Osteomyelitis - anyone have experience of this

[Nameandgamechange123]

My dd (16) has just finished a 6 week course of antibiotics for infection of the SI joint. She is still in a fair bit of pain, but hospital insist that there is nothing more that they need to do for her. Has anybody had any experience of osteomyelitis. I really do only want to hear positive things as I am really making myself ill with worry. I would appreciate any advice or experience. X

My DB had it when he was about 10. He was admitted to hospital for IV antibiotics and was in for a few nights I think, then was off school for perhaps another week or two (I remember his form teacher sent work home for him so it must have been a decent length of time he was off). So it's fair to say it wasn't an instant recovery once he finished the antibiotics, but he did make a 100% recovery (he's now in his 30s!).

I deal with it everyday as a specialist podiatrist. It's normally 6 weeks of antibiotics followed by repeat xray. If it's caught early it's usually OK and of course other factors like age, diabetes, vascular status can make it worse but people often make a full recovery. I've had it myself sepsis and osteomyelitis of the jaw after a two year (during covid) dental abcess and its fine now. I had two 6 week courses of antibiotics, bone implants and a couple of dental implants.

Out of interest how did it happen? Is she disabled/pressure sore or some other reason? I have a reason foe asking. Go to pm if you like.

DS had it as a younger teen in his leg / knee with sepsis. A week in hospital, IV AB's at home and oral ABs for quite a while, limited weight bearing for three months and he was fine - no lasting damage.

My son (10) had it in his upper tibia 18 months ago. He was pretty unwell. He had 2 weeks of iv antibiotics, switched to oral a/b, temperature came back, 5 more days iv then 2 weeks of a better a/b. The crucial marker to know it was gone was his crp and esr returning to normal after being sky high. In terms of pain it was unbareable to start. He could just weight bare after are first discharge and I’d say it took about 3 months to feel normal again. MRIs were used to assess progress/damage and he now has a folllow up with orthopaedics (and X-ray) every 6 months to monitor any disruption to the growth plate.

Thanks everyone- sorry.... I didn't realise I had any response to this. These are very positive. @Shehasadiamondinthesky nobody knows how she got it. She didn't have an injury like an open wound anywhere near the site of infection. She does, however have a history of SH. my worry is that the infection has somehow come back while she was still on AB. Is this possible?

Not really no, the damage is done pre-antibiotics if there is any damage. Funnily enough a patient of mine years ago contracted osteomyelitis of the cervical spine, he is fine now, no injury but they thought it may have got in through a tiny pin prick injury. Unfortunately he ignored all his symptoms for months until he had sepsis and had to have a plate put in to cover the damage. But other than a stiff neck he is fine.

They do regular xrays to check obviously so would have noticed if it hadn't cleared up.

My sister had Osteomyelitis 20 years ago, she fell off the beam during gymnastics and hit her femur pretty hard. 1 week later she finally told my parents that she couldn't weight bare on the leg and dad took her to the drs, he sent her straight to hospital. She started antibiotics but infection was too large and she needed an operation to drain the infection and she was then in a cast for 10 weeks, problem was that they needed to immobilise the nearest joint which were her hips. Full plaster cast from chest down. She came out of hospital 12 weeks later using a wheelchair and crutches. Never did gymnastics again but continued playing sport to a high level once the leg was stronger and apart from a decent scar has had no problems since.

@Shehasadiamondinthesky there were no regular checks whilst she was on the antibiotics. Now what needs to be done is a biopsy
.... The problem is they are making excuses as to why they can't perform one. I feel like time is ticking. It's really scary.

Hey @Nameandgamechange123 - how did your daughter end up? We’ve been in and out of hosp for 2 weeks now with my two year old and osteomyelitis of the tibia. He doesn’t want to walk still.