that was streaming through the window next to me. I’d planned to do some Cadet stuff on the PC but at 14:00 I started getting a really bad headache. Not long after that I started to feel sick then I started getting unbelievably cold. I had goose pimples everywhere, my fingers had turned white and I was shivering like mad.
I had three blankets thrust on me and two different Doctors took it in turns to examine me. I had blood taken from a vein and through the PICC (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) Line so they could do blood cultures. They decided to remove the PICC Line, as my antibiotic course had finished and it wasn’t being used anymore. Although I was shivering I had a temperature and was sweating like mad, this made me incredibly thirsty, it was official, I had a fever.
The shivering did subside and my temperature came down gradually over the rest of the day. I was sweating for hours though and had to have my sheets and gown changed 4 times by the early hours of the morning. The on call Doctor came round to see me during the night but they hadn’t received any results from the cultures at that time.
The next morning (Saturday 22nd February) I remained huddled under three blankets as I still felt cold, I was also still sweating but all my observations were OK. Just before lunch I was visited by two doctors who told me that Microbiology had been on the phone, they were told that Streptococcus had been found in the blood culture taken from the PICC Line. A cannula was put in and I was started on antibiotics again, I slept most of the day.
Monday (24th February) morning the Nurse came and said she had been told to remove the cannula. I was told they had panicked about the blood culture results and had since been told to stop giving me the antibiotics. This was fine by me as the cannula wasn’t in a particularly good place and it wasn’t very comfortable either.
Tuesday (25th February), when I saw the Infection Team Consultant, I was given the full details of what had happened over the past few days. Apparently they grew a bug from the culture that was taken from the PICC Line. This bug is resistant to the Vancomycin antibiotic that they started me on, which was why they stopped it so quickly. The bug had not been grown again from any further blood samples taken and they believed that when removed the PICC Line the bug was removed too. For my safety and that of the other patients in the bay I was moved to a side room, where I am still residing. I was a little bit gutted about being moved as it had taken me ages to get to the bed space I was in. It had to be done though and I don’t mind being on my own in a side room. The only downside is that everyone has to put on an apron and gloves when they come in to see me and my door has to stay shut, which makes me feel a bit like a leper.
