I got my wound vac put on Thursday and the nurse changed it today. It will probably be off by Thursday because it is already getting to small for it. Now that the drain is gone i rarely have to take pain med so things are improving!

I survived without sidation again. They ended up pulling the drain and was able to get the bleeding to stop so let the healing begin.

I am still in a good amount of pain from the drain. We got a little worried about it Saturday night due to some swelling and pain on the left side of the drain. We ended up calling home health to see what they thought we should do. She called interventional radiology for us who said if i started running a fever go to the hospital immediately but I could wait if there wasn't a fever. The nurse offered to come out and look at it but said she probably couldn't tell us anything without a ct scan. So i decided to wait to see the nurse today then i have my appointment tomorrow so i can last until then.

I knew it was going to hurt for awhile after that drain was placed but this is intense. Yesterday it took me forever to get out of bed then last night i discovered i was almost out of pain killers so I decided to just take one and i could stretch them out and mom could go get me some this morning. I was suppose to go to my parents to eat but after changing clothes I decided not only did i need another pill but there was no way i was going to be able to get back off the couch. Mom quit cooking dinner and went to wal-mart so i would have my pills this morning. Tuesday cannot come fast enough because it should be ready to pull.

Things have been going well since i have been home. Home health is set up to come once or twice a week just to make sure nothing is getting infected again because i can't see the bottom of the wound. Today i went for a follow up with radiology and the surgeon. I thought they were just going to pull the drain and be done with it. Instead they decided to pull it and replace it with a slightly larger one. No i was not asleep for it i just had a local that did not last long enough . Needless to say it hurt a lot. Also when they took out the first drain it started bleeding. They concluded when the first one got put in they went through a vein but the tube kept me from bleeding out. This would also explain why my blood counts dropped after it was placed. I have to go back on Tuesday to have the drain checked. They will probably pull it so if it bleeds again they will have to go in and stop it so I will get to spend the night again. Next I got to see Dr. Safar. He is happy about radiology's plan. He also decided it might be a good idea to get a wound vac again. I'm not sure why he just now decided to put one on but I am happy about it because it will be less dressing changes and faster healing.

Sounds like i will be going home today. My white cell count went down to 16 without them doing anything so they ate happy. Radiology talked about doing an ultrasound to see that clot and possibly pull the drain but the surgical doc said they aren't usually around on Sundays so i will probably need to come back for a drain check next week. Personal i think they ran out of reasons to keep me.

boo

My white cell count went up some more so if course i am not going home. They plan to wait it out today then tomorrow they may do another ct because they suspect there is another fluid collection that is not being drained or treated by antibiotics. So if there is something there then i probably won't go home until at least Monday.

In other news the air conditioner is stuck in the on position so it is 63° around here this morning.

or not

Over night my white cell count went up to 16. It could be caused by switching to oral antibiotics so i will be back to the iv stuff. I probably won't get out today either. I was looking forward to our family Easter party and egg hunt but now i am going to be lucky to make it to church on Sunday for the breakfast Becky and i organized.

Well they decided not to make the drain bigger but the did put in the stuff to break up the clot. I think it got some out but not all. They may want to try again tomorrow....i don't know. I did switch to oral antibiotics today and he said he was going to keep me on it for a week. I think everything is getting in line for me to leave tomorrow.

My white cell count went up last night while my red cell count went down a little so the surgical team wants to keep me until tomorrow. Interventional radiology came in and said the fluid pocket has only decreased by 20% and the ct yesterday showed no active bleeding. All of that leads them to believe the abcess is really a giant blood clot. If all docs agree they are going to upsize the drain then they can shoot in meds that will break up the clot and allow it to pass through the drain.

Once we got here last night they did the normal blood test and checked for a uti. My blood counts were good although the white cell count was 17 so that was high. The uti test came back negative so i have no idea why it showed one before. They also too a couple of staples out and opened it up a little because they found some infection.

This morning I went down for a ct and they found an abcess. They wanted to get some antibiotics in me then they were going to put a drain in it. Unfortunately my iv blew so i ended up with a central line as well as the drain. I am hurting pretty bad right now but maybe by tomorrow it should be better.

I was doing better until Friday. I started hurting more and running a low fever. Today i went to amc and has some blood work and x rays. I still have a uti and we are worried about my wound being infected due to Felix leaking into it. I just talked to one of the docs on the phone and we decided that i should go in tonight. They will do a direct admit so i don't have to go through the er. Hopefully i can get some antibiotics and be all better again.