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!

Big(ish) update!

I got into medical school, as of Thursday! I am SO excited to begin the journey that should take me to a doctor! Though I've decided that maybe I'd prefer to do medical law, but we'll have to see when the time comes since it'll be in five years time at least.

For my "good results", my father has just bought me a MacBook Air! I'm so so happy with it but I still feel like it's much more than I deserve. I will also be getting a new pair of Uggs and Converses in the near future so I am really excited for that too.

On another note, I was at the hospital on Friday and had a chance encounter with a violent and aggressive patient who was aggravated over the lack of receptionist at the desk when he arrived in the department. Even my surgeon was vexed by the man's behaviour which is unusual since my surgeon seems to have the patience of a saint! I am being admitted next week for some surgical procedure or other and will have to call his secretary tomorrow to find out details and ask where I need to go since my surgeon runs theatre lists both in Harley Street as well as Greater London.

I have had some terrible bleeding lately which is the main reason why I haven't been updating as regularly as I want to be. I am getting some bloods done too next week, as I can't get in to my GP for the next three weeks so we will pay privately to have them done when I am admitted next week. I also realised a few days ago that someone has been giving my insurance policy number to their hospital for treatment as I am receiving phantom bills from hospitals and consultants unknown to me... Once again, I have a case on my hands that has come about through no fault of my own and needs sorting. Similarly, but thankfully, my issue with the other private clinic I attended has been sorted. They decided to freeze my account to investigate matters and then adjusted my payments and informed me that things had been wrongly billed. This is still no excuse for their pathetic letter, waffling through reasons why they billed me for wrong things, despite having been told by the nurse himself that I was wrongly billed for monetary reasons!

I have already met a couple of people going to the same medical school as me and I am so excited to attend some of the Freshers' events with them. I'm glad that I have met people beforehand as I would otherwise be more apprehensive than I already am to go to uni!

Anyway sorry for the super long post but I haven't updated in a long time and thought I should! I hope you've all had a gorgeous weekend, just like I have. Lots and lots of love to you all :)