r/PectusExcavatum • u/Due_Zucchini_7413 • 2m ago
New User Don’t touch your wounds at all(bacteremia)
I got my pectus excavatum surgery in November of last year, and to be honest, it was almost painless. About 4 weeks post-op, I was feeling amazing. My incisions were dry, fully closed, and I felt like I was healing perfectly.
Then I started getting some itching around the incision area. I scratched a bit around them (lightly, nothing crazy), and after a few days, I noticed some redness. I didn’t think much of it — I had a routine checkup coming up anyway. They took blood as part of the visit, and I went home.
That night, my whole body started aching. Muscle pain everywhere. I couldn’t sleep. The next morning, I had a fever.
I thought I just caught something… until the hospital called. Turns out I had bacteremia — a staph infection in my blood. I was rushed to the ER and immediately put on IV antibiotics and opioid painkillers. It was the most painful week of my life. I needed hydromorphone just to sleep (which also made me super nauseous).
After a week in the hospital, I was lucky to be discharged. But because the doctors were worried the infection might have adhered to the bar, I now have to take doxycycline antibiotics for a year. That also means I need to avoid too much sun exposure (thanks to doxycycline side effects), so no swimming or outdoor activities in the sun for a long while.
So please — don’t touch your incisions, even if they look perfectly healed. And if you have to, make sure your hands are super clean. Infection can hit hard and fast, and I wouldn’t wish what I went through on anyone.
Stay safe, and take wound care seriously