MRSA Mucus Lucas

Where to begin with this surgery? (For an old post on Mucus Lucas, go here.)

I’m not one who gets nervous for surgery. Honestly, the thing I was most stressed about was just the cost of it when all was said and done. 

I called on February 18 to get my arrival time, which the lady said was 9:30am. 

That morning, we just took it slow and easy around the house. Matthew dropped me off at the front so he could go park. I checked in on the little kiosk, and then he came in and sat with me. We went through the whole process which seemed rushed. The nurse told me my surgery was scheduled for 9:55am, so it was odd they told me to come so late. She said normally they have you come an hour early. 

They ran through all my medications and supplements again. I changed into my gown and put my stuff in the belongings bag. 

The worst part of it all was putting the needle in my hand. I don’t remember that part being so awful all those years ago, but I guess we forget more than we remember. I got sweaty and squeezed Matthew’s hand. It hurt terribly. 

I walked into the operating room and got up on the table. They put me to sleep within a couple of minutes. 

When I woke back up, I think I had prepared mentally for it to be as bad as it was eight years ago. I was groggy and disoriented, but I knew what was happening and didn’t feel as emotional or panicked. 

The nurse was really nice and put an ice pack over my eyes. She also gave me an applesauce to try to eat, which I spilled since I didn’t have full functionality yet of all my limbs. 

Matthew came to sit with me in recovery, and I knew he needed to work, so I felt like I needed to feel better and get moving so he could get home. Breathing only through my mouth, my oxygen got a little lower than they would’ve liked, and it made my heart race a little bit. He told me to calm down and take my time and not to worry. 

The doctor came and talked to us and said that there was thick white pus in the right side, and that the left side just looked irritated and inflamed for the most part. He said they couldn't snap a picture quickly enough. But he seemed optimistic and said things went well. 

They brought prescriptions to us--antibiotics and prednisone. 

Matthew pulled the car up, and they wheeled me outside to the car. Matthew got me inside and picked us up some pho for an early dinner/late lunch. 

I stayed on the couch and slept a lot. 

I wasn’t in much pain at all. I tried to take it easy over the weekend but still did some cleaning and laundry and generally felt OK. 

Saturday

The part that’s been a struggle in this whole process is my expectations. The doctor said I should be back to work by Monday. In my head, that’s what I needed to do. 

So I got up on Monday morning and walked for too long (30 minutes, slow on the treadmill), and went to work. I didn’t make it a full day. I ended up going home around 2:30 and finishing the work day at home. 

Tuesday, I made it a full day at work and mostly sat at my desk. Thankfully it was a calm and quiet day. But that evening I told Matthew how awful I felt, how tired I was, and how frustrated I felt that I didn’t feel as capable as the doctor told me I should feel. He encouraged me to stay home on Wednesday, so I did. 

Mostly, the things I have experienced in recovery have been:

•          Pressure in my face, especially when leaning over
•          Pressure in my eyes
•          Headaches and pain, in different parts of my head on different days
•          Body shakes, even just when walking from my car to my desk—knees and arms shaking
•          Feeling cold even when it wasn’t cold
•          Feeling tired
•          Feeling almost like my body was in shock
•          Blood and mucus constantly coming out of my nose

 It was especially hard in the last week not to blow my nose or sniff. It’s just such natural behavior when you have blockages in your nose. And when you’ve been blowing or sniffing all day every day for the last year and two months, it’s hard to stop especially when your nose is full of blood. 

I followed doctor’s orders to do the saline nose rinses twice daily, and only took Tylenol, which I don’t think really has made a difference. 

I slept sitting up on the couch every night except for Wednesday and Thursday, which I spent horizontally in my own bed. They recommended sleeping angled sitting up to not have too much drainage go down my throat. 

Recovery just has been a lot slower than I anticipated. I am grateful not to have pain besides pressure in my head and eyes. 

Thursday, February 25 was my follow-up with my doctor where he sucked the rest of the packing out of my facial cavities. I went to my appointment alone, not really knowing what to expect. He put the numbing pads up my nose, which is generally unpleasant. He let them sit for about 15 minutes to get really numb. 

During that time, he told me that the culture from my surgery revealed a highly resistant bacteria that used to be really uncommon, called “M-R-S-A.” He said people used to gown up and mask up if someone had it, but not really anymore. The doctor also said that it explains why it didn’t respond to anything we tried to treat it with. I didn’t really understand that he was talking about MRSA—the virus that causes staph. So I was texting Matthew while I waited for my nose to numb. 

He came back in to take out the packing. He went up each nostril with a camera and a suction tool. That thing going up my nose and into my actual face was incredibly uncomfortable. It was like the backs of my eyes were being poked, and I winced a lot and tried to breathe through it. The doctor said I was doing great and told me he could stop whenever I needed him to. I could hear all the suctioning going on, and some clogging of the little vacuum too. It was pretty gross. 

I asked again for the name of the bacteria, and a lightbulb went on in my head. MRSA! Holy crap. 

Per my grandma’s urging, I asked if it would come back. He said sinus infections can come back, and the antibiotics he has me on don’t do anything to MRSA. So basically I have to continue the saline rinses and watch for yellow, green, or white as those would be signs of continued infection. 

I left and got myself a Roxberry smoothie. For some reason all I wanted all week during recovery was fruit smoothies, and I couldn’t even taste them. I was grateful to taste the last half of my smoothie at about 75% capacity. 

When I pulled into my parking spot at home, I finally burst into tears. I had so many thoughts. 

• I had a potentially deadly bacteria in my face for a year, two months, and 10 days.
• I had dealt with constant nose blowing and coughing up drainage for just as long.
• The whole time I thought it was an exhausting annoyance, but it actually could’ve been life threatening.
• MRSA was inches from my brain!
• Why didn’t the culture he took last year show MRSA? Did he not poke deep enough?
• Why wasn’t this a suspect if nothing else was working?
• Was I in legitimate danger as I waited for four months for a lower deductible insurance to kick in?
• What if something had gone wrong during surgery—some slip or cut? Would I have gotten staph?
• I knew something was wrong from December 2019, and it took until February 2021 for it to get taken care of. And the whole time it was actually a big deal. I felt validated but also incredibly scared, even though it had already been removed.
• Recovery had been harder than what the doctor said. Why?
• I was concerned about $3,500 for surgery, but my life could’ve been on the line. 

It felt like everything I hadn’t even been worried about before hit me like a ton of bricks.

I felt overwhelmed by it. I even called my mom and Face Timed her in tears. It was a lot to process. And overall I obviously feel humbled and grateful that this didn’t become something worse! But to have the relief of “Hey, we got this stuff out of your face! Yay!” while also hearing “But it was super deadly!” just had my brain and heart all kinds of confused. 

I asked Matthew if we could go out to eat since I couldn't smell or taste food all week. We went to sushi, and when our food came, I couldn't really taste it. Timing. Ugh. But I took most of one of my rolls home to eat later for when I could taste. And I did! That evening and night I felt great--lots of energy, the ability to breathe and smell. I had to try not to overdo it. So we picked up some more distilled water (for saline rinses) at the store after dinner, and then I went to Target to get a couple of things. The pressure in my face is gone, and it's so nice. 

Today has been nice without the pressure, but I've still had headaches and shakiness and low energy. I'm just trying to accept that my recovery from surgery is probably slower than most people's. 

In all of this long, awful ordeal, I’ve learned that basically any cost is worth it to get healthy and feel better. And that if you feel like something is wrong with your body, something is probably wrong. Take the steps to get it taken care of. 

I have another follow up appointment in a couple of weeks. I’ll do my nose rinses until then, and hope and pray that MRSA Mucus Lucas is totally gone. And I’ll try to be patient with myself and my body as it tries to recover. 

I’m grateful for all the prayers of my family and friends, and grateful for my husband for being here for me and for insisting that I rest even though I feel like I “should” be doing more. I think it'll be a lifelong challenge for him to get me to slow down and rest, but I'm glad he's up for it.