Hi everyone,
Writing from the hospital bed. Was admitted on Wednesday 7pm and was given a 2-hour heads up. Don't even want to think what a 'free bed' entails, someone flatlining or happily discharged?
Checked-in, was shocked by how posh the ward is. I have a private room, private bathroom, 24/7 room service menu, air-conditioning, cable tv, balcony, sparkling water, gourmet coffee and even a sofa bed for friends who are entitled to meals too.
Was extremely nervous the next morning at 6am when they asked me to shower with Hibi Scrub. I spoke with the surgeon 3 times before we finally prepared for the operating theatre. She wanted to release both IT bands, do a bone graft with DBX on my right leg, take a biopsy of the non-union area AND wanted to lengthen/release my psoas and hamstrings. I vehemently didn't want cuts on my hip areas and my hamstrings because I know my recovery will take so much longer. Imagine, I wouldn't even be able to sit up in bed if both hips were cut.
Right before surgery, the surgeon came in with a panel of doctors because apparently, I'm an 'interesting case' of ALL THE THINGS that can go wrong with CLL. So my operating theatre was like an auditorium and I swear I caught a whiff of buttered popcorn. All my xrays were up on the walls and I was trying to explain to these doctors that I didn't want to cut my hips and hamstrings because my lordosis can be slowly stretched out. And if I take too long to recover from the additional cuts, I would lose 2 years of conditioning, stamina, flexibility and pain tolerance.
Anyway, boom, under general anaesthesia and I was told later that they bent me in all directions and discovered that I had a sac of fluid in my left knee. That got drained and was probably the cause of my chronic knee pain. They then released the IT bands on both sides which allow both my legs to stay together.
I woke up around 5pm and was in quite a lot of pain. I think half of my suffering was due to the sheer trauma and PTSD of undergoing my 4th surgery. After that, everyday just blended into each other, eat, wash, PT, I crutch a lot around the hospital and have a ton of medical students/doctors who come to interview me about how I ended up a monster.
Apparently, I won't know if the bone graft will be successful for another 2 months. In the meantime, I'm put on some rigorous stretching exercises to correct my lordosis and valgus. The surgeon is pessimistic that the bone graft will work, all of them agree that they could see the nail and nothing has grown. So they think I'll be back for a 5th surgery where they'll remove my g-nail and insert a pre-lengthened Precice Unyte at 8cm. They'll slowly shorten me until my calluses join and then lengthen me back to match the 8cm on my left leg. And hopefully, the extra 2cm of flesh will slowly tighten back.
I found Kings College/NHS to be so different from my previous private Princess Grace Hospital experience. Guichet was constantly trying to get us to leave the hospital ASAP whereas here, they want to keep for at least 2-4 weeks to monitor any potential bone infection. I'm also given proper painkillers like morphine instead of just a paracetamol drip. Also, at Princess Grace, they left me for 4 days without showering/cleaning me whereas even though I was quite hopeless here during the first few days, they came and wiped me down entirely with soap and warm water every morning.
Even the pee situation is different. At King's College, everytime I pee into a funnel, they'll check my bedsheets and they'll change my entire bed whereas at Princess Grace, they simply put an incontinence diaper on the bed and told me that I can pee as much as I wanted on it because it will absorb everything (right!). And I woke up marinating in a pool of urine with a very itchy butt rash.
I was told by all the patients that, it's really hard to get a bed at NHS and that, while it's free, one has to contend with the waitlist. I had to wait about 6 months before I got a surgery date. However, because they're non-profit, they don't cut corners. Whereas my experience with Princess Grace and Guichet have been the complete opposite. Everything was calculated to the 9th degree, was disorganized and we risked and suffered a lot because we had to catch taxis, and frame hop to the gym everyday and all the various test centres which are strewn all over London.
Here, the PT comes to work out with you, the nurses come to you to collect urine/blood samples, I'm wheeled to the xrays/CT Scans/MRIs, my dressings are checked and changed daily etc. There is no unnecessary stress and cost. I really wish I had this experience before. No wonder I was sooooo petrified to go under the knife. What I endured before was cruel and inhumane. And now, my hospital experience couldn't be more different and best of all, it's free. For this, I am eternally grateful.
HIDING UNDER SHEETS BEFORE SURGERY
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Topic: UNICORN - Dr. Guichet Internal Femurs 8cm - Summer 2016 (Read 256749 times)