I need a medical person to help me understand something that happened in hospital

[piprabbit]

I was very ill a number of years ago, septicemia, double pneumonia, double pleurisy. I was pretty out of it and my memories are hazy/patchy/non-existent for much of the first few days after my admission to hospital.

It was all quite a shock, and it's taken time for me to piece together a sequence of events and treatments but there are still a couple of mysteries that really niggle and upset me. I would love to understand more so that I can move on properly.

So any information/ideas would be very much appreciated.

1. I have a 1.5cm scar just above my right-hand collar bone on my neck. I have no recollection of what or why - but my parents think it was connected with giving doctors easy access to blood when my veins/arteries were hard to access? Is this right? Do you know what this is called? How would it work?

2. After weeks of treatment, loads of IV ABs, blood transfusions, nasty drugs being pumped straight into my longs in an effort to liquify the pus enough for it to drain etc. etc. something really odd happened. Layers of skin on the soles of my feet and palms of my hands died and came away (think blisters without the fluid, soreness or discomfort) It was like wearing gloves/socks made of my own skin. None of the medical staff at the time could explain it, they found it interesting but not urgent considering everything else I was going through. Why would this have happened? Does it have a name?

Thank you in advance for any light you can shed on this for me.

The scar could be from a central line, bit like a large cannula. It is a slim tube into your vein they can use to give you fluids and antibiotics. Usually you would be on HDU or ITU if you were ill enough to need one.

The skin thing rings a bell but I'm not sure what it is sorry. hth

Hi there - no medical answers from me but why don't you contact the hospital and ask for a copy of your records? You'll probably need to pay for the photocopying and they might want a doctor to go through them with you, but that might be good? Anything that happened to you should be written in your notes and sitting down with someone to go through them could be helpful. Contact the hospital's patient advice service, or the Chief Exec's office.

yes the scar sounds like it's from a central line - much more efficient way to get IV fluid / drugs etc in than a peripheral line (eg in back of hand or elbow)

if your pneumonia was caused by stahpylococcus (which it might hav ebeen) then this can cause somethign called 'scalded skin syndrome' where one of the toxins the bug produces causes the skin to peel away.

Thank you so very much for your replies.
The central line description fits with the bits I know - especially as I was in ICU for a wee while.

I had meningococcal septicaemia, so I'm not sure if that firs with the scalded skin syndrome - I'll do some more digging now I have a description to google.

Dottydot, my hospital records are two very thick files worth - would probably take a week to go through them .

I knew I knew the real word for the skin dropping off - it came to me in the car this afternoon
desquamation

Agree wrt central line.

Desquamation, like MrsB says - can get it with any severe sepsis, not just staph. Also if you had v bad oedema this would have exacerbated it.

Many thanks - that is a fantastic word (and it makes research so much easier when you know the right jargon).

From what I've read desquamation of the hands and feet can occur during recovery from toxic shock (about 1 or 2 weeks later), which fits in with my own experience.

The only odd bit is that toxic shock is a response to strep infection, and I definitely had a meningoccal infection.

Agree definitely sounds like a central line. Other possibility to the desquamation might be stevens-johnson syndrome.
You should request a meeting with your doctors at the hospital that treated you to go through the notes and explain it all to you.

Pip - sounds like you were very sick indeed and it must have been horrible.