Thursday, May 26, 2011

It was all going great and then... Infection Strikes

I have been doing really well, healing fast, feeling amazing, everything was great. I got my stitches out Monday by my general practitioner, saw my neuro-ophthalmologist yesterday, and then my neurosurgeon appointment with Dr. Boggan was today. I wasn't expecting anything special, mostly because surgeons are not the best with bedside manner and they are usually in and out before you blink. Dr. Boggan came in, looked at the incisions behind my ear, said they were healing perfectly, and then looked at my stomach. He was surprised to see that it wasn't doing as well as the others. I have been keeping it covered (mostly with gauze and paper tape but I'm allergic to adhesive so as soon as my stitches came out I stopped that) and I could not figure out why it was still so nasty looking and tender. My very sweet boyfriend said it looked fine, but I knew he was lying. The doctor confirmed that it is infected. I thought, oh well, give me some antibiotics and I'll go about my day. He said that since we do not know what type of infection I have he can't give me antibiotics, and if it doesn't clear itself up in 2 weeks...well he's going to have to take out the stimulator, let it all heal, and try this all again.


I wasn't sure how to handle that information. Luckily my mom reminded me that surgeons always think of the worst case scenario. I'm a very sensitive person and I have a hard time getting hypothetical bad news because I don't hear it as possibility, I hear it as a plan. I don't want to go through this surgery again. I want to start my life. However, if I do have to take the stimulator out so I can put it back in later, it's worth it. I haven't had a headache since it was put in and I couldn't be happier with that fact. Sigh. I thought that this would be simple, silly me. 

Now I have steri-strips over my stomach incision which are a hassle. I haven't even had them on for 12 hours and one has already come off. There is no way they will last for 2 weeks... I'm going to have to pick some more up soon. I'm really trying not to blame myself for the infection, yet it's not easy. I keep thinking, "I didn't take care of it well enough" or "I've been doing too much." Fingers crossed it gets better soon!

1 comment:

  1. Oh no! What horrible news. Since I'm a bit behind in my blog reading, what is the current update regarding your infection? I was told the same thing...that if you get and infection they have to pull the whole thing out. supposedly it's because the infection can travel along the leads since it's all connected and then suddenly you have a massive infection all over your body. But the thought of having to do it all again??? I can't imagine.

    On a positive note, your dog is super cute :)

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