Septic Arthritis

Hi everyone

I have just found your site and thought I would join and say hi.

so....... HI o;)

I have had two bouts of septic arthritis - neither of which were actually recognised at our local hospital.

First was in March 2017 in my left ankle, second was June/July 2017 in my left shoulder.

Neither our local hospital or my GP seemed terribly interested in my red, swollen and totally locked joint either time. After I had it in my ankle for a couple of weeks (totally untreated), my husband and I went to Bulgaria for a week, where I spent most of my time in three different hospitals. They gave me xrays, blood tests, a couple of injections and a few different packs of pills. This seemed to pretty much sort it all out, but unbeknown to me, it just made it dormant.

Come forward to the start of June, and it attacked my left shoulder joint. Again, local hospital just gave me a sling, and sent me on my way, despite a red, hard, swollen, locked and incredibly painful shoulder joint. My gp wasn't much better - he gave me oromorph, gabapentin and valium and told me to go back in a couple of weeks so he could give me a steriod injection into my shoulder as clearly I was in so much pain he couldn't get near it for a couple of weeks or so.

After two weeks of sleeping most of the day and night, high fevers with the shakes, and feeling generally dreadful I got my husband to drop me back to the local hospital where I stayed until they did something! I went in armed with the information that i 'thought' I had septic arthritis, and six hours later, I was admitted.

I was in hospital for 2 and a half weeks, with 2x daily blood tests, followed by 3 hour sessions of IV Vancomycin. This went on for a couple of weeks. I had two operations to wash out my shoulder, and was put on a Vac Pump for about 3 weeks. Oramorph, co-codamol and naproxen were the pain drugs I was given, the oramorph was especially useful when my Vac Pump dressing was changed, and after my operations.

Went on to Tycaplanin after 2 weeks, but that caused an allergic rash so they stopped that and went back to the Vancomycin while they worked out what oral antibiotic to give me (I am allergic to penicillin). Blood tests were still done every day to check my markers were lowering.

I am still taking oral antibiotic Clarithromycin and have another 3 weeks to go on that. Hopefully the blood test in a couple of weeks will show that the markers are down and the infection has now all gone.

I have a nice dent in my shoulder, and it feels like there's nothing much between my skin and the bones. The area around my scar (which is about 3 inches long) is numb, but very tender in a red area just behind it. No bra strap allowed as its far too uncomfortable.

Back to my left ankle joint ....... it's still a bit swollen and doesn't move as it should, and gets uncomfortable quite often. I was hoping that all the antibiotics that I have been on for a couple of months would have sorted out any infection that was still there, but maybe because it went untreated for so long, the septic arthritis that got into my joint has done irreparable damage.

When I was eventually diagnosed, I was told that S.A. was so rare, they only see around 4 or 5 cases a year. Now that is a figure i find rather odd, seeing as in my ward of 6 ladies, THREE of us had the same infection!!

Has anyone else on here had septic arthritis? Once it has finally gone, is it likely that it will return? And what about my two damaged joints? Am I now likely to get arthritis in them?

Sorry for my long post, but there was a lot to say.

If this is the wrong area to write such a lot, please let me know and I will copy and paste and put something on the main forum bit. This kind of place is totally new to me.

I am in South-east England, by the way.