Me before my journey began.

Me before my journey began.
And I thought I looked ok!!!

June 2004

June 2004
I just found this photo. Its hard to look at now!!!

Sunday 2 March 2008

Back to the GP and the Surgeon!

I went back to my GP about my "hole". He was a little concerned that it had gotten deeper, so he decided to send me for blood tests to make sure there wasn't a deep infection and also checked to make sure I hadn't developed diabetes, this being another explanation for taking so long to heal. He also suggested that I consider an ultra sound on the area to ensure there is no fluid build up. He also suggested I see my surgeon sooner rather than later.

I saw the surgeon on Friday afternoon, and in his typical fashion, wasn't too concerned about the hole but did acknowledge that 4 1/2 months was a long time to still have this trouble. He advised I stop packing the hole with gauze and he felt it would heal up ok. If it didn't heal very soon, or if it broke down again, he would have me in the hospital for a day procedure where he cut that section open, fixed whatever was causing the problem, and sew it all back up again. He said it could just be a dead fat cell that hadn't dissolved, or something like that!!!

But besides the hole, he was very pleased with how my skin had toned up where it should, and loosened where it should. He is now keen to complete the work. He didn't think it was important to wait until the hole heals or wait any extended time. Unfortunately he is booked when I have my annual leave planned in April, and as I don't have sick leave due now until October, I can't just book surgery until I sort out my leave from work. He is available in May, so after a preliminary discussion with my manager to determine if I could change my leave, I now have a few decisions to make!! The surgeon promises me that the second surgery will be no where near as difficult or major as the first. The tidy up he has to do on my stomach is very minimal recovery, my arms will be about a 10 day recover, but my legs will be the major thing to recover from.

I will receive his surgery quote in the mail this week, so once I have that, and have decided what I really want to do, and made sure I wasn't going to upset too many people by changing my leave, I will know what the near future holds. Of course I was really looking forward to having 3 weeks holiday and Andrew and I were planning on going away. I have been so busy at work and have had some very stressful situations to deal with, so time off that wasn't spent getting over surgery was looking very attractive. My manager suggested I take a week off with Easter so that I have a bit of a break and I don't use up too much of my annual leave. So that was really thoughtful of her.

The latest news of Andrew's shoulder is his physio was concerned about one particular movement that Andrew still couldn't do. He was worried that the bones were causing the problem rather than a muscular thing. The phsyio talked to Andrew's surgeon, who then instructed X -Rays be taken and said Andrew needed to see him in the next 2 weeks. There has been some talk that Andrew may need surgery to adjust the pins. Andrew isn't keen on more surgery, but I am encouraging him to just wait to see what the surgeon says.
So that is the news of the two invalids!!! What a pair we are hey!! I suppose it helps us to both understand the frustrations of surgery and its recovery.

1 comment:

Briar said...

Hi Liz- wow, I suppose you really didn't expect this to be such a long and complicated process- here's hoping you and hubby can get your surgeries over and recovered from soon!
Thinking of you- stay brave!
Briar

December 2004

December 2004
Here is another photo I found of myself before I made the changes in my life. I think I still have that blue shirt, so I should hunt it out for a photo now!!

Me at Noosa - April 2007 - Always pretending to be "Australia's Next Top Model!!!"

Me at Noosa - April 2007 - Always pretending to be "Australia's Next Top Model!!!"
Quite a difference hey!!

Finishing the Christchurch Marathon - 10km walk

Finishing the Christchurch Marathon - 10km walk
Not the most attractive photo, but I had worked hard!!