Week 5 & 6

2013 so far...

Do you want the good news or bad news? Well, the good news is that I’ve progressed to using an exercise bike (with no resistance) and subsequently hip extension is getting easier and less painful. The tricky bit is lifting myself onto the saddle without putting weight through the operating side, but once on, it’s great. Pedalling doesn’t cause pain and I attempt at least five minutes every other day. The great news is that since using the bike, I’ve finally seen more progression since getting in the hydro pool for the first time. I was getting fairly frustrated and inpatient that no new developments had occurred in the last four weeks but luckily, the six week mark was the turning point. I can climb in and out of bed much easier, I’m not in pain when I wriggle around on the sofa or in bed, I’m sleeping better, I don’t feel pain while ‘walking’ and, I can even hop now without shooting pains down my bad side. I think it’s fair to say that I’m almost ready to look after myself and therefore, Andy and my dad will be grateful to hear that their dutiful duties are coming to an end.

The bad news is that my wound is infected. You may recall in my last post that I would seek help if it worsened. Well it did. The infected part is just below half way down the scar so it’s not the same area, but it came out of nowhere. I woke on Thursday to find a small red and inflamed patch of skin that hurt if you pressed the surrounding area. During the day, an opening appeared immediately to the right of the scar with a tiny pocket of puss below.

Throughout the day it worsened so I attempted to cover it. I only had plasters available so I cut the two sticky side lengths off the plaster and placed it perpendicular to the wound. I called the surgery to book an appointment for the following day to have it assessed. That evening, I removed the plaster to discover the plaster had soaked up a lot of puss. After airing the wound, when I saw the nurse and doc it had scabbed over but the inflammation was still prominent. They agreed that it was infected and immediately prescribed me strong antibiotics. I've hypothesised that the infection was caused due to clothes and waistbands rubbing but I guess we may not know. A dressing was applied, the prescription and a load of dressings were bought, and then it was onto hydro. I applied a waterproof dressing and had a good session.

I wasn’t surprised about the infection as that was my diagnosis, but I was surprised that I would encounter this issue after five and half weeks, and how it was half way down the scar and not at either end where I’ve had previous problems. At least I caught it early and it would disappear just as quickly… Wrong. From the moment I took the antibiotics I didn’t feel well. Very nauseous, abdominal pains and a toilet related problem that rhymes with gonorrhoea. Not only that but the wound continued to worsen over the weekend, so first thing Monday, it was back to the surgery. The inflammation was very visible but the pussing has stopped again.

The Doc gave me a swab to take home so I could capture some puss for a lab analysis to ensure it wasn’t anything more serious. I was given a choice to start a different course of antibiotics to avoid the side-effects but then all the blood sweat and tears would’ve been for nothing, so I decided to see the course through.

There were a lot of differing opinions as to whether the wound needed dressing or letting it breathe so as usual, I decided to do my own thing. I discovered that every time I put a dressing on (to put clothes on and go out, or for hydro) it would open and puss again, but if I aired it (hard to achieve when you’re in a room with your dad), it would scab over. With this in mind I was airing it until I woke on Tuesday to find the infection was more inflamed and it felt like it needed to be drained. I showered and put an air-tight dressing on which did the trick. When I took the dressing off that evening, the lump was less than half the size and lot of puss had been successfully drained.

In the midst of all this, I did attempt to contact Banksey (who is obviously very busy rearranging people’s hips), but had little luck. My check-up is Friday so I’ll get his opinion then and in the meantime, I have my fingers crossed that the wound is on the mend again.

Apologies to the squeamish folk as there was no prior warning and the content was kind of messy ;)

Stay tuned to find out Banksey’s feedback. Peace out.