Never thought this would happen

Saw the surgeon today, after my night shift....

And he said that I was healed enough that he cut my fistula string!!!!!! I'm done with it.

I never thought it would happen. It's felt like it's been FOREVER and a day since this all started.

He said I don't need to see him again....

Unless I develop another abcess (good God I sure hope not!!!) or if the fistula doesn't close up properly and I am still getting discharge and pain in a month from now.

He gave me another month of short weeks for work but then I should be back to work regular schedule!

Not just an ordinary infection

So a week's worth of pain, once I got back home the next day I had an appointment with my surgeon.

Turns out I have a NEW abcess. UGH! When I knew that I was right, I started crying. I was FINALLY starting to heal (somewhat anyways) or at least experiencing less pain, I go two steps backwards.

I knew from talking to the surgeon's receptionist that he wasn't back in his clinic for almost a month and so I asked when he was on-call again at the hospital. Figured that if I had to have an incision & drainage (I&D) that I would prefer to have MY surgeon do it. Turns out he was on-call that very same day.

I just had to head to the hospital while he was on-call. Then once there I had to wait another 2 1/2 hours for him to show up.

He was able to do the procedure and while he tried to be more empathetic and caring - I requested morphine so he gave me 4mg SC of it. And he tried to make sure I was good and frozen. Ya it didn't help much. Holy hell did it hurt!!! Then he gave me another 4mg of the morphine post procedure considering I was crying it hurt so much.

Now two days out, the surgeon actually called me this morning to ask how I was doing!!! How sweet eh?! I guess I must have made a bit of an impression. LOL

I have to see him again Monday for a follow-up. I also have to have home-care though in a clinic to pack the wound. Hurt the last time so I don't expect anything different this time around.

Surgeon says he won't know whether a fistula formed for another week or two. My goodness I hope and pray I didn't.

ANOTHER infection???!!!

The day we were supposed to leave my pain started to increase - always indicative of an infection. The tract felt like it was getting more and more swollen so i went to my family doctor's walk-in and saw the Dr there. She agress, another infection rearing it's ugly head.

Now I'm on Keflex - this makes my SIXTH antibiotic in less than 4 months. UGH when will this end??!!

I'm on vacation - I shouldn't have to deal with this crap. I however, am starting to wonder whether it IS the tract or whether I've developed another fistula because what I'm feeling is a hard lump at the top - but when I press on it (not hard cuz it hurts MASSIVELY) there's no discharge. So I'm at a loss. Hubby says to wait and try to let the antibiotic work and not head off to the ER here. Ya we'll see.

Anyone have any suggestions??? \the sitz baths aren't doign anything - certainly aren't helping with pain or burning or itching. Clearly they aren't helping with the infection. The keflex I've been taking now for 24 hrs - and that hasn't done anything yet. I just want the pain to stop. Ibuprofen isn't really helping. I don't want to be put back on the morphine if I can help it.

July 25th is a SUPER important day!!!!

That day several things will happen...

1. Most important - I have a job interview for a FT L&D position - WOOT WOOT!!!!! I am SUPER UBER stoked! I just found out Thursday, so considering what's been going on with me health wise, this has taken the back seat news wise. Plz send prayers and thoughts out as this day arrives, this is where my heart is leading me to go to deliver my nursing skills & vibes. I just hope that they see that I'm the best one for the job!

2. It's the day I follow up with the surgeon and have him poke & prode (though I hope less this time around!) and see if anything more needs to be done about my derrier. I still have a couple more days of Amox-clav antibiotic, I was nauseous for the first couple of days but that seems to have eased off. I'm still in pain intermittently, highly corrolated to how much walking or sitting on my buttock I do. Night before last, when fast was done, we met up with the in-laws friends at a restaurant and I had to bow out just after eating because I felt like I was going to pass out, hot and dizzy and nauseous does NOT a good evening make!!! Thankfully hubby was right by my side and led me out and even opened my car door for me! awww how sweet (would LOVE if this happened more often!)

3. I find out when I can go back to work - whether that be modified work duties or full scope. My back has been pretty good considering I've been resting more, but I certainly notice when I try to do stuff around the house and then it starts bothering me BIG time - had to take a nap today because the pain from my back and bumm hurt too much. Took a morphine and to sleep I went, when I woke up I felt a bit better - now I'm starting to feel it again. though the morphine has worn off and I've done a bit more around the house so who knows what exactly the culprit is. Time will tell!

I had my dressing changed yesterday and today - the woman has the same name as my auntie - funny since she's the one who's an absolute bitch! This woman is a Sweetheart!!! She puts xylocaine jelly in my wound before doing the packing!!!!!!!! Let me tell you, that has made ALLLLLL the difference!!! She and I have seemed to click which is nice. Hope I get her for the rest of the time that this dressing changes have to be done. She says it looks pretty good considering. She figures that it will take about 3 wks to fully heal. Hopefully I'm a fast healer. She says that my abcess is weird because it tunnels back towards my hip and only slightly towards my rectum - which is not usually how abcesses work. It's something that I'm going to have to bring up to the surgeon when I see him next.

Well I think it's bedtime for me - ciao for now!

I'm in so much pain!!!!!!!!

Had the follow up with the surgeon today - he did an incision & drainage - under local - HOLY SHIT DOES IT HURT!!!!!!!!!! He did the local and I STILL cried!

The first local hurt, but then he had to keep doing more and more becuase he didn't expect the abcess to be so deep - my response was "well if you thought it was that deep why didn't we do a twilight sedation or something" - he figured that it was more superficial and that abcess drainage isn't done in the OR. Which is something I wasn't getting at, that it could have been done in the ER where twilight sedation IS available and I could just stay around waiting for it to wear off.

When I got up from the stretcher there was a pile of blood on the stretcher and between my legs that the doc didn't give me anything to clean up with - good thing at least I brought wet wipes to clean myself up. And of course because of this all I have lost my fast (for Ramadan) which is irritating because I had been fasting since 4am. :( I can't fast for the next 10 days because he also put me on a different antibiotic - Amox-clav, which I haven't even heard about. Now I'll have to make this 11 days up after Ramadan is complete :(

He packed the wound and now I'm going to be having a wound care nurse come to the house daily to repack the wound - which is problaby going to hurt like a bitch. I'm certainly not looking forward to that. The doc gave me Statex but I'm not sure that that will be enough to cover the pain when they pack.

I'm off for another 2 weeks til I see him again. I'm not sure that the wound will be healed by then if he expected the abcess to be more superficial than it was. We'll see though. I just hope that the pain goes away quickly because it sucks having to lay down all the time.

A bit on the personal side

Well considering I'll never meet anyone who actually reads the stuff I post, I figured I would tell ya something a bit personal about myself... not to divulge personal information but to educate about different things that can happen - considering I'm experiencing it first hand

For a couple of months now I've been dealing with constipation - back when I was a teenager I was diagnosed with IBS (Inflammatory bowel syndrome - neither crohns or colitis definatively) and have swung from constipation to diarrhea and therefore can't try any of the meds that would help me because you have to be on one side or the other for the majority of time. Several weeks ago it became pretty bad that I developed a hemorrhoid and tried OTC stuff that never seemed to help so I sought out my family physician (FP) who gave me soemthing to try. I did so for about a week and then I developed this bump on my left buttock next to my rectum. I wait another day and a half and then it just became more and more painful. Being a nurse I *knew* that it was a rectal abcess so off I went to my FP walk-in clinic to ask for antibiotics - turns out that he figured that I also had a fistula and required an ER visit.

Off I go to my hospital (cuz I figured that if I had to be admitted or potentially have surgery) I would rather it be done at my own hospital and that way I wouldn't be stuck in a ward room. I was given a letter from the walk-in physician and waited about an hour to be triaged then another 30 min to see the nurse and have my vitals taken as well as a prelim history and then another 20 min to be registered then immediately brought to acute care in the emerge then I waited another 30ish minutes to see the ER doc and have him examine my tush who then said that he didn't feel anything (which made me flabbergasted cuz it felt huge to me!) and said that he would get a surgeon's consult and that took another 45 min who told me exactly what I already knew - I had a rectal abcess and his belief was that I also had a fistula - based on the fact that I had serosanginous fluid discharge from my rectum. He prescribed me antibiotics and I have to see him in 2 weeks.

He didn't tell me what the antibiotics were for (Cipro & Flagyl) because antibiotics can't treat an abcess (being that it's a local infection not a systemic infection) - so I figured that they're to treat any fecal infection I may have that I'm a carrier for and that that should indirectly help the fistula - who knows!

Being on the antibiotics has been rough. I have been severely nauseous, light-headed, dizzy, and weak - I feel like I have the flu. So hubby suggested that I go off them for one day and see how I feel... I listened to him and yet I still feel the same way 36+hrs later - so off I went back to the hospital cuz I can't very well stay this way. How the HELL am I supposed to take care of others when I feel like the room is spinning around me or that I very well may vomit all over them?! 8 hrs later, I'm no better really. No definitive answers either. ER doc told me to stop taking the meds and that my Sx should just stop all on their own - that although I have been taking these meds properly (BID & TID) that I have developed a UTI - like how the HELL did I develop that while being on antibiotics that TREAT that?! AND being a muslim I wash myself with water and make sure I'm EXTREMELY clean in the nether regions so WHAT THE HELL?????!!!! ER doc won't treat because I have no fever and I don't burn when I pee (told u it was a personal post!) and so he's just going to leave well enough alone - not that THAT makes sense to me but hey, I'm not a Dr!

Now I wait around, feeling useless (and everyone around this house telling me I am!) and wait til I see the surgeon later this week. Oh ya, did I mention that while being off the antibiotics that I feel like the abcess has gotten bigger and is producing more pus?! UGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH