Fight Rebecca’s Infection

As many of you know our mom has developed a very bad hard to fight infection in her body called a strep bug. She had a knee replacement 2 1/2 years ago and the infection embedded itself in her prosthetic. The infection doctor believes it may have been there all these years & just showed it’s ugly self now. She's been sick since October 10th, with what she thought was the flu bug, when in fact it was her body showing signs of the infection. From there it just got worse. Her blood showed markers for heart failure, and her body was shutting down, even causing mental issues. The infection was in her bone but quickly went septic (meaning in her blood stream) her fever had spiked to 102. They decided to do emergency surgery to flush the infection from her knee even with her high fever, and knowing it was a high risk surgery. Once inside the knee they found the infection to be a lot worse then they suspected. They had to remove her prosthetic knee & put in a temporary antibiotic spacer, which she will not be able to walk on. They cannot & will not give her a new knee until she's healthy as the infection would just continue to attack the metal (foreign object) in her body. The doctors told us she was hours away from dying, and is very lucky it was caught when it was. She will be in the hospital/nursing rehabilitation home for 12 weeks on IV antibiotics to fight this infection & hopefully cure her without having to amputate her leg. However she has some issues that make this hard such as being diabetic which compromises her immune system. There will be a long road ahead & she will not be able to go home to her current living situation as it's not set up for her current needs. She will not be able to work or walk until she is healthy which can take several months. We’ve had a few set backs, the infection keeps trying to win.....and has been building back up in her knee. They may have to open her knee back up again but are trying not to as it’s too risky right now, they are trying to drain it with a needle using an ultrasound machine. The infection doctor is working very closely with us, with a common goal to get the infection on the right track. My sister & I are doing all we can but we both have families to also take care of. She has some wonderful family & friends who have visited her & are helping to keep her positive so that she can fight this. We know it’s the holiday season, but mom unfortunately lives paycheck to paycheck like many, anything will help ease the stress of the current situation & the future for our mom. Asking for help is hard, we are taking one day at a time. We appreciate all the love & support and know that mom does too. Xoxo