Hows your dad, Franky?

[Captain Jay Kavanagh]

on comming home early.....Actualy the last couple of days worked out great, monday's crew were glad to get on the road early, and todays crew actually refused to reel in any more!

Hey, Franky, how is your dad?

[FrankyPettolina]

Jay,

I don't know how much you know of the story, and with the letter in the magazine I will probably get more questions so here is the story.

My father has been prone to gout over the years. In Islamorada on New Years Eve he thought he had a flare up in his elbow (not the most common place, but it does happen). We went to Key West New Years Day and decided to see a Doc there. Doc agreed that it looked like a severe case of Gout and treated it as such with a Cortizone shot and some gout meds and pain meds.
Dad felt great in a day, so we left for Mexico. Half way through the crossing he started to have pain and run a fever. We thought maybe the long hours of use had bothered it or something. When we got to Cancun he felt terrible (Friday Morning). Saturday was even worse so we tried to get in to see a Doctor, no spots til Monday. On Sunday the arm went from swollen to a big blister. Byt the time we got to the Doc on Monday afternoon it was full of puss and scabbing. Doctor told us that it was some sort of skin infection and the gout treatment only fed it (no ill feelings towards the Doc in Key West, just a misdiagnosis). Doc in Mexico said it needed to be treated with antibiotic injections for five days, come beack on Friday. At this point I thought it would be 5 needles and a big scab (my fault, my fault, my fault) So we stayed in Cancun. Come Friday night the infection had not cleared and the arm was now extremely swollen and oozing pus. Doctor started to drain it and got close to 2 quarts out and called in a specialist. Specialist said that it was a super infection and was spreading rapidly. Surgery would be needed to stop it. Without surgery it would spread to bones, veins, and arteries and lead to loss of arm at minimum. I asked for a time frame and the Specialist told me 10 to 12 hours till arm loss. Now I am screwed (not to mention dad). Had no time to get him home so we opted for the surgery there. Operated at 11 friday night with a follow up on Monday morning. Removed another quart of dead tissue and infection from his arm. Just below the elbow on the back of the forearm. At this point the Doc explained that the wound would require plastic surgery to close. Skin Graft was performed 14 days later. I have some awesome (loaded with gore) pictures of the procedure from start to the end of the second surgery. If I can figure out how I will post them (not for the weak stomachs). He was cleared to fish around the 16th of Feb. His arm is a little funny looking and clearing the left teaser was a bit of a problem, but it is functional.
Should be back to normal before June. (other than the looks of it).

Sorry to ramble on, but it was quite a time over there. I have nothing but great things to say about the Doctors and of course the service at Hacienda. Biggest difference between there and here is that they let me in the operating room on several occasions to see the progress. I have seen the inside of Dad's arm from elbow to wrist, and I never want to see it again.

Keep crushing those tunas, in my opinion being done before noon is a very good thing. I'll tell dad you were asking for him.

Franky

[justin]

Franky
Glad to see your dad made out good, tell him and your mom i said hi and hope everything will be good for this summer. How was the trip back. hope everything goes well now and ill see you in a may. not sure what ill be on yet still looking. I talked to rusty a month ago and he got on a nice ride in Fl and i think he is in the bahamas right now. Justin

[TommyTuna]

Wow, that's a scary story! Hope he continues to improve.

[Captain Jay Kavanagh]

Thanks for the update Franky, glad everything is Ok.

Was it some sort of fish bacteria? I am super paranoid about that stuff!

[FrankyPettolina]

Not really sure what caused it.

Here are the theoriies we have been given.

1. Possible spider bite.
2. Bacteria of some kind, not necessarily fish, could have been anything.
3. It is possible that he did have a gout attack. Sometimes there are cysts associated with the gout called tophus. If one of theses cysts explodes under the skin an infection sets in.

What we do know is that the infection was fascillitis (I'm not sure about the spelling), which is an advanced form of cellulitis.

I'll let Dad know you all were asking.

Thanks,
Franky

[J_MAN]

Wow Franky sorry to here that news but glad he'll be back on the water in about time for the tuna run in OC. I had the pleasure to fish with you all a few years back in the MSSA tunament with Noel Johnson and we actually won some money. I remember you yelling up at your dad to speed the boat up as a 90+ lb. hoo was chomping a leader and passing the boat up and eventually cut us off. You all run a great operation.

I haven't been fishing OC much lately as I've been venturing south into NC and VA.

Take care
I hope your dad is up and at it soon.

Jason Akers