Yet another taxi ride to the hospital today.
On Monday the nurse came over and took out my staples (ouch!) and when I asked him why the pain wasn’t getting any better he just said it was a big incision, plus it was the second time they’d opened the same area, so that it would probably take longer to heal. I’m also having a bit of leakage (ewww) but the nurse said it didn’t look infected, and I didn’t have a fever, so we left it at that. And then . . .
Yesterday I woke up unable to get myself out of bed … any use of my upper abdominal muscles was sheer agony. And even once I was up it was almost impossible to walk. I called Dr A and he suggested that I go get checked out at Emergency, but then I started to panic because I was afraid of going back to the hospital. So instead I found this one comfortable-ish position (half-sitting, leaning back on pillows with my knees bent) and stayed in bed for the rest of the day, thinking that maybe I’d just been doing too much. It was pretty boring until I asked Nog to bring in my laptop and set things up so that I also had my keyboard (much lighter than having the laptop resting on my knees). At least I could play scrabble!
Anyhow, I had spoken to Pilar (from The Team) and had promised her that I would for sure go to Emergency today if I wasn’t feeling better, and I know that if Pipocas wasn’t away on a business trip she would have made me go yesterday even though I was scared. So after Nog finishes his first class of the day, he’s going to come with me to the hospital.
I’ll let you know what happens . . .
That was me all day yesterday – bedridden!
Notice how Sunny never leaves my side … awwww.
casa azahar 
Fingers and toes crossed, xxx
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Eyes
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I’m back! And it’s a good thing I went because the nurse was wrong and I have quite a massive infection going on. I was also lucky in that Pilar called ahead once I told her I was on my way and, instead of going to Emergency, one of my surgical team was waiting for me on the ‘liver ward’ and so I went directly there.
Of course I was terrified that there was going to be something horribly wrong with me and they were going to make me stay in hospital (I was crying all the way there in the taxi), which José María must have picked up on because after telling me it was an infection and nothing too serious he said, “I bet you thought we were going to have to operate again!”. Boy, do they know me or do they know me?
Anyhow, he checked me over and then had a couple of interns clean and dress the incision, which included sticking me with a needle several times and squeezing out a whole whack of pus-filled liquid from my belly (ewww! as well as owww!). I’m supposed to go back next Tuesday and until then I’ll be on antibiotics and will have the nurse from my health centre come over and change the bandages every day.
So I am back in bed. Still in pain but very relieved to know what it is and also know that it should be better soon. Won’t be going to Málaga for the long weekend though (sorry about that, Pip!). Turns out we couldn’t have gone in any case because Manolo told me this morning that the work on his kitchen won’t be finished by then, so we’ll have to arrange another weekend to go down and stay at his apartment. Preferably while the Christmas lights are still up.
Ah well, I have a new (for me) Discworld book to read, so I should be okay. 🙂
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You poor thing. At least the pus is a sign that your body’s defences are on the case.
:airhug: since a real :hug: would be too uncomfortable – same sentiment, just no touching
Wishing you speedy healing.
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Don’t EVER, ever, ever do that again!
You almost gave me a heart attack. And I knew how this was going to play out within like, three lines. Been there, done that.
Let’s see: they cut you open, poked around inside you for an hour or so, stitched you up by poking a needle in and out of you repeatedly, and several days later you start to feel suddenly much, much worse and you think, “oh, it’ll pass”? Is that what happened? Cuz yeah, it passes if you wait it out, but then everybody has to go to a funeral and it’s really depressing.
The idea is: you feel terrible the first day after an operation. The day after, you feel more or less the same or a bit better. Next day, ditto, next day, ditto…that’s the process of healing. It doesn’t go “feel better, feel the same, feel better, feel REALLY WORSE, feel better”. It just doesn’t work that way.
Take your temperature every single day and record it. If you want, open a private blog for that kind of thing. If you have the patience, take your pulse as well. I found that a variation of even a half degree was predictive of trouble over 80% of the time. That was how my body worked. If you start keeping those records now you’ll get to know how yours works and then when something weird like this strikes you’ll be able to put it into context.
Remember: the nurses are trained professionals, but they’ve never seen you before and they don’t have the context. If you’ve got those records, you have valuable information and you can protect yourself.
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Good thing you went and got it checked…!
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Oh, az. I’m glad you went in, and glad you get to be back at home. But it all sounds pretty harrowing. And it got you a scolding from raincoaster.
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I’ll leave the scolding, and be happy that all should be “well” again in a few days!
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Thanks raincoaster for doing the scolding. Now I don’t have to 😉 But az, you really deserve a cat claw or four in your rear end for not getting your belly properly checked…
Get well now!
*hugs*
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So glad to hear you’re back home! Malaga will still be there another weekend. What Discworld are you reading? And hey – we get lots of Scrabble time!
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You look like you’re taking care of yourself there.
One day I would like to cuddle that cat. 🙂
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I’, glad you went to have it checked. Hope the antibiotics will do their job quickly. Can’t get our scrabble to load, they’ve changed the board.
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It’s good that it went smoothly though. Happy scrabbley recovery then! :airhug:
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Az, I’m glad you finally went and got checked out **What Raincoaster said**, in spades…
I know this will be difficult, but you have to sesist the urge to go bungee jumping or deep-sea diving…. as well as taking long walks carrying small cars. For Christ’s sake… take it easy!
End of sermon…..
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“stitched you up by poking a needle in and out of you repeatedly”
Actually, they used staples. But yes okay … scolding humbly acknowledged and accepted, Rain. I know I should have gone yesterday but I’m not kidding when I say I panic just at the thought of going to the hospital. Luckily Pip called me from Frankfurt while I was in the waiting room because I was feeling so upset and – I don’t know how she does it – within a few minutes she had me laughing about her ‘invisible balls’ that she had frozen off. 🙂
It was also great that Pilar arranged for me to see my surgical group, who know my whole history. In fact, when José María introduced me to the two interns he said something like, “you must remember Shawn, she was that emergency colon operation awhile ago”. Hmmm, maybe I’m ‘famous’ for being an anomaly by (so far) not becoming the hopeless case that my oncologist had predicted? Anyhow, I felt much more properly looked after there than I would have in Emergency.
“One day I would like to cuddle that cat.”
And he’d let you, ian. Honestly, Sunny just loves people and always makes visitors feel welcome by clunking his big head against their legs and purring at them. Azar is also very affectionate, though he won’t let anyone but me or Nog touch him, and he’ll only cuddle with me.
The Pratchett book is Wyrd Sisters, Bea. I was surprised to discover that I hadn’t read it yet and so I ordered it from Amazon. I also got that book that you suggested, Anneke. The Colour of a Dog Running. Not sure which one I’ll start first. I’m just finishing rereading Murther & Walking Spirits by Robertson Davies and am in the middle of the Anticancer book that hmh sent me.
Anyhoodle, as we speak I am tucked up in bed with both cats next to me and feeling quite happy to be home again. Thanks for the airhugs and stuff. Much appreciated.
Okay, back to scrabble…
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I’m so glad that raincoaster did such a fine job of scolding you so none of the rest of us have to! I especially appreciated the description of the “normal” path of healing. . .except that in my experience healing generally trends towards better with the caveat that the “graph” of improvement looks more like a mountain range than a ramp. There will be good days and bad days. But massive pain that means you can’t even walk is out of the graph completely and demands attention. Glad you got it.
Hope the antibiotics are working and you feel better very quickly.
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Tap, tap, tap, tap (foot tapping) Be grateful Rain got to you first young lady! Glad you ***finally*** got yourself attended to. Even if they had had to open you up again, it’s better than the alternative. And I could tell you graphically what could have happened if you hadn’t attended to this. But I won’t. Just this once. Be grateful, be very, very grateful.
Someone said something about Scrabble? (BTW, I have a sister named Shawn, too.)
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Eeep! I was kinda dreading you showing up, Silverstar. 😳
For the record, Silverstar ordered me to go to the hospital yesterday but I was too busy being scared and stupid to take her advice. I have since learned my lesson.
I don’t know any other girl Shawns – what a coincidence. When I was in hospital one of the nurses called me Juana and I hissed at her “What did you call me???” She looked a bit confused and then said “I just translated your name. Isn’t it right?” I told her that it was but asked her not to say it again in case people started calling me Juanita. *shudder* Then I taught her how to pronounce my name (they never get it right) and she was happy with that.
Yeah, this was a totally different “path of healing” than the other two times, hmh, so I should have known better.
Lexulous is all fucked up at the moment. Hope they get it sorted by the weekend.
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Wyrd Sisters? That was the second Discworld book I ever read! Like, how can a reader go through life not finding that one – sheer genius!
Take care of yourself – I’m living with crossed fingers, eyes, and sometime soon I will get my ears to cross – all for you.
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I was watching an episode of House yesterday when the lovely Dr Greg took a whole lot of nasty pus out of someone’s jaw…. ewwwww. And here I am reading that poor you had to have someone (sadly, NOT the gorgeous Dr Greg House) take yucky stuff out of your belly. Sounds awful and scary.
Good that Sunny is maxing out on the snibbling then 🙂
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I’ve only started reading Pratchett, having come late in life to it, so haven’t read many of the witches ones yet. Currently on The Dark Side of the Sun.
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I have about 25 Discworld novels on my bookshelf (possibly more) and I’ve read them all out of sequence. Though when I reread them I do so in order, like all the Sam Vimes and Tiffany Aching ones. So once I finish Wyrd Sisters I can then reread the other witch books in order.
“how can a reader go through life not finding that one”
I blame the random selecting of books in English by the bookshops here, Archie. One place I used to order books from would always order an extra copy to put on the shelves, which was either a compliment to my good taste in books or just laziness on their part in keeping their shelves stocked.
I haven’t read The Dark Side of the Sun either, Bea. It’s not a Discworld novel. Let me know what you think of it.
I may not have Dr House, truce, but there is “Dr Dreamy” (as Pip calls him) who is awfully, well, dreamy. Though having someone squeeze pus out of my fat belly, or be intimate with my insides, kind of puts the kibosh on any sexual fantasies…
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Wyrd Sisters was the one that got me started on Discworld. Nothing has been the same since 😀
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I started it last night and am totally loving it, dq. 🙂
The nurse came this morning to change the dressing. Ewww, I hadn’t realised that they’d opened the incision a bit at the hospital yesterday and inserted a funnel-shaped bit of gauze to help the fluid/pus come out. So the nurse also changed the ‘funnel’ and now it’s hurting, in a different way than before … think I’ll just go lie down and try taking a nap. Luckily the cats have warmed up the bed for me.
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Could u please take it easy?!!! rest!REST! rest!!!!
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I’m not going to scold as that has been competently done already, but — don’t do that again! That close after a surgery, that kind of pain is NOT a normal part of healing. Get thee to the sawbones quicker, if there’s a next time. I actually know what Silverstar kindly didn’t tell you, and she’s right — hope she doesn’t. That said, here’s bagful of hugs (Long distance, painless ones) and snibbles (ditto). Pleae rest, and enjoy your reading.
Wyrd Sisters was my first Pratchett, as well, DQ! Loved it, and started reading anything by him I could find. I really *tried* to do it in order, really I did. Great stuff, even out of order.
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I have learned that when someone with medical experience (meaning as a patient) thinks or says something is wrong, it is usually wrong, and you need to holler at the stolid “professionals” till you are heard by someone who gets it.
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