TR: St Anton to Ear Infection to Emergency Surgery

[comish]

Keeping up with the TGR tradition of posting from the hospital I can now start my TR, but since its going to be useless till I get home (to add the pictures of course), Its going to be a bit abreviated on the skiing related part and rather long on the emergency surgery and how I got there as I think some might remember this if ever in a similar situation.

Took baby Comish to Yurp for our Bi-annual xmas trip to germany and then back to St. Anton for what had become a tradition of pow, pow, and pow. The flights over we surprisingly well, especially for our neighbors since the littele bugger slept almost the whole way. We had a caravan to Austria after Chrismas since Mrs. Comish and I were smart enought to convince both sets of parents to come along to St. Anton and let the mothers babysit Baby Comish = Sweetness.

The wheels started coming off this trip pretty quickly thereafter:
Airlines lost all luggage including car seat: Check
Sister inlaw and her 2 kids sick: Check
Driving on Autobahn and Father in-law misses a turn /stops to read maps in first 30 miles: Check
Father inlaws Thule box opens in the middle of the autobahn raining boots on the Autobahn: Check
Gigantic Stau : Check (German traffic jam. Took us 12 hours of driving when it should be 6.5 to 7)

Start skiing and my knee apparently didn't like sitting, drinking gluhwein, and eating for a week over christmas with no exercise. It completely didn't work. Just 10 days prioviously I had a some great Mammoth pow and thought the knee was really almost there and now it was back to not working at all. Not even close. I couldn't walk up the stairs to the lift or step into my binding. Really bummed, I worked on it every night and morning while skiing like a grandma or PSIA making slow short radius turns, just enjoying the fantastic scenary, ambiance, and trying not to hurt it worse. Good thing I had the LP's for the snail spead I was skiing. I did remind myself a few times, if you are going to take a vacation with your parents and inlaws, I was a pretty F'n lucky dude to be in St. Anton, Austria with the gang, especially given neither mother skis, and my father inlaw hadn't skied in 4 years.

Then on New Years day as my knee was starting to come along and I could at least carve a little and start to walk up the stairs, so was feeling pretty good. A few hours after skiing my ear just starts to kill. Goes from fine to brutal pain in a matter of hours. See Dr. the next morning as I'm in agony and get diagnosed with a middle ear infection, my first ear infection ever, get some antibiotics and other assorted meds and says I'm ok to fly back to the states on Sunday. So I lose my last two days as this thing was brutally painfull. Oh well, at least there wasn't any new fresh snow, my knee didn't work to ski off-piste anyway, and it was probably better to stop before I screwed up my knee any worse.

After the flights from hell of Munich>Frankfurt>DC>LA (Thanks United for cancelling our direct Frankfurt-LA flight, really appreciate that ) I'm still feeling aweful. I'm completely in survival mode while Mrs. Comish has to deal with screaming Baby Comish who screams for the first 1.5 hours of the long flights before finally falling asleep. 26 hour later we finally arrive home utterly spent, I'm feeling totally miserable and in a lot of pain, but hey Baby Comish has remembered how to sleeep which was nice...

Monday, my ear still hurts and now I have a bad headache. Go to Dr on Monday, get referral to ENT specialist who says the infection is now in the middle and external ear, take some topical anitbiotics, and call me on friday.

Wake up on Tuesday and now my head is going to explode, I'm sweating balls with have a 102 fever. Call the guy back and he says to come in. We see him and says the Austrian antibiotics must not have done the job so here is some penicilin and call me on Friday. By now Mrs. Comish is with me because I couldn't drive, I'm borderline incapacitated and in major pain. 4 advils at this point doesn't even dent the headache. We ask about the fact that my whole head hurts tells him anything or that my fever now is a 102. He says no, I must have the flu. wtf? The Flu? We ask it it was strange that we had hit a point that 4 advil did nothing for the pain when 2 or 3 used to kill it, nope. My gut told me this just wasn't right. I had no idea what was going on, but this wasn't a flu causing my headache which had now overtaken the pain from the ear in severity.

Mrs. Comish, thank god, starts calling around. A friend of a friend just finished her residency as an ENT at UCLA and got us into see the specialist in a couple of hours later on tuesday after seeing Dr dumbass which I have since learning is pretty dang hard to do. He spends a few minutes looking at the ear, watching my face contort from the pain and headache, and says: "I have bad news. You need to be admitted to the Hospital immediately and have emergency surgery tomorrrow for accute Mastoiditis." Mrs Comish nor I were expecting that. We thought he would give us some new perscriptions and send us on our way, but we were checking in to the brand new UCLA medical center. I guess my infection had spread to a porous bone behind the ear that is also right next to the brain. The porousity of the bone gives the bacteria a place to rage and party that can't be shut down by antibiotics. The next place for this infection to have spread is across a fairly small bone into the brain if it wasn't removed quickly in my laymans understanding. WOOF

Had surgery last night and already feel much much better and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Still hurts and am not really functioning but glad we insisted on seeing someone else asap and not just waiting until friday...

Not the best start to the new year for this kid, but it can only get better. At least my father inlaw liked St. Anton and said today that a return trip must be planned. So as I say everytime we visit, I will be back. I forgive Ullr for not bringing fresh for the first time out of my 6 visits, but its just as well as that would have tortured me worse now being able to ski it whether it was my knee or ear.

My healthcare $.02 is if it doesn't sound right, you don't trust the person, or aren't sure, get a 2nd opinion as it could save your life. I'm not sure this was that close, but what I had was extremely rare for an adult, spread very very rapidly (apparently normally its weeks to go from a low grade ear infection to accute mastoiditis, while mine was a few days), and I sure as hell didn't need this bacteria in my brain.

Now I get the extreme pleasure of having a nurse visit our home for the next few weeks to give me IV antibiotics at home, can't get my ear wet for 9 months, and in general just feel like I fought a war. But I there will be more pow days and I will return to St. Anton.

[BeanDip4All]

My healthcare $.02 is if it doesn't sound right, you don't trust the person, or aren't sure, get a 2nd opinion as it could save your life. I'm not sure this was that close, but what I had was extremely rare for an adult, spread very very rapidly (apparently normally its weeks to go from a low grade ear infection to accute mastoiditis, while mine was a few days), and I sure as hell didn't need this bacteria in my brain.

Very very scary, so glad you are okay and got it treated.

Agreed on your healthcare point. I went through an eerily similar scare a few years ago when my optometrist in NYC thought I had stubborn pink eye that just wasn't going away, and antibiotics were doing NOTHING. I finally insisted on seeing a specialist at Manhattan Eye Ear and Throat and it turned out I had orbital cellulitis which was on the back wall of my eyeball and could have easily spread to the back of my brain. So same situation where I was rushed into emergency surgery and it was VERY scary. I remember being in a taxi just bawling, scared out of my mind en route to the hospital trying to explain what was happening to my mother on the phone.

[H-man]

Wow. Not the TR I was expecting or hoping for. Glad that you did the right thing and got it checked out right. Rest up and heal. St. Anton isn't going anywhere.

[Crystal_Mt_Dreamin]

That TR sucks. Fortunately you'll live to write another one though. Great point on healthcare though, I think there's a reason they call it 'practicing' medicine.

[mtnbiker/boarder]

Hope your feeling better really soon....wow ...your gut was righ on thank god.....Vibes bro and hope your up and around really quick..Plus hlpe that nurse IS REALLY GOOD TO YOU........

[haydukelives]

strange scary story.and we have all had ear infections.they dont usually do that in the era of anti-biotics.

a lot of generic drugs are now made in terd world india/china

a friend recently had a dog bite treated with the right drug. but it didnt work. it was made in india. google turned up the fact that all that company drug sales had been halted in the US. but the pharmacy "didnt know that"

bottom line: it could be that the original "anti-biotic" wasnt

[hutash]

I agree, that was the worse skiing TR ever!!!

Sorry it all went to bad, and glad you are on the mend. I knew you were in for a world of hurt when yo told me they canceled your direct flight to Munich. Only a very angry Ullr would inflict such punishment on anybody traveling with a 4 month old. At least you made it through O'Hare, I thought that was going to be your down fall.

Burn some skis, sacrifice a virgin, what ever it takes to appease Ullr, and get well soon. See you at Mammoth soon.

[Dawn Patrol]

Be sure to tell the doc that mis-diagnosed you...

[skideeppow]

WTF, that is heinous. I thought my back surgery was a nightmare.
Hope you feel better.

[Hayduke]

That sounds fucking awful. Well done getting a 2nd opinion sounds like you were close to having a simple ear infection turn you into a retard.

Better get some decent earplugs. You seem to have had a rough year.

[Buster Highmen]

There is nothing as bad as a serious earache. Sleep well.

[Steven S. Dallas]

I feel shitty after just reading that. Total blowage, sorry D. Can't really speak to the rotten ear bones but my knee felt great opening weekend and then kind of deteriorated the few weeks afterward. My theory is that while all the larger leg muscles are in good shape after basic rehab the little bitty muscles around the knee still have a ways to go, are very easily strained, and are actually kinda important.

Anyways, damn.

[Shredhead]

Just an FYI:

I get a fair amount of ear infections from skiing a lot in some questionable bodies of water.

Cipro HC seems knock them out very well for me.

[Joey Bag O' Donuts]

Holy shit D, glad your OK. You cant get your ear wet for 9 months!!!?? There goes surfing, or is it ok with ear plugs?

[skier666]

Holy crap dude....here's to a great recovery!

[comish]

Thanks all. Its been a doozy. We were just talking to one of the residents who is the sister of a good friend. She said I was starting to show starting meningitic (sp?) symptoms. Thats one of those things that I always thought, how the fuck does someone get that?!?! Well shit, here I was not that far away, maybe days? Crazy shit this world is.

Its been really cool being in a hospital where for some strange reason I seem to know or have a friend that knows a lot of the Dr's and residents. Definitely makes it easier to navigate the mysterious realm of no information that a teaching hospital can be. I also am thankfull that I had a guru right down the road and was able to get this nicked in the bud quick.

Apparently I can surf with ear plugs. Yeah, that was the first thing I thought when the said that. 9 months without surfing, that just ain't right! Glad there is a work around on that one.

[skiguide]

holy crap man.. that sounds crazy! Glad it was caught and you're on the way to recovery!

[comish]

And the hits keep on coming. Got a call last night after being discharged yesterday that the latest chest Xray shows I have Pneumonia. WTF did I do get such a nasty ass bug. So treatment is the same, just take the current bazooka antibiotics I have...

Be sure to tell the doc that mis-diagnosed you...

We did. Really quite amazing. We called and told him that we just wanted to update him on the what had happened since we saw him and it was completely as an FYI and feedback. He says he still sticks by his diagnosis and plan and that he hasn't seen Mastoiditis or done a Matoidectomy in his umteen years of practicing medicine. Really stubborn older dude stuck in his ways. Very scary if you ask me. From what a neurosurgeon buddy told me, this was nothing to scoff at and just sit around especially since it was clearly running rampant rather rapidly through my body and a small bone separating my brain from it.

I also get a really sweet fanny pack to carry around with me for 3 weeks which is my own personal IV pump (anyone got a good name for it?) since I'm on these ass kicking antibiotics for 3 weeks. Anyone know anything to make a stomach work anywhere nears normal while killing all bacteria anywhere in the body???

[haydukelives]

actually i would think a VERY old doc would recognize mastoiditis before a young one as antibiotics have made it pretty rare

[hutash]

Go to a heath food store and get a probiotic. Most are worthless, but sometimes they can help.

[SkiBumOfVT]

wow that sounds like your trip was a total nightmare
good luck next time

[GBB]

Heal up quick man!

[splat]

I hate to be the one to break it to you, comish, but you've actually died and gone to TGR hell.

Dude! Sucks! I don't know if you remember, but when we first met at the top of the tram at Le Brevent, I was going through endless sinus infections as a result of two (2) tympanoplasties on my right ear. I know your pang.