Itching like a bar-steward atm with flaky scabs leaving holes big enough to put cotton buds in Almost retched looking at the wound yesterday after the shower
Yep, it does that! When I spent my time recovering it was itchy as hell, but I couldn't itch it because of how fragile the scar is! I'm amazed that yours is putting up with all the pressure and wounds that you're inflicting upon it!
The NHS deemed it necessary to draw a large arrow on my leg pointing at the foot with the large hole in it just to make sure the surgeon didn't get it wrong. That didn't fill me with confidence.
It is very strange seeing big scars, I nearly passed out when I saw the inch wide hole that the drain in my nutsack left!
I have a couple years of experience at local emergency hospital. And can say that often one doc examine you at ER, second examines you at the ward and third have a sharp knife in operational room. And that third could see you first time in his life. Also there possible multiple trauma so doc can concentrate on main stuff send from my BLADE via tapatalk
Simple solution to a possibly huge problem which does happen once in a blue moon. I'd rather they do that, rather than operate on the wrong foot for one in 10,000 patients because someone has terrible handwriting or didn't speak up when asked which foot!
More surgery than I care to list.. However, mine has been done through the London Clinic, so I don't really know of how the NHS do it. The surgeons have always been coldly professional so leave you with the incredible sense of confidence in what they are doing... Worst thing thats happened to me is having to have a catheter put it without any form of painkiller/sedation. Dear lord. I'd rather die. I also rather stupidly had an endoscope without sedation, which was like deep throating, well, a 2 foot plastic tube.. I've always found going in with a 'needs must' attitude helps massively. Just get things over and done with, putting things off only makes them worse. Anyway, glad to hear you pulled through, and welcome to the groovy scar club... I've been told chicks dig scars..
Pharmacist recommended diluted savlon dabbed on with cotton wool balls to prevent it getting infected. Open weeping wounds in your chest that are full thickness of the skin = bleurgh. Am not looking forward to cleaning it up later.........
No real surgery here either. Just been stitched up a couple of times and therefore also have some cool scars
Not sure if it counts as major, but had 3 surgeries this year on my leg, first time to fit an external fixator, 2nd time to remove the fixator and put in a plate, 3rd time to replace the screws for shorter ones. Tried a good range of anesthetic now too - had a spinal anesthetic, an epidural and full put you to sleep stop breathing anesthetic.
Hey. I dont know you but wow! and i am glad you came through it well. I hope you heal well and that it all works out for you and your family.
Shame for me then, mine is hardly visible now because it was plastic surgery . At least I can say I'm part boob implant, that tends to be a nice conversation piece.
My major surgery came from when i got crushed by a pallet of wine weighing about 1.5 tonns which covered me from the waist down. luckily landed with legs crossed saved my life but right femur was shaterd and a lacerated femoral artery i now have a femur fixing nail and a few metal plates in my right leg and pelvis(I make metal detectors cry when a go near them p.s teacherboy hope you get back on your feet soon .
I have had two surgeries both on the same knee caused by football. The first was ACL reconstruction surgery; I tore my ACL and as some of you in the know, may well know - once torn it cannot heal so you need to make a new one. The ACL is the ligament that stabalises your knee for twisting movements stopping it from collapsing in. Anyways so the first surgery I was desperate to play football again and had to wait almost a year for it going from my GP, to the specialists to the scans, results, consultations on my options etc etc and waiting many months inbetween at each point. So the surgery isnt exactly a walk in the park - as your ACL is torn they need to make you a new one from your hamstring as they cannot stitch the old one up - hence they took out one of the three hamstrings I had in my right leg (the injured leg) and drilled a hole from the top of my shin just under my knee with my knee slightly bent, all the way through the pocket of space in the middle of my knee and then continued past that into my femur. They then fed through my hamstring through the hole they made in my shin upto my femur and clipped it on forming my new ACL ligament. Yup - not fun. The muscles on my thigh vanished over night due to the trauma of the surgery and I spent a good many years building them back up although they are still not as they were and smaller. My second surgery was in june this year - I had a meniscus tear which is more minor but worrying as it was on the same knee and repeated surgeries can cause arthritis. Im still recovering from that but feel better for the surgery and hope to play football eventually although im in no rush anymore and taking my time.
Had 3 thus far in my life: Wrist (dislocated all those small bones in my left one), appendix, then Tonsils. All straight forward, except for the fact that I scared the nurses when I woke up from the second surgery continuing to count backwards at the top of my lungs.
hope it heals soon teacherboy. One slight problem though your surgeon just called he seems to be missing his wristwatch he wants to know if you can get your wife to listen to your belly and tell him if she hears a sort of ticking noise.
Randomly my wife was saying this morning that she could hear me ticking in bed last night - seems that once she tunes into it it's almost impossible to tune out
Scar still being a bit of an issue - spoke to nurse practitioner on Friday during my INR check and she gave me a non-adhesive iodine dressing and some adhesive dressings to secure it and also took some swabs in case anything nasty is making the scar open up. My working theory is weight loss in hospital has tightened the skin on my chest and while I'm up and about during the day with my shoulders forward the skin can regenerate and heal as it's not being pulled apart. But at night when I'm in bed, even if I make as much of an effort to be on my side as possible, I'll always roll onto my back - this forces the shoulders back, tensions the skin on my chest and rips the new skin open In some of the holes you can see the internal stitch inside them
^ Follow up to the above. Had an MRSA swab last week and results today = negative (thank the sky pixies) But Full Blood Count results = Low, so I'm Anaemic Explains a few things such as lack of energy, serious shortness of breath when even attempting to walk at normal pace...... and as for hills, furgedaboudit *hint - New Yoik Accent*. So after I'd had some breakfast this morning... Big white pills = normal paracetamol to alleviate discomfort of breastbone healing. Blue/grey pill = Omeprazole to stop GI bleeds from warfarin. White/red = Ramipril to stop arteries from contracting and lower blood pressure (It's an Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitor) Heart shaped = Bisoprolol (Beta blocker) to lower heart rate Pink pills = 5mg Warfarin for anticoagulation Brown pill = 3mg Warfarin I went to see the Doc's and nurses at my awesome surgery and after INR test and results from last weeks tests, they gave me some goodies..... Dressings for wound plus inadine to cut up and place on wound and keep it sterile, refills for omeprazole, ramipril and bisoprolol. New drug in pink packet is Ferrous Fumarate to treat the anaemia and hopefully make me feel a lot better soon..... Plus while digging around my photo bucket album I found some pics from the end of my initial treatment in 2007 for High Grade Bacterial Endocarditis (Massive bacterial infection inside the left chambers of my heart that eventually led to the surgery a few weeks ago)....... Hairy man chest alert First is Hickman line (IV dual line into heart!) hanging outside vintage rugger shirt (world cup 2003 and well loved as pics will attest - they were taken in late Aug 2007) Going into chest... Being removed.. Finally out after an hour of cutting and pulling - they *forgot* there was a sponge cuff on it and as it'd been in me for 5 weeks my body decided it would meld with the cuff and keep it as it's own.... You can see the extra holes they had to make to cut it out between the original entry and my neck! One thing to learn from all this kiddies......... heart surgery isn't just for older people, fatter people - affects people who try to live well and look after themselves within reason and some of us *me* are born a little broken and we have a boatload of bad luck along the way. But I've been lucky as well to have survived the endocarditis, aneurysm and surgery so I'm not complaining really
