Back from surgery - Part 2

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Backstory (Part 1) here
Hi Guys,

After 3 months of being a paid guest at the hospital, I am pleased to announce that I am back !!
Boy O' Boy what an adventure !! So here it goes.
I flew to my aunt's home city on May 2nd, 2016 and by the end of the day (around 8:30PM) I found myself in the trauma centre of Christian Medical College, Ludhiana. (This place has a lot of history I will cover it in a separate thread.).
The doctors interrogated me like cops for almost 3 hours; getting my history as it was my first ever hospitalization ever after being born and India doesn't have a centralized health record system. I had woken up at 4AM that morning and had absolutely no rest after my 3 hr flight and 2 hr bus travel not including the 2 hrs spent in cabs going to and eventually out of the airport.
LOL, so as soon as they had an angio-catheter in my arm I blacked out !! :oops: I eventually found myself lying in a bed 15 minutes later. I was then wheeled in a wheelchair to X-Ray (the team on duty in the trauma center was from the Orthopedics Deptt.), after 30 minutes of getting my entire body xrayed, I was allocated a private room and slept for 5 hours before I woke up.
I was prepped for a biopsy after a consult with the Head of the Ortho Deptt and one of their surgeons performed it on 5th May. I was discharged from the hospital on 7th May and the biopsy sample was sent to the pathology department for diagnosis. It takes 7 days for a biopsy result to come through and hence I had nothing to do but kill time now that I was back at my own house in the nearby city. The biopsy diagnosed the growth on my inner thigh as Fibromatosis (fibrous tumour) but just to be sure they sent the same sample for a Immunohistochemisty test which took another 7 days and confirmed that it was a benign fibroid tumour aka Fibromatosis.
I was then referred to the plastic surgery department in the hospital and after 10 days of waiting for an appointment I was told to come over for a consult on 2nd of June. I drove back to the hospital but was not admitted back till 8th June as there were some scheduling issues with my surgery. Also the Head of Plastic Surgery is also the Professor at CMC and he was busy conducting the M.CH examinations.
Before I for further let me tell you one thing. Doctors are vampires!! They poked me so many times that there were no veins left in my left and right arms. They did ALL the tests there are on the planet and guess what all the tests were normal except my Lipid profile which was normal but almost touching the limit (Cholesterol 190/200 because of my weight issue).
Anyways I was prepped for surgery early morning on 10th June. God !! did the General Anesthesia knocked me out? i was unconscious for 12 hrs and the surgery took around 6 hours. They excised 3.5 kilograms / 7.71 lbs of the tumour and stuck a vaccum suction machine in the wound for the next 10 days or so. I was also catherized in my urethra so I could pee in a bag lol. They also cut my right bicep and got a central IV line directly into an artery. Both of my legs were bandaged as the doctors had to take a lot of my skin from right thigh to cover the wound on my left inner thigh.
On the 10th day after the surgery, I was taken back to the operation theatre to get the vaccum machine out of my wound. I was given my first Spinal Anesthesia which was an adventure on it own. After the procedure I was wheeled back into recovery and finally into my own room with FOUR drains in my leg.
I then went back 4 more times into the OT for removal of drains gradually and also for my surgical dressing as it was still too painful to do it in my room plus there was a high chance of infection.
All in all I was given ONE General Anesthesia, FIVE spinal anesthesia and ONE intermittent general anesthesia when the spinal injections failed to work on my second surgical dressing (they wont give you more than 2 shots in your spine if it fails to work the first time).
I was on 12 injections every 24 hours for a full month. After that the medicines were gradually taken off slowly till I was discharged on 23rd July. I still take 4-6 pills daily depending on my condition.
I was in bed for 40 days in total and my body forgot how to walk, it took me a week to walk again with the help of a walking stick. I still use it for support and to climb stairs.
I still have 2 small 1cm long wounds in the fold of my wound where they grafted the skin and it will take around 2-4 months for them to slowly heal.
I still have a daily dressing of my wound with neomycin ointment to help fight bacterial infections. My back sometimes hurts like a bitch. Imagine getting poked in your spinal cord every 5 days for a month !!
The overall damage for my entire surgical adventure has been around my 1 year's salary plus $400 (28k INR) every month for dressing, medicine and the consulting Plastic Surgeon's fee.
My workplace was more than helpful. Initially I only had 4 weeks of medical leave but they extended it to 3 months. In the words of my boss, "Don't come back till you're fixed. I want you to be in good health".
Around 40% of my hospital stay, surgery etc was covered by my employer's insurance (I never thought I would even need that much coverage) and the rest was cash from my pocket and a little help from family.
I made a lot of doctor and nursing friends ;) plus the anesthesiologist allocated to me was a super cute young girl and yes I have her number ;)
In the end I can say things are going towards a good direction albeit slowly. It will take 1-2 years for me to be normal, but for now I can work and earn my livelihood. After all, someone has to buy all those overpriced vintage Dunhills !!
Cheers,

Chris :puffpipe:

 

jackswilling

Lifer
Feb 15, 2015
1,777
24
Wow, Thank God you are on the mend and upright. Nice to have an employer who values you. Good luck with that phone #

 

lotharen

Starting to Get Obsessed
Jul 26, 2016
184
10
Ahh, yes - being a Nurse who's working on the Surgical floor for 14 years I can totally understand. Glad your doing okay - that vacuum machine is called a 'Wound Vac' here in the states - makes sure that the nasty drainage is kept out of your wound so it does get infected again.
Also glad your work place is that helpful, you don't find many that understanding these days.
I'm new here since last you visited and its always good to meet someone else. Look forward to reading more posts by you!
Good luck with the rest of your recovery!

 

beerandbaccy

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 22, 2015
276
142
What a drama!! Glad you're back on the mend after such an ordeal. Hope the occasional puff isn't against doctor's orders!!
Best of luck with your continuing recovery. :puffy:

 
M

mothernaturewilleatusallforbreakfast

Guest
Man pipe monk... you went through the ringer. What a long road to travel with what sounds like many months still to go... I think everyone is glad to hear you're back and doing better. It's funny how work can be such a huge source of stress, but that after enduring health problems and missing that routine... it becomes something that makes us feel a little closer to normal again. I'm glad you're back working again. Godspeed on you continued journey back to health.

 

ejames

Lifer
Oct 6, 2009
3,916
22
Glad your surgery went well and I hope you heal up and get back into your normal routine soon !

 
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