I would be tooo …Good luck there buddy…
Well…
The appointment with the doc in Seattle went well. He had spoken to my previous cutter which gave me pause because I was concerned about how she would portray things and that her opinion that I was not a good candidate for the surgery would weigh on his decision. That was put to rest immediately when he said he was willing to do the surgery provided a few things happen first.
First would be to take care of the current infection in my now two month old surgical wounds. He asked why, through all of this battle with infection, I had not seen a wound specialist. To which I replied “good question”. He said that a wound specialist should have been brought in back in June when the leak in my belly first appeared. Most definitely they should have been brought in in August when the surgery to fix the leak went south and I got a horrible infection. I explained that many trips to the surgeon, my family doc, urgent care, and the ER yielded a handful of antibiotics and some band-aids, quite literally. He asked why I had been super gluing my wounds ( a major complaint of my last surgeon and her primary reason for blaming the infection on me, even though I didn’t begin super gluing them until after I was leaking huge amounts of blood and puss) to which I responded “I was told to bandage them without using tape, because the tape was causing bruising, and sent home with a regular band-aid and some antibiotics. I was left to try and treat this on my own and still go to work and conduct my day”. I think he believed my side of the story. Because he continued to repeat that I should have been referred to a wound specialist to have a drain installed so that I wouldn’t have to mess with it. So with all of that discussed he said he wanted me into a wound specialist to deal with the current giant hole in my belly and to be seeing my family doc to clear up this infection in my body once and for all. He won’t touch me with a ten foot pole until both docs sign off saying I am ready for surgery.
The second stipulation was to just work on getting healthy again. Because of the infection and the other symptoms that are arising that are likely caused by it he knows my immune system is shot. He wants me up and running again so that I can handle another surgery. After I am good to go then he will place the new shunt. He figures January at the soonest.
All in all he seemed very eager to help me and wasn’t overly concerned with, even seemed to dismiss, my previous doctor. I have appointments to my family doc (the new one) and with my eye doc becasue she needs to track the swelling. Still waiting on a referral to a wound doc. But thats where we sit. All in all good news but have to continue the waiting game.
Here is my current issue. Now it has healed considerably since this was taken about a week ago.
So, even if doctors violently disagree with each other, they will rarely say “that guy made a mistake”… notice that he asked why you did not see a wound specialist, as opposed to “why didn’t your frigging’ doctor send you to a would specialist”… may not seem like a lot of difference, but while both say your doctof f’d up, the first is safe, the second could get him sued.
Glad you are getting the right care… all sounds very promising.
Greg
Greg Elmassian said:
So, even if doctors violently disagree with each other, they will rarely say “that guy made a mistake”… notice that he asked why you did not see a wound specialist, as opposed to “why didn’t your frigging’ doctor send you to a would specialist”… may not seem like a lot of difference, but while both say your doctof f’d up, the first is safe, the second could get him sued.
Glad you are getting the right care… all sounds very promising.
Greg
No doctor will accuse, or even suggest, my previous surgeon made a mistake. Even after she basically admitted the mistake she tried to blame it on another doctor and me. She first said the doctor who tried to stitch me up was the one who put the hole in my tubing. Even though the clear fluid cand been draining out for a month prior. Then she admitted that having an open hole for two months likely allowed a path for infection, then blamed me for picking at my wounds once it did become infected. I have had all sorts of doctors wonder WTF is going on and suggesting all sorts of things, non of which get done.
I don’t really care at this point who is at fault. I just want fixed.
Devon Sinsley said:
I don’t really care at this point who is at fault. I just want fixed.
Makes sense.
so glad it’s on the way to being better!
Devon Sinsley said:
Well…
He asked why I had been super gluing my wounds ( a major complaint of my last surgeon and her primary reason for blaming the infection on me, even though I didn’t begin super gluing them until after I was leaking huge amounts of blood and puss)
And I thought you were full of sh_t … (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-yell.gif)
Get running …
I hope this is now the right plan of action to your total recovery!
Joe Zullo said:
I hope this is now the right plan of action to your total recovery!
MEEEEE TOOOOOOO
At least it is a plan of action with more “avenues” and seems you have a doctor that is looking at more issues. My wife just went through a number of things where to get to the end goal, other issues needed to be cleared first, and infection is no one’s friend. Are you staying in Washington, or commuting !!)?
Greg
On the up side, at least at this time of year there is no temptation to jump in the duck pond to cool off - probably not the best thing to do while having that wound.
Greg Elmassian said:
At least it is a plan of action with more “avenues” and seems you have a doctor that is looking at more issues. My wife just went through a number of things where to get to the end goal, other issues needed to be cleared first, and infection is no one’s friend. Are you staying in Washington, or commuting !!)?
Greg
The Seattle surgeon is working with local docs in my area, or at least thats his plan. He will make the referrals to the docs here and tell them what he wants to see.
Devon, believe me, I know what you’re going through but your new doc seems right on target. As you can see from my show-and-tell below, mine was a bit bigger than yours and I worked with a wound specialist until it all cleared up, which in my case required a second surgery. I’m happy to share the grisly details if you’d like but my main piece of advice is to be patient – it may take some time to resolve. Hang in there, my friend!
Funny… when I got an infection from a tooth removal …I was sent to see an Infectious diseases specialist … just lost half of my jaw bone… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif)
Have there been talk of Hyperbaric treatments …VERY helpful to my problems…
https://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm364687.htm
Gregory Hile said:
Devon, believe me, I know what you’re going through but your new doc seems right on target. As you can see from my show-and-tell below, mine was a bit bigger than yours and I worked with a wound specialist until it all cleared up, which in my case required a second surgery. I’m happy to share the grisly details if you’d like but my main piece of advice is to be patient – it may take some time to resolve. Hang in there, my friend!
Yep that looks just about right. And it is funny to me that my original infection, while not a “big” becasue the incision was nowhere neat that long was every bit as mean and nasty looking. Hence the complete lack of understanding on my part why the surgeon, my family doctor, and two different ER doctors dismissed it with some band aids and antibiotics. Not once was it suggested I see someone about the infection.
You are aware that infection is 100% your fault for “picking” at your wounds. That’s how my old family doc and the surgeon passed the buck on mine, blaming me.
Sean said:
Funny… when I got an infection from a tooth removal …I was sent to see an Infectious diseases specialist … just lost half of my jaw bone… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif)
At least someone decided to get you into someone. I am thankful that when this whole thing sprang up that it didn’t end up in my brain. After all even though it was in my belly it had an open path to the center of my brain. Ultimately that is why she decided to remove it altogether, which I agree with. What I don’t agree with is why did we let it get that far before seeing someone who specializes in such things.
I am sorry to hear about losing half your jaw. Where they able to reconstruct it and give you a new one. I knew a guy who lost a major chunk of jaw to cancer from chewing. Not a fun ordeal.
Sean said:
Funny… when I got an infection from a tooth removal …I was sent to see an Infectious diseases specialist … just lost half of my jaw bone… (http://www.largescalecentral.com/externals/tinymce/plugins/emoticons/img/smiley-cry.gif)
At least someone decided to get you into someone. I am thankful that when this whole thing sprang up that it didn’t end up in my brain. After all even though it was in my belly it had an open path to the center of my brain. Ultimately that is why she decided to remove it altogether, which I agree with. What I don’t agree with is why did we let it get that far before seeing someone who specializes in such things.
I am sorry to hear about losing half your jaw. Where they able to reconstruct it and give you a new one. I knew a guy who lost a major chunk of jaw to cancer from chewing. Not a fun ordeal.
Devon Sinsley said:
You are aware that infection is 100% your fault for “picking” at your wounds. That’s how my old family doc and the surgeon passed the buck on mine, blaming me.
With my wife and five kids, pretty much everything somehow ends up being my fault, so no worries there, and we both know it’s not your fault. For me, it started when I got the stitches removed. They came out fine and I was walking out the door into the lobby and I noticed everyone was looking at me. I looked down and there was blood and fluid gushing out of me. So they fixed me up and we started down a long road with Natalia, the wound specialist, and my surgeon.
This was actually the second incident in our family. A few years before this one, my teenage daughter had emergency surgery to remove an ovarian cyst. Turns out she was allergic to the internal stitches. That was a lot of fun, too!
Sounds like a wound specialist is definitely the right path. I hope you can get in to see the specialist soon.