Margaret Mack

Dr. Farmer was brought in to operate on my spine when an MRI showed that I had a softball sized ball of Aspergillosis on my lumbar. I had come to HSS from my home, Louisville, Kentucky, by Air Lifeline. I was to have a shoulder implant from Dr. Figgie, but it was postponed for 3 days due to me having cellulitis on my leg. While I received antibiotics for my leg, I asked the doctors about the pain in my hip. That's when Dr. Farmer found the fungus---the Kentucky doctors were baffled. He said any movement could burst it so I was bedridden until the surgery. I had just spent the weekend walking 30 blocks to the St. Patrick's Day Parade. 2 surgeries, much hardware, MRSA in my spine, 3 years of my life, 1 1/2 years in a turtle cast unable to be by myself, and I was shortened 6 inches. Dr. Farmer told me when he took the metal out of my spine to treat the MRSA, 2 years after the 1st surgery that he had never seen fungus on the spine like this, he went to the literature and found 5 cases but none survived. He never mentioned that for those 2 very hard years, I never thought that death was a possibility, and so, I'm independent, use no devices (cane, etc.) and up and at 'em now. THANKS!