NF Survivor

Jan's Survivor Story

My brief story started on October 13, 1995 (Friday). I was at work packing documents into boxes and obtained a paper cardboard cut between my fourth and fifth digits on my right hand. I then washed with soap and put peroxide on my cut. Come Saturday night I thought I had a bad case of the flu. There was very little pain in my finger. I awoke around 2:30 a.m. in excruciating pain and my arm and hand swelled to the size of a football. I then went to the "urgent care" and they proceeded to call a hand specialist and. I then had emergency surgery at 6 a.m. At the time, my hand surgeon did not realize this was the flesh eating bacteria, but was told so by the other attending doctor's and nurses in surgery. I was hospitalized for 23 days. During that time, I was placed in the burn ward, for infection purposes, and also went to the hyper-baric chamber every day. I had round-the-clock specialists to help "force" blood flow into my arm and hand. This did not work.

I then had my third and fourth fingers amputated down to the first initial joint, just below the finger nail. I then had a third surgery in the hospital, whereby skin grafts were placed on my inside my forearm and onto the third & fourth digits on my amputated fingers. From there, I still have hand therapy, and have had several surgeries since then. One of which was due to another amputation of the 2nd joint on my 3rd and 4th digit fingers. In fact, I am going to have another surgery next month to remove a cyst which has developed between the 3rd and 4th digits, and to have a tenalisis on my 2nd and 5th digits, to help improve mobility.

Currently, I am down to hand therapy once a month. I don't foresee any further surgeries, however, one never knows. I still cannot make a fist, and typing and opening things is a challenge at times. My biggest problem lies with my index finger. It has lost a lot of mobility and bothers me quite a bit.

Jan

October 1995

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