Infection Saga Continues

Two weeks ago I got some leaking around the "black tissue" of my wound. I took a photo and emailed the surgeon along with a description of what was going on. He said it sounded and looked like a minor skin infection and prescribed me 10 days of antibiotics. However, when the surgeon and I spoke last Friday after 7 days of the antibiotics we agreed things werent responding as we expected and he requested I had a swab taken of the wound for testing to see if there was anything else going on he needed to know about. We made an appointment for today to work through any next steps. The executive summary is basically - he cleaned out the wounds, has prescribed me a different and stronger antibiotic, is arranging for a nurse to dress my wounds going forward and will keep a close eye on the recovery process from here on in - worst case scenario it may need a minor trip back to theatre to close it up again :( - but we wont preempt anything, we'll take each day as it comes.

Now before I burst into detail ... grossness print ... I want to say ... this operation is still the best thing I've done since learning to tie my shoe laces ... I dont regret having the op at all and this issue I'm having at the moment is just that ... a "temporary issue" that will heal with drugs, surgical expertise and time :) I must admit I feel 100% better now that I've seen John and am quite confident of what the long term results will be. I am recording the detail of my visit today cos quite frankly I need to look back at this in 6 months time and go ohhhhhhhhhh yeah thats what happened, the other thing is ... if anyone is considering this surgery I think its important they understand what happens eh - this is simply a post surgical complication and one of the risks associated with major surgery.


**WARNING*** Grossness now follows ...

On Monday night when Craig changed my tapes, I sprung a leak in another part of my wound, the left hand side but on my backside. It wouldnt stop oozing so like my front side, we retaped it and stuck a santitary pad to it. My main wound was still very pusy and while it looked "clean" it didnt appear to be sealing or healing very quickly. John rung me this morning and said he had the results of the swab and that there was another "bug" present and he definately needed to see me. I drove myself into the surgeon and met Craig there. John took off all the dressings had a look and explained that he wanted to clean the wound out, there was a bug deep in the tissue that was breaking the wound down further and he needed to get the wound as clean as possible so that it could heal better. The antibiotics he prescribed me will kill the bug. The backside leakage was caused by the same bug, it manifests itself anywhere there is a weakeness - your immune system will do as much as it can to fight it, but apparently this bug doesnt give up without a fight. We went into a small sterile room with bed/operating table where I had to lay on my side. He didnt give me local anaesthetic because I was still very numb in and around the front wound. His wife/nurse was there also and they swabbed the area in cleaning stuff and then he basically cut away dead skin around the wound with scissors and then used a metal tool to scrape the wound clear of dead cells and pus. It didnt hurt but I could feel the pressure and the scrapping against the muscle - I have to say it was pretty gross LOL He also removed an internal stitch! It looked like a thick piece of green fishing nylon! The wound is about 2 inches long and a couple of inches deep.

He then moved to the backside wound. What I thought was just a "pin prick" turned out to be a little bit more extensive. Unfortunately I wasnt as numb in this area, however he cleaned this wound out also without local anaesthetic ... it wasnt dreadfully painful, but it made me flinch a few times ... hey I must be a tuff chick eh? LOL. This time I felt him cutting the skin - apparently I also bled like a stuck pig and I also felt him scraping and moving things around. He was a little concerned about not finding the "tracks" of where the fluid was coming from, I think he was worried that it might be under my new butt cheek fat deposits, but he seemed to think it was following the scar line - guess time will tell. He also squeezed the area alot trying to remove the fluid. The wound is about an inch in diametre and about half an inch deep.

After cleaning both wounds he didnt stitch me externally ... hey this is cosmetic surgery after all ... he simply packed both wounds with gauze and then put a plastic sealing tape over the top. Craig watched the whole procedure (how they hell he didnt flake out I dunno) and tomorrow morning he will pull out the gauze and redress my wounds with tape and sanitary pads for me again LOL


**** GROSSNESS NOW OVER *****

John is going to contact the District Health nurse support tomorrow and hopefully they will be able to dress my wounds at home, or the local surgery going forward, as it will require special dressings.

John is hoping the next couple of weeks the wounds will respond well to the new approach and start to heal from the inside out. If not, there is a possibility I will need to go back to theatre for him to seal the wounds cosmetically again. This "bug" has occurred in approximately 50% of his lower body lift patients. There is nothing we (him or us) could have done to prevent it, its just one of those unfortunately things that happens post surgery.

On the positive side, he is extremely happy with the rest of my wound and healing process - the swelling that was around my belly (my lower tits) has nearly gone and he reiterated that was are only 5 weeks into the healing process and its still early days.

I'm really glad I saw him today, I still have 120% trust and faith in him as a surgeon and I dont regret anything thats happened in the last 5 weeks at all. Now the frustration of further healing is upon me. Not sure at this stage if I will be going back to work on Monday, will wait and see what happens with the wound dressing routine we need to get into. I feel fine, I dont feel ill and this is all a matter of patience and time.

Night :) and sorry if you bought up your dinner LOL