14 - Scrunch your fingers, make a 'fistula'

"..we all were determined to try to get me to my feet."

Again, I had the pleasure to meet a fantastic team of physiotherapists. These guys and gals really made improvements to my less than adequate mobility. Despite my injuries that plagued me, still including at this stage a broken leg, we all were determined to try to get me to my feet. Interspersed with being deposited into my wheelchair for the occasional trip outside to the car park to see the trees, where my leg had to be tied to the chair to stop it from dropping and causing more damage, a mechanical standing machine was utilised to help me to stand.

The trick, at this stage, was raising my bed toward the vertical as far as possible for brief periods prior to their arrival at my bedside to ensure my equilibrium was balanced. These periods, by my own determination, were ever extended to help.

The machine that helped me to my feet

".. weak with all the muscle wastage from inactivity.."

These sessions were very physically demanding for me. I couldn't put weight at all through my left leg because my knee was stll smashed, my right leg was so weak with all the muscle wastage from inactivity, which meant that I was solely dependant on pushing my weight through my arms. That would be fine if one of my elbows didn't have metal cables running across the joint (see below x-ray) which made it vastly uncomfortable to lean any weight on it whatsoever.

My progress with this was always going to be limited with a broken knee but it was rapidly brought to a halt when the domino effect that was started in the previous hospital took hold and that delicate house of cards that was my health suddenly had an earthquake.

If you recall my previous post that described the physical pain endured with the two CT (computerised tomography) and ultrasound guided drainage attempts on the internal abcesses. Access to the infected pockets was through my side and over my internal organs. My body's reactions to this trauma were to create a further multiple abcess cluster on my hip. The additional twist to this event was that the two clusters (in my stomach and on my hip) had joined themselves through a term known in the medical profession as 'collar studding'. Basically, this means that the two clusters had a tracked connection between them.

".. it can cripple mobility.."

Not only that, the hip cluster had another medical assocaiated term that was to be a major hinderence for me, a colonic 'fistula'. A definition of this term for the non medical readers out there is a connection to my large intestine. I strongly believe that this was the result of those initial attempts to drain the pockets. Anyone who has suffered an abcess will know how it can cripple mobility on their own. So for me to have two clusters in different areas of my mid section, an area vital for any sort of movement, my deliberate tries and attempts to get myself mobile from my consistently prone position.

This was not taken too well by the ward manager, who believed I should have been progressing far faster than I actually was. This over-estimation and obvious pidgeon holing I was refering to, led to a heated arguement between her and myself. She was clearly arrogant in her assessment and, because I was not making progress that fitted in with her guidelines, it must have seemed like a failing on her part to which she would have been held accountable, so she 'lashed out' at the only one who did not need that kind of stress.

These abcesses and fistula would need to be addressed in further, additional and unplanned, operations before I could progress further. I met with my colorectal surgeon, an excellent and knowledgeable individual, who agreed to transfer me to his own ward to sort them out. Before that could take place, the metal in my right leg needed to be removed as it was reacting with my skin. So, in my 17th operation, I was taken down for surgery.