30 days later...

Hello!

As I write this, I'm in a hospital bed hoping that today is the day I can finally go home once and for all. As you probably know, I had my operation on Wednesday, 6th February - and I was subsequently discharged one week after the initial surgery.

I did, however, need to return to the hospital due to bleeding problems and various other problems with the graft and donor sites. I sneakily returned to university (since we were doing dissection!) on Thursday, 14th February. I was still going to hospital for a number of reasons, including having my stitches removed under anaesthetic.

On Tuesday, 19th February, I had an ad-hoc emergency appointment with my surgeon as I had realised that the graft wasn't doing well. We took swabs of the area, and on the 22nd, the results were back. I had a "mixed infection" with a few different organisms that needed treating with intravenous antibiotics. I now realise that the reason for the infection was the fact that the person removing the stitches walked in, without washing their hands nor donning gloves, and started removing them.

So, I was readmitted to the same hospital, to the room opposite the one I previously stayed in. I have spent countless days here, around three weeks. I'm missing lots of lectures and practicals, and just can't wait to get home and back to everything I used to do. For me, it's been particularly tough, because I really am balancing two full on commitments and obligations.

I had a central venous catheter placed into my internal jugular for the IV therapy. This was done by the anaesthetist who did my anaesthetic a couple of years ago, and acknowledging my medical student status, he explained and showed me what he was doing from a clinical perspective.

Four times a day, for about two hours at a time, I received various antibiotics through the line. I finally finished all the antibiotics yesterday and have been put on oral drugs, though my stomach has taken, and is still taking assault from all the medications and it's a difficult task to keep them down.

I still have the infection, but hopefully the oral combination will work out... I'm not holding out a great deal of hope since my stomach has been so distressed, but right now I just need to go back to studying!

I'll post again when I'm home - or when I'm still here and have things to say, though I hope that won't be the case!