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So, do they have any clues about just what went wrong?
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Well, one of the following occured:
1) I was bitten by a poisonous spider that was also infected.
2) There is a cut/laceration (that we can't find) that was the
infection vector.
3) 20 years ago I fell off my bike (true) and tore open the elbow.
Some debris
finally worked it's way out of the scar tissue (there is
definitely debris
in there) and brought something out with it.
4) Spontaneous. Happens about 50% of the time, but generally does not
manifest in this fashion.
I initiially thought I had just been bitten by a Black Widow as all the
initial symptoms
matched up (fever, flu-like, swelling, etc) and made an appt to go into the
doctor
immediately on Monday morning. They looked at it and decided that that wasn't
the case, though something was up. They drained and cultured the remnants and
found staph on
Wed morning (cultures take 2 days) and immediately sent me to the hospital. I
asked if we
couldn't just continue with oral antibiotics. The doctor looked me in the eye
and said
with the Tone(TM) "No. You're not responding as it is." After three days of
IV's going bad,
I asked again, and the nurse said "Well, if you don't mind congestive heart
failure from endocarditis, I suppose we could let you go home..." So, I stayed
for a few more days.
All in all, #1 and #3 seem to be the leaders. There are alot of spiders
rattling around the garage and basement where I was working Sat/Sun on the
TR-6 trying to get ready for
Rockford. I was so far behind on account of the death of two friends in a
plane crash, being sent out of town for two weeks by the office, and one or
two other little delays.
The doctors think stress played quite a part in it as well. I'm under ALOT of
pressure at the office and not getting alot of assistance there, so I'm kinda
crashing under that.
Getting sick was actually a bit of a blessing since I did get some time off to
do absoloutly nothing, though it drove me nuts...
So, for the next 3 or 4 weeks, I'm stuck with a beltback infusion pump that
lives
in my fanny pack, means I have to be home before 6:00pm to change the drugs,
and can't
get greasy beyond my elbows (IV line in the upper arm). When checking me out
of the hospital, they said 'No lifestyle restrictions' until I pointed out to
them that for me
that means pulling a lateral G in a race car, falling off sailboats, and so
on.
The nurse just shook her head and laughed at me. I knew it was time to go
home...
So I figure I'll spend some time down at Len's Garage and Software Hut putting
the spare
TR-6 and Spit race motors together, and get some help getting the Spit engine
back in the car. Once all that's done, it should be time to race again...And
finish up the TR-6.
iii
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