Saturday, October 24, 2009
OF MASTITIS, COLDS, PILLS AND A LITTLE POO......
As if looking after a baby and a husband, who is laid up on the couch as he is not allowed to weight bear on one leg wasn't enough, poor old Snorkmaiden copped her first bout of mastitis.
Fever, flu like symptom accompanied by a sensation of needles flowing through her boobs when she's feeding were not much fun for anyone.
Added to that, she caught an actual cold.
Fortunately we were lucky enough to have mum and sis readily on hand to help out.
So for a while there, the entire family of three was on antibiotics.
There's nothing quite like spending your friday night, lying on the couch and popping pills with your girly.
Wednesday I had an appointment with the plastic surgoen and I was so relieved to have that damned half cast removed off my leg.
By that stage it was already starting to give me sore / pressure points.
Expecting to see a heap of staples holding my leg together, I was surprised to see steri strips ( like sterile sticky tape ) holding the incision closed.
Having prepared myself for the sometimes unpleasant act of staple removal, I now understood why she put a cast on and forbid me to use the leg at all.
Apart from 4 stitches, the skin was left to heal by itself, so any muscular movement from leg use could have potentially torn the skin apart.
After removing the strips and cutting the stitches, new strips were put in place and I was given permission to finally start putting weight on the leg. ( The following day I went for a walk to a mate's café and realised just how quickly the leg had become stiff and useless. )
The surgoen was pleased with the way it was looking, apart from a couple of oozy spots, which should clear up soon enough and I was a bit surprised to see that apart from having a reduced scar, I was now sporting a new incision at the back of the knee.
Basically, the doc had started at the left rear side of the right knee, cut down at 45 degrees towards the right side, then all the way down to the ankle.
The incision at the back of the knee was required to locate the motor control nerves in order to divide them.
Day 12 post op. and I'm still somewhat sore and restricted in movement, but at least I've been getting around without crutches, which is completely different to when my leg was operated on in the first instance back in 2006.
Looking at returning to work next Thursday.
On a completely separate issue, there is nothing quite like your son telling you he loves in his own little special way.
I was giving him a bath a couple of weeks ago.
In order to stop him performing an impersonation of the Titanic I was holding him up against the sloping part of the bath by cupping his bum.
Imagine my amusement when he decided he wanted to have a little bubble bath spa by making his own bubbles.
Then, imagine my abject horror as the water changed colour and little 'bits' started floating about.
With one swift motion he was hoisted up out of the now polluted bath and given a thorough spraying down with the hand held shower.
I'm sure he thought it was all very amusing.
And now, for your viewing pleasure:
Starring: The plastic surgeon with a support role from: my leg..........
The back of the knee. The nerves are the bits with blue tape around them.
Skin graft site reduction on the lower leg.
Fever, flu like symptom accompanied by a sensation of needles flowing through her boobs when she's feeding were not much fun for anyone.
Added to that, she caught an actual cold.
Fortunately we were lucky enough to have mum and sis readily on hand to help out.
So for a while there, the entire family of three was on antibiotics.
There's nothing quite like spending your friday night, lying on the couch and popping pills with your girly.
Wednesday I had an appointment with the plastic surgoen and I was so relieved to have that damned half cast removed off my leg.
By that stage it was already starting to give me sore / pressure points.
Expecting to see a heap of staples holding my leg together, I was surprised to see steri strips ( like sterile sticky tape ) holding the incision closed.
Having prepared myself for the sometimes unpleasant act of staple removal, I now understood why she put a cast on and forbid me to use the leg at all.
Apart from 4 stitches, the skin was left to heal by itself, so any muscular movement from leg use could have potentially torn the skin apart.
After removing the strips and cutting the stitches, new strips were put in place and I was given permission to finally start putting weight on the leg. ( The following day I went for a walk to a mate's café and realised just how quickly the leg had become stiff and useless. )
The surgoen was pleased with the way it was looking, apart from a couple of oozy spots, which should clear up soon enough and I was a bit surprised to see that apart from having a reduced scar, I was now sporting a new incision at the back of the knee.
Basically, the doc had started at the left rear side of the right knee, cut down at 45 degrees towards the right side, then all the way down to the ankle.
The incision at the back of the knee was required to locate the motor control nerves in order to divide them.
Day 12 post op. and I'm still somewhat sore and restricted in movement, but at least I've been getting around without crutches, which is completely different to when my leg was operated on in the first instance back in 2006.
Looking at returning to work next Thursday.
On a completely separate issue, there is nothing quite like your son telling you he loves in his own little special way.
I was giving him a bath a couple of weeks ago.
In order to stop him performing an impersonation of the Titanic I was holding him up against the sloping part of the bath by cupping his bum.
Imagine my amusement when he decided he wanted to have a little bubble bath spa by making his own bubbles.
Then, imagine my abject horror as the water changed colour and little 'bits' started floating about.
With one swift motion he was hoisted up out of the now polluted bath and given a thorough spraying down with the hand held shower.
I'm sure he thought it was all very amusing.
And now, for your viewing pleasure:
Starring: The plastic surgeon with a support role from: my leg..........
The back of the knee. The nerves are the bits with blue tape around them.
Skin graft site reduction on the lower leg..
Labels: PLASTIC SURGERY SCAR MASTITIS BABY BATH OPERATION ANTIBIOTICS POO
Friday, October 16, 2009
OF COUCH AND CRUTCHES.........
Wow, talk about slack.
Over 3 months between posts, sheesh.
So here's a brief synopsis:
Young Thomas is going well. Doing all the things young babies should be doing.
Poo, wee, feed and sleep.
After the initial chaos of having a newborn to deal with, things settled down a bit.
Slowly a routine was established by the new mum, dad and baby.
With mum recovering from the C section we spent the next few weeks finding our feet and learning about the needs and wants of the new addition in our lives.
Pretty steep learning curve it was too, as all new parents will testify.
As mum was recovering from the surgery I was preparing for some more.
This time nothing related to the smash.
I needed 3 wisdom teeth removed and this was done towards the end of the 7 weeks I had off work. All went well with the surgery, but a few days later I got a dry socket infection which required another visit to the dental surgeon.
This time he flushed out a bunch of trapped food in the socket and caused me some of the most awesome pain I have come across.
Being no stranger to pain, this time I was literally speechless and semi rocking in the chair.
Took me about 10-15 min before I could hold a conversation again.
Given the complications, my return to work was delayed by a few more days.
Flushing out the infected socket......
So the weeks rolled on, with mum and bub at home and myself at work.
Whilst I was at home I managed to do a small commercial photography job for a plastics company.
It was certainly a good experience in regards to just how much people don't know what they want, or are unable to communicate it effectively. I learnt quickly that you almost have to be a mind reader, or at least be able to steer them in the right direction, in order to come up with the goods that they will be happy with.
I also managed to get a domain name and host for a future website, but still don't have a logo, so the design has kind of stalled at the moment.
The photography has taken a slight back seat at the moment as one of my main projects is to get the Subaru ready for the outback 3 week trip at Easter.
You may ask why do that now? Well, because by the time Christmas comes, then January, then back to school, then there is no time to get any of it done, so I'd rather get it out of the way now.
There's a bit to do. A cargo barrier was bought and needs to be installed, as we will have more gear in the car now + an extra passenger. A new roof rack / tray to take the tent and fuel cans, the holey exhaust was replaced with a better flowing system, a new carburettor going on, 2 inch body lift kit will be fitted, new rear shock absorbers and I have to make a spare wheel carrier to fit on the rear bumper as the off road spare will not fit into the normal spar tyre spot.
Still a few things left.
As I write this I am lying on the couch recovering from my latest bout with the scalpel.
Tuesday I arrived at the hospital for some plastic surgery on my leg and as I alighted from the car I managed to jam my little finger in the door. Blood was drawn and more pain. I looked at it as a warm up for post surgery.
Thankfully the 3 hour long operation went well and the surgeon managed to divide a motor control nerve to a muscle graft ( which will hopefully allow me to run ) and also take out a 2cm section of scar tissue/ skin graft going from knee to ankle.
I was able to go home after only one night in the hospital, with strict instruction not to put any weight on the right leg until I see the surgeon in one week.
She also mentioned that she may do one more operation to remove another section of scar tissue later on down the track.
For now, it's back to lying around on the couch until further notice.
Here, in no particular order, are some pics of our son Thomas Jakub, as taken by his new parents:
.
Over 3 months between posts, sheesh.
So here's a brief synopsis:
Young Thomas is going well. Doing all the things young babies should be doing.
Poo, wee, feed and sleep.
After the initial chaos of having a newborn to deal with, things settled down a bit.
Slowly a routine was established by the new mum, dad and baby.
With mum recovering from the C section we spent the next few weeks finding our feet and learning about the needs and wants of the new addition in our lives.
Pretty steep learning curve it was too, as all new parents will testify.
As mum was recovering from the surgery I was preparing for some more.
This time nothing related to the smash.
I needed 3 wisdom teeth removed and this was done towards the end of the 7 weeks I had off work. All went well with the surgery, but a few days later I got a dry socket infection which required another visit to the dental surgeon.
This time he flushed out a bunch of trapped food in the socket and caused me some of the most awesome pain I have come across.
Being no stranger to pain, this time I was literally speechless and semi rocking in the chair.
Took me about 10-15 min before I could hold a conversation again.
Given the complications, my return to work was delayed by a few more days.
Flushing out the infected socket......
So the weeks rolled on, with mum and bub at home and myself at work.
Whilst I was at home I managed to do a small commercial photography job for a plastics company.
It was certainly a good experience in regards to just how much people don't know what they want, or are unable to communicate it effectively. I learnt quickly that you almost have to be a mind reader, or at least be able to steer them in the right direction, in order to come up with the goods that they will be happy with.
I also managed to get a domain name and host for a future website, but still don't have a logo, so the design has kind of stalled at the moment.
The photography has taken a slight back seat at the moment as one of my main projects is to get the Subaru ready for the outback 3 week trip at Easter.
You may ask why do that now? Well, because by the time Christmas comes, then January, then back to school, then there is no time to get any of it done, so I'd rather get it out of the way now.
There's a bit to do. A cargo barrier was bought and needs to be installed, as we will have more gear in the car now + an extra passenger. A new roof rack / tray to take the tent and fuel cans, the holey exhaust was replaced with a better flowing system, a new carburettor going on, 2 inch body lift kit will be fitted, new rear shock absorbers and I have to make a spare wheel carrier to fit on the rear bumper as the off road spare will not fit into the normal spar tyre spot.
Still a few things left.
As I write this I am lying on the couch recovering from my latest bout with the scalpel.
Tuesday I arrived at the hospital for some plastic surgery on my leg and as I alighted from the car I managed to jam my little finger in the door. Blood was drawn and more pain. I looked at it as a warm up for post surgery.
Thankfully the 3 hour long operation went well and the surgeon managed to divide a motor control nerve to a muscle graft ( which will hopefully allow me to run ) and also take out a 2cm section of scar tissue/ skin graft going from knee to ankle.
I was able to go home after only one night in the hospital, with strict instruction not to put any weight on the right leg until I see the surgeon in one week.
She also mentioned that she may do one more operation to remove another section of scar tissue later on down the track.
For now, it's back to lying around on the couch until further notice.
Here, in no particular order, are some pics of our son Thomas Jakub, as taken by his new parents:
.
