Very early Friday morning my mother called me on the phone to tell me that my father wanted me to accompany him to the hospital. He had had a small sore - of unknown origin - on his calf that despite treatment from a registered nurse and antibiotics hade become very infected. He had not eaten or slept much for two days due to the pains.
I got there in 30 minutes and saw that he was not in a good state. The small wound had grown and the whole calf was red, swollen and extremely tender to the touch. He could not walk by himself and was too heavy for me to handle alone, so we called the home health care services and they arranged for an ambulance transport.
The ambulance arrived within twenty minutes and we were soon at the hospital.They immediately took a battery of bloodtests and after seeing the doctor he got morphine to kill the pains and an antibiotic drip directly into his blood stream. He was admitted to the Infection Clinic.
Later that day I learned that his blood sedimentation rate (SR) when he was admitted to hospital was sky high at 241, where it in men over 50 should be under 20 mm/hr.
On Saturday evening he was already feeling better after a few hours sleep, he was more alert and had even eaten half a meal. His SR had sunk to under 200 so he was responding well to the treatment and was in less pain. The doctors were considering draining the sterpto cocci inflammation but had not yet done so.
Although the doctors now tell us that everything should go well, I am still concerned about the how and why the small wounds arose and how it could get so bad so fast even with the ddaily care from the nurse and the antibiotics.
At this point in my life I am extremely grateful that we have excellent and afforable healtcare in Sweden and are not subjected the same worries so many others face in similar situations. That is something I gladly and willingly pay higher taxes to achieve.
