Hi everyone, and as always, thank you so much for the good thoughts and well wished. I wanted to check in just to keep my misadventure
up to date.
At the last visit with my OS and PA, we had an interesting conversation. Started with the PA and he had a student with him. He looked at the incision and said, yes, it's infected, but I think it's superficial. I think we'll keep you on the Bactrim for another week. Then he said, if it doesn't clear up, we'll probably need to go in again and clean it up. I said, not happening, let's see what Doc has to say.
PA leaves, Doc comes in. He says, I hear you you don't or won't go for surgery again, is that right? I answered his question with a question of my own. I said, Doc, truth time, have you ever had to perform surgery on the same patient on the same hip three times withing 6 1/2 months? He says, no, this would be a first, if we have to do that.
I already know in my heart, if I do need to be opened again, this guy is the last man on earth who will be performing that procedure. Meantime, he recommends that I go to the "Wound Care Clinic" at the hospital, because my incision is still leaking like a faucet, a month after surgery. He writes me a an Rx for 10 days of Bactrim with 1 refill and away I go.
I get an appointment at the wound clinic 5 days out from the visit with doc. Great team of nurses there do a bunch of cleaning and draining and then the Doc for the wound clinic comes in. She starts working the area around the incision and is making some very direct comments about how this incision should have never gotten this bad without being cultured and having a contrast CT scan of the general left hip region to see whats cooking in the region.
She described the area from which the drainage was coming as a "tunnel." She worked on that for a good 30 minutes getting a whole bunch of fluid out of it.
She also stated that she was very surprised to see that the OS used the same incision for the second surgery. Can anyone shed any light on this, is that unusual? She took sample of tissue and the fluid for culturing and ordered up a CT scan with contrast.
She suspects there may be hardened puss (I know, gross) in there, but can't say without the imaging. She took a bunch of blood sample and while my SED rate has come back down to within the normal range, my C-Reactive Protein is still high, where it was last time. She packed the incision with silver coated string and gauze, and covered it with a 4x4 bandage. We've been (my wife) repacking it once or twice a day as needed, since then.
I get my scan this weekend and see the Wound Care Doc again on Monday. At that point she'll have a clearer picture and will be able to tell me if I need a "cleanup" surgery. Unfortunately, since an Ortho did the original surgery, it will have to be an Ortho who does the cleanup surgery. I promise you all this much, unless it comes down to emergency surgery, my original OS will never get near my hip again in an operating room. I've heard from 2 people that have had terrible experiences with this guy. Sadly, I didn't hear this until long after my initial surgery. He has a good reputation, but I'm questioning that about now.
That brings me up to date on my tale of woe. I will follow up once I have answers next week. I have a surgeon in mind who was recommended by another surgeon who I grew up with. I'm so sick of being sick, it's just frustrating. Sorry for the 10 million word post, but I wanted to keep my thread up to date.
Once again, thanks to everyone for the good thoughts, much appreciated.
Westy