Monday, November 13, 2006
RADIOACTIVE BOY GOES BACK UNDER THE KNIFE!!! AGAIN!
Things are slowly getting back to normal.
I was able to get out of and into bed by myself today, all be it much slower than normally.
Even went for a couple of short hops on the crutches.
The good news is that the surgeon visited today and we spoke about my release from here.
He asked me if I actually wanted to go back to rehab and I told him that I didn't particularly feel a need to.
So according to him, I should be able to go home sometime this week.
I still have to reach a point when I can sit down without leaning to one side and having to prop myself up because of the pain in the right flank.
It would also be good to be able to bend forward to a decent angle without wincing, but I guess all this will come in good time.
Overall I think I'm progressing pretty well with this particular surgery, especially when you consider how much cutting and shutting and grinding and screwing together was involved.
Funny thing is, Gino popped in on the weekend and dropped off some mail for me.
One of the letters was from the Alfred hospital, informing me that I am booked in to have a filter removed from an artery in my right leg that was inserted around the groin area way way back around the initial surgery back in March.
I remember being wheeled in to have my arteries and veins checked ( it's called catheter angiography ).
There was a tv screen mounted on the ceiling, on which I watched a live x-ray display of my right leg.
A radioactive fluid was injected into my right leg's bloodstream, which then showed up as black on the screen.
It started as a thick line that travelled from my groin and then started to break up into many other smaller lines as it rapidly painted a live image of my circulatory system.
It was a strange feeling seeing into my own limb like that, feeling the warmth of the fluid spreading down into my leg and watching the little black lines snaking their way throughout it.
The idea was that if there were any ruptured or damaged blood vessels, this particular test would highlight them before they became a problem.
After that was all over, I had the filter fitted.
This was just as much a foreign experience and a pretty bizarre feeling.
Under local anaesthetic, a small incision was made in my groin and an artery was pulled out from my body.
Although I felt no pain, I did feel the pressure internally of the artery being stretched and pulled through.
It was then cut open and the filter inserted into it.
It was at that point that I felt a warm stream of my own blood running down my groin, leg and arse.
Not a nice feeling.
The artery was sealed and sprang back into my body like a piece of elastic, as it was released from the grip of the angiographers.
The filter is supposed to trap any possible blood clots as they travel back towards the heart and possibly towards the brain.
And after all that, just as an added complementary bonus, they shoved a rubber hose straight up my jap's eye.
"Now this may feel a little strange and uncomfortable."
No shit! Liquid things are supposed to be flowing out of there, not solid ones inserted!
Let me tell you there is no feeling quite like someone or something getting hooked on your catheter tube.
It's a lot like someone trying to pull you off the bed by your bladder and other associated bits.
So while I am lying here recovering from one my tenth surgery ( think it's my 10th ), I can safely say that there will be at least two more in the next two months.
As well as having the filter removed on the 8th of January, I will need to have the screw removed from my right thigh in order to resume rehab exercises in preparation for my return to the land of the bipedal.
Then of course down the line sometime, I will need to go back in to the chop shop to have the two rods running the length of my thighs, the collarbone and outer forearm plates taken out as well.
.
I was able to get out of and into bed by myself today, all be it much slower than normally.
Even went for a couple of short hops on the crutches.
The good news is that the surgeon visited today and we spoke about my release from here.
He asked me if I actually wanted to go back to rehab and I told him that I didn't particularly feel a need to.
So according to him, I should be able to go home sometime this week.
I still have to reach a point when I can sit down without leaning to one side and having to prop myself up because of the pain in the right flank.
It would also be good to be able to bend forward to a decent angle without wincing, but I guess all this will come in good time.
Overall I think I'm progressing pretty well with this particular surgery, especially when you consider how much cutting and shutting and grinding and screwing together was involved.
Funny thing is, Gino popped in on the weekend and dropped off some mail for me.
One of the letters was from the Alfred hospital, informing me that I am booked in to have a filter removed from an artery in my right leg that was inserted around the groin area way way back around the initial surgery back in March.
I remember being wheeled in to have my arteries and veins checked ( it's called catheter angiography ).
There was a tv screen mounted on the ceiling, on which I watched a live x-ray display of my right leg.
A radioactive fluid was injected into my right leg's bloodstream, which then showed up as black on the screen.
It started as a thick line that travelled from my groin and then started to break up into many other smaller lines as it rapidly painted a live image of my circulatory system.
It was a strange feeling seeing into my own limb like that, feeling the warmth of the fluid spreading down into my leg and watching the little black lines snaking their way throughout it.
The idea was that if there were any ruptured or damaged blood vessels, this particular test would highlight them before they became a problem.
After that was all over, I had the filter fitted.
This was just as much a foreign experience and a pretty bizarre feeling.
Under local anaesthetic, a small incision was made in my groin and an artery was pulled out from my body.
Although I felt no pain, I did feel the pressure internally of the artery being stretched and pulled through.
It was then cut open and the filter inserted into it.
It was at that point that I felt a warm stream of my own blood running down my groin, leg and arse.
Not a nice feeling.
The artery was sealed and sprang back into my body like a piece of elastic, as it was released from the grip of the angiographers.
The filter is supposed to trap any possible blood clots as they travel back towards the heart and possibly towards the brain.
And after all that, just as an added complementary bonus, they shoved a rubber hose straight up my jap's eye.
"Now this may feel a little strange and uncomfortable."
No shit! Liquid things are supposed to be flowing out of there, not solid ones inserted!
Let me tell you there is no feeling quite like someone or something getting hooked on your catheter tube.
It's a lot like someone trying to pull you off the bed by your bladder and other associated bits.
So while I am lying here recovering from one my tenth surgery ( think it's my 10th ), I can safely say that there will be at least two more in the next two months.
As well as having the filter removed on the 8th of January, I will need to have the screw removed from my right thigh in order to resume rehab exercises in preparation for my return to the land of the bipedal.
Then of course down the line sometime, I will need to go back in to the chop shop to have the two rods running the length of my thighs, the collarbone and outer forearm plates taken out as well.
.
