My Long Absence !

OK Sorry everyone for the long absence, It’s rather a long tale,

You may have picked up I wasn’t feeling great in my last few posts, well it turns out that there was lot’s going on with my body, lots of not good stuff, some of it my fault, some of it was not preventable,

Anyway, having felt generally unwell for several weeks, and being rather down mood wise, I developed Cellulitis in my lower right leg, and after 2 or 3 days it got bad, the weekend stopped me going to my GP,  so now the swelling and pain was horrendous, and I woke Monday planning to go see the doctor, but found I was unable to weight bare, or stand, walking was certainly out!

We called an ambulance, and I was rushed to hospital, well sort of   …   as I’m over weight, the Paramedics were unable to take me down the stairs to our flat, so unable to walk, I was forced into the indignity of coming down the stairs (2 large flights) on my butt!

I was virtually in tears, and hated every inch of that journey,

In hospital, they treated me for the cellulitis, an in growing toenail, and discovered I was Keto-Acidotic as well, this was caused by my blood sugars being very high, I’m a type 2 Diabetic, treated with Insulin and Metformin,

I responded well to treatment, but started to Hypo a lot, they seemed to think I was overdosing on my insulin, after 16 – 17 years as a diabetic! So they took over control of my insulin, this did not solve the problem,

Then a bright spark SHO (Senior House Officer) decided to STOP my insulin all together, not gradually but all of a sudden, Great idea, I then developed Hyperkalaemia, High potassium levels in the blood, due to lack of insulin, they hooked me to an ECG machine all day as they feared I would drop dead from a heart attack at any moment, they were slightly worried as they had caused this condition,

My bloods were messed up too, suddenly I was low in Haemoglobin levels, and Iron, I was anaemic my day was getting worse, I only went in with cellulitis and an ingrowing toenail, now I was about to die,

My very poor history health wise complicated everything, and when they started to cure my pain, they thought that was it, except the pain came back much much worse, and no-one would listen, for four days no-one listened,

The Nursing assistants, blindly made me get out of bed each morning, despite my protest of extreme pain, they even started NOT making my bed to keep me off of it, the qualified nurses didn’t listen, nor did the junior doctors, for four days I was tortured with agonising unbearable pain, I cried, begged, even got on my unmade bed that was raised far too high to try and avoid the suffering,

On the fifth day, I finally managed to get the consultant to look, I begged, I explained the pain, showed her the leg, after a few seconds, she said, YES, something’s not right there!

At last, someone listened, and after investigation, it was found to be a COLLECTION, a very very large ABSCESS covering the whole front of my lower right leg, they cut and drained, cutting from knee to ankle, and let out more than half a litre of PUSS, after the operation, complicated a lot by my breathing, heart,and lung problems, Chronoic Sleep Apnea and epilepsy etc,

I was in recovery for over 4 hours,

They told me it was the largest leg abscess they had ever seen, half a litre of puss hanging from every nerve and blood vessel in the front of the lower leg explained my extreme agony,

My leg started to heal well, they sewed it up, but next day opened out many of the stitches to allow drainage, then over a number of days stitched it back up in several stages,

With all the problems I was in hospital 3 ½ weeks (25 days), but I came out on Friday evening, Monday I was due to see the GP, oh the whole episode was laughable, but my potassium levels scared the doctor, and I’m in and out of hospital and his clinic for tests , reviews and re-dressings,

Oh, the consultant who listened told me she was glad I drew her attention to the problem, as left for another 2 or 3 days the leg would probably have developed gangrene, and I would have lost it below the knee at least, she commented I should have said something earlier   …   EARLIER; they took nearly 5 days to listen, my life hung in the balance, as did my leg, and they still haven’t cured my potassium problem, even though it was caused by them, they did restart my insulin, exactly as it was before! And I am in control of it,

Where my leg should have healed in 2-3 weeks, being Diabetic means it could take months to heal properly, it will be a long road to recovery, I am still very weakened, and very wobbly on my legs,

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not really moaning, and most of the staff was fantastic, but I was suffering agony for days, and absolutely NO-ONE listened, it was a form of Torture!   

I have my leg, my life and I’m getting there, so in reality, I’m happy,

Forgive my absence, I hope you understand why, and in the 9 days since I left hospital, I only just felt ready to put all this down,

Thanks for dropping by, come back soon,