NF Survivor - Jessica Short

Jessica Short's Survivor Story

I noticed my arm was hurting on May 14, 2009. I didn't think much of it a little swelling I thought I had been bitten by a spider or something. I let it go a few more days and the swelling just got worse and no matter what I tried to do it wouldn't go away. Finally after 3 days I went to the hospital they told me I had cellulitis and sent me home with two different antibiotics. I was not able to start taking them till the next day because of the pharmacy being closed so I just slept with and ice pack on my arm all day. The next morning I got up and the redness in my arm had moved out of the areas the doctors marked but they told me it might go a little out of that area. I began taking the antibiotics they gave me around 3 that day. in 20 minutes the swelling went down for it felt like maybe 10 minutes and then came on stronger than what it was before. So I sat back down and put more ice on it. I couldn't sleep at all that night my arm just kept getting worse and black blisters started to form then a red streak ran clear up to my arm pit. I was scared I didn't know what to do should I call 911 or my aunt at 4:30 in the morning or wait it out till my aunt got home from work. I waited for her to get home. My grandpa told me to pop the blisters on my arm that it might drain and give me some relief so I popped them and the smell of rotting flesh just came out. I knew then that something serious was wrong. finally my aunt got home and rushed me to the hospital again. This time it was a different doctor and he knew immediately what it was order for a scan on my arm and checked my blood and everything. When he came back in he told me that there was gangrene in my arm and I would have to be transferred to OSU hospital. A ambulance took me down there and I went into the emergency room they got me hooked up on an IV and a student nurse came in and took my blood pressure in the bad arm. I had never been in that much pain ever. after that I could not stop crying I was in so much pain. The doctors gave me some pain meds and rushed me into emergency surgery. By this time everything was a blur. The nurses say I was hallucinating and talking crazy stuff the first week. I had went under 5 different surgeries and have no memory of nothing till the last few days I was in there. The first thing I can remember is changing the dressing for the wound vac which was also painful. Three days before I was discharged they did my skin graft. They took skin from my left leg and put it on the area under my arm in the wrist area. I noticed all the cuts they had to do to get the infection to seep out of my arm. I was very lucky the doctors told me if I would have waited 16 more hours I would have been dead cause the infection was moving to my heart. I'm thankful to be alive and still have my arm I have a 4 year old little boy to take care of. I was released from the hospital on June 2, 2009, I'm still healing i cant lift anything with that arm and have serious nerve damage my doctor also thinks my kidneys are failing and that the pain from my arm is moving to different parts of my body. I had to have a ct scan done this appointment to make sure I am ok. I still have to take morphine for pain. I was cut clear to my bones so the inside of my arm is trying to heal also. The plastic surgeon says I am healing well and I go back to see him in october. I don't remember much of the whole time i was in the hospital but I do know god is watching over me and I am meant to be here.

Jessica Short
jessicashort13@yahoo.com

August 2009

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