Hello, I am new to this forum.
In June I had my decompression surgery for Chiari type I, and I also had to have a laminectomy (I think that's the right term). I don't know all the clinical terms, but after the neurosurgeon removed some of my skull and put in the mesh, he put two plates put in the back of my skull with rods that run down to my spine and are screwed in. I also had a fusion of the C2 and C3. Anyway, eight weeks post op I developed a staph infection, had another surgery to open the incision and clean it all out. Ten days later I infected again, second verse, same as the first. The infection had gone quite deep into my neck and was incredibly painful when I woke up. Like 10 on the pain scale!
I have been on IV antibiotics through a PICC for nearly eight weeks since the last surgery, and soon will be converted to oral antibiotics -- for a long time (months if not years). I've been told that due to the strain of staph I contracted, the infection disease doctors can't guarantee that I am infection free. Ideally they want me to have the hardware removed, but neurosurgery said no. Anyway, apparently the nasty bug can get deep into the crevices of the hardware, and then secrets a biofilm that no known antibiotic can penetrate. It just sits there dormant until I stop taking antibiotics. If it's there, once the antibiotic stops it simply erupts again, even if it's months or years later.
Just wondering if anyone here has experienced this, or been told this by their doctors, and what you might have done about it? I really don't want to be on antibiotics for years and years, but frankly, I never want to go through another surgery where the doctor takes a boar-bristle brush and scrubs the heck out of the back of my head (okay - maybe an exaggeration). I would also like to know if anyone has had this kind of hardware and later on down the road after the bones fused/healed, got it removed?
Thank you!