Medical Traumas....

Right sitting down ain't my favourite thing right now so this will be written in stages!

I told you all a few weeks ago that my bum was sore. Apparently it was a problem with my tail bone. So the pain came back last Thursday and got worse until Sunday when I was literally climbing the walls in pain.

I had contacted the emergency nurse on Saturday morning who told me she thought I had trapped my sciatic nerve. I'm no nurse but I knew it wasn't that as that kind of pain spreads and mine was in one spot. However she gave me a regime to follow and I did it. By Sunday though I was demented and the Doc paid a visit. Very useful it was too. She told me she didn't know what it was! How very helpful. So I stuggled through Sunday as best I could until Monday morning when I began throwing up the painkillers (I was taking a variety every 2 hours or so) and my own Doc came for a visit. She reckoned it was an abcess under my muscle. Antibiotics, rest, painkillers and we'll see how you are tomorrow...was her diagnosis.

Tuesday dawned. My 5th night without much sleep and the pain was by now worse than anything I'd ever felt. The Doc returned at 12pm and by 2pm I was lying in a hospital bed in Livingston getting a drip put on and being prepared for surgery!

Turns out it was indeed an abcess and it was apparently fairly huge. It was in the cavity between my tail bone and my right hand bum cheek muscle but was actually lying behind part of the muscle and so the only way to get rid of it was to cut me open and cut it out. I was banged on the list for emergency surgery later that day! However, it's not always straight forward is it? The anaethetist came to see me which was all fine, followed by the surgeon who would do the op. He had a look, declared he wasn't very good at things like this and wasn't confident about doing it properly (fucking hell!) and promptly advised me I'd need to move hospitals so it could be done that night be someone with more expertise in that area!

We were told it would be quicker to go by car...not easy as I couldn't sit down but the alternative was waiting for an ambulance transfer which could take hours. So it was off to the Western (with me lying in the back of the car on my side praying for no bumps in the road...not so comfy in a focus st with reccaro seats) for my op. I finally got it done on Wednesday morning after a night of Morphine injections and tranquilisers.

So I'm now home. My ass is aching. I have a 3 1/2 inch deep, 1 inch wide open wound where the absess was which is packed and dressed and which needs to be cleaned, repacked and dressed every day by the (very lovely) district nurse. I've had a bit of my muscle removed and some dead tissue taken away. I've got a 6 week recovery, another week and half of dressing and packing and lots of gunge and blood floating round. I still can't sit down properly and I can only sleep on my tummy. I can't drive or bath properly (kneeling in that bath!) and I can't shower because I can't get the wound wet. All good then.

Turns out I was a lucky girl as the absess was trying to escape by moving to my kidney, had it made it I was looking at peritonitis and possibly losing part of the kidney which would have been infected. I have also found out that I am carrying MRSA which is the cause of the infection. So that's antibiotics every day for 6 months! Hurrah. This is also what caused my recurring colds over the last few months and my general not- feeling - well - ness (not the menopause as some thought!).

So there you have it.

Jenny xx