Infection in lung and chest wall

JLea
JLea Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Lung Cancer #1
My father has stage 3b small cell lung cancer. He also has an infection in his lung and mainly in his chest wall, and it will not go away. The surgeons have put tubes thru the side of his chest 3 times now to remove the fluid in there. He has been on so many types of antibiotics, and nothing will help. Now the incisions in his side from the tubes are not wanting to heal either, and just keep seeping. They hve tols him he cannot have chemotherapy due to this infection. Sya it will hurt his immune system too bad, and the infection will take over.
Is there anyone out there who has any knowledge or experience with something of this sort?
We are in immediate need of some sort of information as the doctors say without treatment, he only has a few months.

Comments

  • soccerfreaks
    soccerfreaks Member Posts: 2,788 Member
    #2
    Following a lobectomy on Jan 31 of this year, I contracted a staph infection, MSSA (a cousin of MRSA) while still in the hospital, and ended up staying in for just about the entire month of Feb.

    I was initially given vancomicin, as they thought the infection WAS MRSA, but they switched me over to nafercillin and another I can't remember at the moment, the very next day, when MSSA was confirmed.

    I also got three tubes, along with a second surgery, where they went in and cleaned up all of the 'pus pockets' inside. My doc estimated (?) there were between 194 and 205 such 'pockets' and it was his intent to get them all. I don't know if he did, but I eventually got cleared to go home, where I carried a 'man bag' IV setup with a nafercillin bag for the month of March. It appears that the infection is completely gone, although I still have issues with low platelets and white blood cell counts, which may be exacerbated by the fact I AM doing chemotherapy now.

    I don't know how this can help you, but I commiserate and hope that your dad's doctors can figure out what needs to be done to correct the situation.

    Take care,

    Joe

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