Hello, My name is Cindy Priest and I live in Northeastern Ohio. I would like to blame this entire incident on the chemotherapy treatments I self injected for just over a year. The treatments were in remedy for Psoriatic Arthritis (PsA). During that time, I was sick 80% of the time ... because of the complete depletion of my immune system. Chemo is evil. I no longer inject or take the pill form. Granted my PsA has come back 10 fold and pain dominates my life, I'd still rather be alive.
After having yeast infection after yeast infection in my outer groin area, the right side of my groin developed a staph and eventual MRSA infection. The left side was far worse. What had started as a 3 inch diameter red spot, grew into 14" x 8" in just a couple days. It burned so badly, I had to use lidocaine ointment and way too much pain medication just to be able to breathe. After this point, my memory is gone. I was taken by ambulance from my home to a nearby hospital as I was unconscious ... my blood sugars were over 800. I have no "real" memory of what happened or how long I was in an induced coma.
Two days and three surgeries later, I was completely confused. Did not know what happened to me. Thought I had been kidnapped and was eventually going to be killed. These and many more hallucinations still haunt me to this day ... seven months after being back home. The most petrifying one keeps me from sleeping in the dark. I was covered in blood and clots on my hospital gown. After complaining of pain and the blood, one doctor told me that he could stop the bleeding, but it would hurt much worse than the wound vac they would stitch in. He then put his entire fist into my vagina and put as much pressure as his body could endure. This is while, I am hearing a nurse and doctor talking "but what about her wedding?" My delirium was so painfully horrifying. Eventually, I told myself to just close my eyes and God would take me to Heaven. I am in tears right now as I write this.
Another idea in my head was that I would never walk again because they had taken all of my groin and part of my thigh and only the skeletal remains of my spine remained. I saw mannequins pointing to a lit EXIT sign and I hazily remember trying to leave before I was murdered. This part was kind of true ... The nurses told me that I did try to rip out the tubes and other things. Ended up being tied to my bed so I could not move.
The final result was a loss of part of my vaginal wall and left partial side labia. The scarring ... oh God the scarring. There is hanging skin and my inner upper thigh is stitched to what was the back of the labia. I had no plastic surgery to repair the missing muscle or fascia as it healed with a great deal of caring and love from the doctors and nurses at the hospital and rehab center. Definitely did not lack for love from the staff.
One deeply saddening part of my story is that one of my "friends" either gave away or let go of one of my cats while I was so ill. Both my feline friends have saved my life on an occasion or two over the prior 3 years after suffering from severe empty nest depression.
That is part of my story and the moral, so far? CHEMO IS EVIL, do NOT let wounds go untreated, do NOT go into community waters with open wounds of any kind, NEVER judge anyone .. ever and do your very best to keep your blood sugars under 300.
