Hello on behalf of husband

Dozmac

Good evening all.

I have just joined looking for support/information. I am my husbands carer, he was diagnosed with arthritis of the spine 8 years ago and it is now affecting his mobility badly.

He is in hospital at present having had 3 surgeries since Thursday for septic arthritis in his shoulder. It's something neither of us had heard of and was missed my 4 GPs

I am on a quick learning curve on this one. He's not out of the woods yet

Dozmac x

Ellen

Good Morning @Dozmac I am very pleased to meet you and welcome you to the Online Community. It's so nice you are posting to help your husband expect he is facing more time in hospital before you will have him home with you again.

It sounds as though you have indeed been on a very steep learning curve having cared for your husband for 8 years for his spinal Arthritis and now this Septic Arthritis has come along.

You have probably already read this, but l am attaching a link about Septic Arthritis:

https://www.versusarthritis.org/about-arthritis/conditions/septic-arthritis/

This particular condition does not come up on the forum very often. I did a 'search' and most of the threads on the subject were a good while ago.

Our members do however know a lot about joint pain and will be very supportive of you both I am sure. Do take a look around and see if you feel you'd like to join in any of the threads everyone is very welcoming.

Best wishes to you both,

Ellen

frogmorton

Hi @Dozmac

Welcome to the forum from me too. Everyone is lovely here and will do their best to answer any questions if we know the answer!

I have been here for a good few years and have heard about Septic Arthritis but not that often.

I think this thread:

https://community.versusarthritis.org/discussion/comment/633280#Comment_633280

Is worth a read and you are a lovely supportive wife coming on here on your husband's behalf.

I wish him a speedy recovery and some ((())) for you

Dozmac

Thank you for your replies. It's as I thought septic arthritis seems quite rare. For that I am thankful I would hate anyone to go through what my husband has. He developed infection induced delerium and had to be declared incapacitated as he was refusing all treatment. Yesterday was his 6th surgery in nearly 2 weeks and hopefully his last. He has had to have quite extensive skin grafts shoulder to elbow. He has lost a huge amount of weight and the infection is going to take some time to recover from. I will leave this post here so if anyone needs help in the future I can hopefully help them out

Dozmac

Just a quick update. Husband made it home after 4 weeks in hospital. The infection caused a lot of damage and he has been left with one working tendon in his upper arm. Despite being diabetic his wounds have healed well under the care of an amazing plastics team at our hospital. Now the physio begins. Thought you may be interested that this has been reported by the hospital under the Yellow Card scheme. The reason being this all started 3 days post Astra Zenica job. It was his 2nd jab. He has been told no boosters in his arms and we have to speak to consultants of the best way forward. Possibly injecting into his leg.

As this is rare I will keep this thread updated as I hope it may be of use to someone in the future

stickywicket

That's a really kind thought, to keep this thread updated for the benefit of others.

I do hope your husband continues to make good progress. I know septic arthritis is (usually?) caused by an infection but I guess a vaccine might just provide such an infection in someone susceptible. I don't know if this is at all relevant but they do seem to be putting the covid vaccines very high up on the arms. I'm sure my annual flu jab is normally lower. I wonder if that could be a factor. Anyway, good that the Yellow Card scheme has been employed. Those in the know can work these things out.

Although I don't think you're likely to find people with septic arthritis on here, you'll find lots with arthritis of various hues, several with diabetes too and far too many with pain😉 We are here to support both of you any way we can.

Lilymary

Sorry, I'm late to this thread. I have no pearls of wisdom, only words of encouragement, but thank you for bringing this rare condition back to the fore. We never know when we might need to be aware of this.

It sounds like you've both been through a difficult time, but I hope your husband continues to make a good recovery now, and that you are getting the support you need. It sounds like the worst is behind you.