Surgery Day

Today was the day - the follow-up surgery to why my incision from the original rectal abscess surgery wasn't healing. The doctor suspected I might have a fistula (internal pocket of infection) that had connected to the incision site and was draining from there. I was getting a little worried, as after I saw him and the surgery was scheduled (for 4 weeks later), that the oozing had let up a bit. I had visions of getting put under anesthesia and being brought right back out and having him say that there was nothing more he could do.

I was told to report at 10:15, and we got there right on time. Nearly 2 hours of sit in a consult room and have various people come in and out and ask for information, take vitals, etc. Finally got taken back to the pre-op area about 11:30, waited for more visits - anesthesia, my surgeon, and then got my IV started, etc. It was nearly 1pm by the time I was actually wheeled back to the OR.

I next became aware of time and place at about 2:45 in the first recovery room. Pain wasn't too bad, maxed out at about a 6 before they got the Dilaudid on board. Surgeon stopped by very briefly and said he did find a fistula, that it was very deep behind muscle, so they didn't want to cut through that, and put a plug in it that will eventually dissolve.

After about an hour in initial recovery, they moved me into post-op monitoring, gave me peanut butter crackers to eat so I could take a Percocet and allowed the Man to come back. He told me the surgeon told him the fistula was 5 inches long/deep and contained a very nasty infection. Lovely! I was given IV Cipro and Flagyl, and sent home with prescriptions for an oral round of both antibiotics (plus some hydrocodone for pain management).

Finally, at a little before 5pm, I was discharged. We dropped the prescriptions off at the pharmacy on the way home, and the Man went out a little while later to pick them up.

I'm definitely feeling spacy as is usually the case on Percocet/hydrocodone, and I can tell I'll definitely be hurting for a few days. I scheduled tomorrow off as well, and again I'm thankful I work from home, so if I'm not up to par on Wednesday I can work from my recliner if needed.

I truly hope that this finally ends the saga of the never ending oozing ass incision. I just want to be able to sit normally, exercise without worrying about angering it, and stop having my clothes stick to me. Not  much to ask, is it?