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I've been dealing with my father who's been ill in the hospital for the last 3.5 months and need some help trying to figure this out.
Just some background, Back in August, Prior to him going in the hospital, he was complaining about nerve pain in his leg that began from his hip. We thought it sounded like sciatic nerve pain. We took him to the VA emergency room, and each time they'd shoot him with morphine and then send him home. The VA set his appointment for an MRI for 10 days later. It started getting progressively worse where he finally fell down on the floor and had to be rushed to the hospital in an ambulance from his home. This time my grandmother (his mother) had him taken to a different hospital.
Things took a turn to the worse when he was in the hospital. The doctors found out that he had pneumonia, which they had to treat first. When they did the MRI, he was found to have a bacterial infection called sepsis which had spread all over his body. Then we found out that the infection had gotten into his spinal region where the Doctors had to do an invasive surgery to stop the infection from traveling up his spine to his brain. They had to do an epidural and drain the abscess from the fluid in his spine. They warned us it was a possibility he could be paralyzed, but Doctors said they did not know how extensive or if it would be permanent. Long story short, the infection caused him a Spinal Cord injury. After the lumbar surgery, he's paralyzed (quadriplegic) right now with some muscle spasms and is undergoing rehab therapy. Doctors did warn us that it could take many months before or IF he will ever gain feeling in his limbs again.
My father had been drinking beer and smoked alot of cigarettes daily for years. He had been on and off of crack cocaine for the last 10 years, struggling with addiction. I observed some areas where he'd hang out and they were some of the nation's slummiest looking homes. My question is, could crack cocaine use cause infection like that to where it spreads throughout the entire body?
This has been extremely hard on me and my family. I'm just trying to make some sense of all this. I know many will tend to judge, but my father was a fun, intelligent, loving guy. He had a good job at one point but went in to deep depression over the last 15 years and continued down a downward spiral. He was doing well for a while, even had managed to stay away from drugs, alcohol for a while, even had quit cigarettes for about 3 years, something he had never done. But within the last 2 years, he had admitted he relapsed and well today, he's been lying on his back in a hospital bed on a ventilator for the past 3.5 months, not able to even scratch his nose. It's probably a miracle he even survived which I'm grateful for, but I know he must be scared when he's in that room by himself.
That is a very sad diagnosis for your dad (and your family) and hopefully he'll improve and get some feelings and use to his limbs back.
I'm not sure where or why the infection started, but unless it was from a dirty needle I don't think crack can cause the infection to start. I know if you have a poor immune system an infection can travel through out the body. That's why they don't normally operate if you have a lung infection/cold. It can travel through the blood system directly to the location of the surgery.
Sepsis is very dangerous if they don't stop it with the antibiotics available.
Just because someone has an addiction problem doesn't mean they are bad people. They just have a problem with addiction and no one should judge them. If they could only see the future before they took that first drag on a smoke, drink of booze or line of coke/crack!
There isn't a single person on earth that doesn't have issues and problems of some sort, so don't listen to anyone who talks down about your father.
In all of this horrible medical tragedy has anyone tested him for HIV? Given his propensity for crack he might have at least tried IV drugs out of curiosity and become infected. HIV infection can open the door to a pervasive flood of medical problems when it is untreated.
So far as the cocaine itself causing a systemic infection: No.
But several things have been going on:
Frequenting a 'crack house' and having intimate contact with multiple other hardcore drug addicts has exposed him to an endless number of other diseases. Not just STDS, but anything that can be transmitted by residual body fluids or breath. Tuberculosis for one.
Practicing addicts often have a depleted immune system due to vitamin, mineral, and electrolyte depletion. His nutritional status has been severely compromised.
In short, he has depleted his body of immunity, plus exposed it to numerous endemic diseases.
Please make sure that his physicians are fully informed about his entire spectrum of drug use. It may cause them to test more widely for diseases which are well controlled in the general population, but which still lurk among IV drug users. (although crack cocaine is not an IV drug, many who use it are polyaddicted to IV drugs, and he has been in extended intimate contact with them)
I hope that this life experience proves what he needs to get free of his addictions, and that you can find some respite and peace of mind. Consider checking out Al-Anon as a support system for yourself.
My mom had a septic infection a couple of years ago. She was complaining about UTI symptoms but took antibiotics and thought that would resolve the problem. Two days later, she was completely unable to stand or speak and the sepsis was diagnosed. She spent 10 days in ICU, another 4 in the hospital after that, and a couple weeks recovering at my house.
Nothing that she did or did not do caused her illness. Too little sleep and too much caffeine, maybe, but many of us have that problem.
It's scary when a parent gets sick, especially a major illness. We see that as a blueprint for our futures and we look for reasons to blame for the illness, so we can tell ourselves it won't happen to us as we age, as long as we avoid the things we think caused the illness. The truth is, your dad could have been clean all his life and still gotten the septic infection.
Thanks everyone for the words and taking the time to respond.
I realize there's no guarantees in life. Just because you live a clean normal life doesn't guarantee great health or anything. I think we all are at risk for something happening everytime we leave out of our front door or even taking a breath. But like goodmockingbird said, sometimes we can put ourselves at greater risk when we expose ourselves to danger.
I've been trying to blame myself somewhat for this whole thing. I sometimes think, If only I had listened a little more when he was first complaining of the pain or researched it more, I would've known better on how to react and prevent this. I think I even have a little bit of survivor's guilt (meaning, I feel bad that its my Dad being sick while I'm still young and healthy). I haven't really been working out like I was doing before, haven't been watching what I eat, and have been dealing with alot of depression. I have a few other sisters, but my Dad wasn't in their life like he was with me (He was actually married to my mother for 17 years). He had them with by different women before marrying my mother and they live in the different states. So I feel like I'm dealing with this by myself, but sometimes reflecting on how he reckless he was living does help me realize that its not my fault.
My Dad took good care of me when I had a bad ulcerative colitis flare-up about 3 years ago. Even though, he would still go out at night, he was still there and I remember how caring he could be at times. Now, it just feels like his condition just deteriorated so quickly from him being up, energetic just under 4 months ago. Now to see him like this, makes me feel for him so bad, sometimes it's hard to carry on.
Sorry for the sob story, but hopefully it kind of illustrates more why I'm searching for answers.
Thanks everyone for the words and taking the time to respond.
I realize there's no guarantees in life. Just because you live a clean normal life doesn't guarantee great health or anything. I think we all are at risk for something happening everytime we leave out of our front door or even taking a breath. But like goodmockingbird said, sometimes we can put ourselves at greater risk when we expose ourselves to danger.
I've been trying to blame myself somewhat for this whole thing. I sometimes think, If only I had listened a little more when he was first complaining of the pain or researched it more, I would've known better on how to react and prevent this. I think I even have a little bit of survivor's guilt (meaning, I feel bad that its my Dad being sick while I'm still young and healthy). I haven't really been working out like I was doing before, haven't been watching what I eat, and have been dealing with alot of depression. I have a few other sisters, but my Dad wasn't in their life like he was with me (He was actually married to my mother for 17 years). He had them with by different women before marrying my mother and they live in the different states. So I feel like I'm dealing with this by myself, but sometimes reflecting on how he reckless he was living does help me realize that its not my fault.
My Dad took good care of me when I had a bad ulcerative colitis flare-up about 3 years ago. Even though, he would still go out at night, he was still there and I remember how caring he could be at times. Now, it just feels like his condition just deteriorated so quickly from him being up, energetic just under 4 months ago. Now to see him like this, makes me feel for him so bad, sometimes it's hard to carry on.
Sorry for the sob story, but hopefully it kind of illustrates more why I'm searching for answers.
If it makes you feel any better, when my mom got sick, we called EMS and they took her to the emergency room. They gave her a prescription for more antibiotics and were going to discharge her until I told them that she was usually able to walk and speak coherently, so something must be really wrong. If an ER full of trained staff couldn't tell that something more was wrong, then how could you expect yourself to recognize that your dad was that sick?
This is just one of those crappy things that happens. You couldn't prevent it or diagnose it. You made sure he got to a hospital and you're there for him while he goes through his recovery, which is all you can do for him.
You are in a lot of emotional pain now. Grief is natural and wholesome. If your fathers condition declines and nature takes its course, feel free to grieve deeply and fully. There is healing in grief.
But I challenge to begin the hard work of freeing yourself from guilt. It is easy for you to stay tangled in the whole web-like family dynamic of addiction. Working your way free will take work, and a willingness to listen to others who have experience with what you are going through.
You would benefit greatly from calling then visiting an Al Anon group. They know exactly what you're going through because they have been there too.
Also consider one on one counseling with a liscensed therapist familiar with the family dynamics of addiction.
You didn't cause this. You can't cure it.
Addiction and the sorrow that ripples outward from it like ripples from a pebble tossed in water are part of human life. Most lives will be touched by it. You're just up close and deeply involved right now.
Get yourself some clarity on it all through Al Anon and/or counseling.
I think that will do me great benefit. I'm going to look into that immediately.
Hedgehog mom. How is your mother doing now after sepsis? She's actually very lucky. Alot of people don't make it through sepsis I hear.
She's recovered with no complications.
I read all kinds of scary things while she was in the hospital, figuring we'd have to prepare for the worst. Fortunately, she came through it all right. She had to stay at my house for a couple weeks after she got out of the hospital because she was really weak and got tired easily...they wanted her to go to a rehab facility but she refused.
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