10 - A developing, lasting, problem

".. undergoing frequent, daily dressing changes.."

So there I was, undergoing frequent, daily dressing changes for my laparotomy and other recently scarred wounds, when something happened out of the blue.

A hole, the size of cotton bud, opened before my, and the nurses eyes, in my stomach incision track. As if that wasn't bad enough, (make sure you have had your dinner already) copious amounts of yellowing puss began to ooze from the site. Further examination revealed a cavity under the scar, an enclosed pocket of infected 'material' that had now breached the surface of my newly forming skin.

I was scheduled for a CT scan to discern accurately what this was and how it could affect my recovery. What they found was a complication that would impair my slow, but steady, convalescence and have quite a commanding dominence that dictated a whole new schedule for delayed operations.

"..something must have been left behind, some infected material.."

To explain what they found, during my original laparotomy to add the iliostomy, something must have been left behind, some infected material, that went on to develop abcesses in my stomach. And it wasn't just one, there were three in the centre of my stomach alone, chosing to form like several Maltesers fused together. Across the course of time, these expanded their exit holes, my body clearly reacting to the infection and trying its best to evacuate the poison from where they lay.

My stomach showing the laparotomy wound and the abcess opening

To help my body along, it was decided that the abcess pockets would be drained. Whilst this sounded like a good idea, it did not succeed. The proceedure was one that I was not looking forward to at all, it was all going to be completed with local anaesthetic and with the combination of a CT scanner in that, after the local had been administered and begun working, the surgeon would make the incision in my hip and go in from the side. The tube being slowly guided inside my body cavity, by the continual scanning of the CT to obtain a relative three dimensional position of where the probe was at any one time and how far away it was from its target.

"..this was a waking torture."

Truthfully, this was a waking torture. Pain was burning my whole hip area, and the tube inside my body cavity was probing past my intestines and other organs to get to the pockets at my stomach, which had the effect of serious discomfort. In order to get through the operation I had to remain perfectly still to ensure its success. To deal with the pain that swallowed me that day, I was reduced to severe emotional turmoil that I had to let 'wash' over me. It is difficult to describe my feelings of intense rage at this situation. My thoughts were barraged with anger but I had to suppress them. It felt like frustration amplified a hundred times with lashings of acrimony tipped over me.

".. I was not only subjected to one minor, but gruelling, procedure but two.."

After what seemed like a lifetime, the procedure was over. The news from the surgeon was that the pockets beneath the one the nurses could reach, were empty, however, was not the only time this procedure was attempted for I was sent down to the Ultrasound scanning department on another occasion after the CT attempt to try again. So I was not only subjected to one minor, but gruelling, procedure but two. The wounds were still producing fluid and, although the Ultrasound procedure was moderately successful, it was still not able to help me.

Lady Luck had been on my side upt until this point but the CT procedure had started a domino fall that would evolve into further complications that I was not ready for.