A Bear with a busted seam
Hi all,
I know I haven't posted much recently and this has been mainly because I've been in and out of hospital.
I went to the gym after class a few weeks back and halfway through my workout I started getting stomach pains, just discomfort at first but escalating to severe pain as the day progressed.
Eventually I called The Bird to come and drive me to Fremantle Hospital Emergency Dept.
I was x-rayed in ER and immediately admitted and prepped for surgery. The doctors told me that they had found 'A mass' that needed to be removed.
They were very concerned and advised me that depending on how the surgery went I may need a colostomy bag as they may have to remove a section of my bowel.
I went into surgery and apparently I was under for several hours and when I awoke I had an incision running from just above my navel down to my groin. Fortunately, not a colostomy bag in sight, though I was hooked up to a catheter and various other machines.
I also had 31 metal staples holding my gut together. The doctors advised me that the operation was successful and not to worry as there was no sign of cancer in the mass they had removed.
I spent a rather uncomfortable 5 days in hospital in a room with one of the Bandido Motorcycle Bretheren who was in with a bad case of gout. He turned out to be a charming fellow, until his leg was bumped by a cleaner and several security gaurds were called in to calm him. (Which of course did exactly the opposite)
I was eventually alowed home and 10 days after my surgery I went to have my staples removed, only to have part of the wound re-open. My GP and his nurse tried to manually close the wound and laid steri-strips acroos it and sprayed the site with Fixamol, an adhesive spray. Which to my horror and ultimate discomfort turns out to be the only medical product I am allergic to.
My stomach reacted to the adhesive and blistered so badly that I had to return to Emergency.
You'd think that's were all the drama would end, but alas, it just got worse.
The young surgeon (We'll call him Doogie) who attended me suggested that I needed a vacuum dressing and he seemed really quite excited about this procedure (which of course should've rung warning bells that he'd never done it before)
I was subjected to Doogie pushing two fingers into my open wound, opening it further to a six inch gash. Doogie then stuffed the wound full of what appeared to be aquarium foam, and without shaving me of applying dressings to my blisters, he laid a clear adhesive sheet over my entire stomach and hooked me up to a vacuum pump.
Surprise surprise! There was no seal. So what do you think Doogie did?
He swiftly removed the adhesive sheet, which took all my belly and pubic hair and ALL the skin covering the blisters off.
This procedure he did twice before giving up under a hail of loud and tearful verbal abuse from me.
I'm happy to say I am finally on the mend, thanks to HITH (Hospital in the Home) and it looks as though I'm going to have a kick arse scar to show at parties.