Nightmare Of Epic Proportions

[sandymbme]

My nightmare began on monday. I had been developing a rash that for several days I had been chalking up to a bad breakout. I have a tendency, especially with my hormone imbalance issues, to have mild breakouts on my face and chest. But monday night the rash spread to my upper arms. I had a moment of absolute horror, because thanks to a nasty roomate 15 years earlier, I recognized the rash on my arms to be scabies. In my horror there was no sleep to be had that night.

I called my doctor's office the moment it opened, and they were kind enought to get me in right away. My doctor confirmed my worst fears and prescribed Elimite cream to rid me of the nasty beasties. But the insult to injury to this whole tale is that the exposure came from my home health nurse. I did not catch it at the time, but she did several things that were not in keeping with sterile practices.

She would wash her hands using my soap, which is fine, and my towels, which is not. She also used a cloth tourniquet with a clip, rather than the disposable ones the pharmacy sends with my supplies. My mom, who is a nurse, was absolutely furious to learn that the nurse would leave me to disconnect myself from the IV and flush my picc line myself. The care was inadequet in several respect, but this was my first home health care nurse, I just did not know any better. And unfortunately, my mom was out of the country during the three weeks she was my nurse, else the problems would have been caught much sooner.

So on tuesday afternoon through evening, I sat for the prescribed 8-12 hours in the cream trying to kill the mites. But I failed to account for the difficulties presented by the picc line. And my home health care agency was no help at all. They tried first to insist I did not have scabies, then to insist the nurse could not possibly be responsible. Seeing as how she is the only person who has touched me in weeks, and her failure to keep from cross-contaminatting me with her other patients, it is pretty obvious to me. When I tried to wash off the cream I made a mess of my picc line. By that point I had not slept in 48 hours, had not gotten my fluids in almost 5 days which is the whole point of this exercise, and was darn near hysterical. I gave up and went to the ER.

They gave me a much needed liter of fluids, re-dressed my picc, and sent me on my way. But now I have an on-going problem. I believe the scabies are under my picc dressing as well. The rash, despite my use of the cream, is spreading back out from the bandaged area again. I am afraid that to finally clear this up we are going to have to remove the picc, treat for scabies again, and then put the picc back in. And the picc placement hurt like heck and I DO NOT want to do it again. I am scared silly by the prospect. I am calling my doctor first thing on monday to discuss the problem, but I don't see any other solution. This whole thing has been such a nightmare and the stress has taken a toll on my health. I am once again back to 100/60 BP readins, and daily migraines and nausea.

I need the fluids badly, they seem to be the only thing keeping my GI problems in check. I fired the home health care agency and have reported them to the State Board of Nursing. But I am furious. I am contemplating contacting an attorney. And I am absolutely terrified of what next week will bring. I would welcome and words of wisdom or encouragement!

Sandy

[Dawg Tired]

OMG!! What a nightmare! I'm so sorry you are having to deal with this.

Is the HHCA affiliated with a hospital, by chance? If so, your best recourse might be to go over their heads.

[sarahmarie43]

I am so sorry that you are having to deal with all of this! It sounds awful. I don't have any words of wisdom, as I have never had any experience with home care, but it sounds to me like you did the right thing by getting rid of their services and reporting them. I hope things get better for you soon

[marni4u]

OMG! You poor thing! Haven't had the time or energy to check forum so this was my first in a few days and I was reading the posts and came across yours. How horrible for you. Are you doing any better? Didn't this home health care person use surgical gloves when she was at your home? Could you possibly have contacted the scabies somewhere else, like in a dr.'s office or, I think I remember in one of your posts you were at the ER for a bad migraine and was taken there by emergency squad? Could it have happened there?

Anyway, hope you are doing better.