And that brings us to today: (also *VERY* graphic, not for the squemish)
Yesterday my staples were removed. I tried to pick the doc's brain as to my general condition. His responses, were less than overwhelmingly positive! Things like:
"Well, usually this (PLND) is done as a matter of course during a radical prostatectomy. And normally I put in "drains". I did not do so in your case, and 80% of the time there is no problem. I guess you're one of the 20%".
Moving right along. Last night my incision opened up of it's own accord. I was sitting upright in front of a space heater in my garage (talking on the phone, quiet place!) When I stood up I felt that my scrotum and legs were quite warm, I thought it was from the heater. (not) I was covered in blood.....quite shocking actually, hard to judge the blood loss but probably something like 8 ounces. I called the Dr. and he basically said to leave it alone (????) he said, "if it opened up like that, there's a reason for it, come by and see me in the morning. (this was about midnight) I took that not quite literally and applied some gauze with tape so as not to bleed to death before morning...
Ok, so today I go see the doc. The open part of the wound is now about 1.5 inches long by .5 to .75 inches wide. There's quite a crevice beneath it, you could easily stick a normal sized pinky finger in it. The blood that is coming out apparently is seepage from the original procedure and *not* for the most part fresh blood. My doctor is adamant that the best thing to do is leave it open, flush it out several times per day with hydrogen peroxide, stick a rolled up gauze pad in it cover with more gauze ( I left his office with a 200 ct. box...free!) apply tape, and let nature do the rest! Voila! nice stuff eh? Now I have a big fucking hole in my crotch that would make a handy change purse!
ooops, sorry, so sue me. This is as real as it gets folks. It strengthens my conviction that the best surgery going is *NO* surgery!
If it's any consolation, this happens "less than in 1/100th of the cases" according to my "shoot from the hip ex-military style comando surgeon". I got to love this guy. I can hear it now as he consoles my wife after death from complications..."this happens less than 1/1000th of the time, in fact, I've *never* seen this!"
Anyway, I just got through the above forementioned "cleaning" process, and when I was finished there was a large object that may have closely resembled the liver of a medium size dog covering the drain in the bathtub ....nice stuff, this semi-coagulated blood collecting in the change purse. "Say, you got change for a clot????"<very sick grin>
Why am I "sharing" this? Because it's a riot, a freaking comedy of errors that only "The Great One" could conceive or appreciate! And also to underscore the importance of *education* when dealing with doctors.....they just flat will not *TELL* you what to expect, you have to ask. In my case there may have been a bit of "slight of hand", I *thought* the procedure was minimally invasive. In my case it turned out not to be the case.
Hey, not to worry, fortunately I am blessed with a fairly strong stomach. I can handle it, I'm just damn mad that I *have* to!
I jokingly told the Dr. that I was going to send him a bill for my follow up care....let's see, this procedure probably netted him $10K for a couple of hours in the operating room, what would be fair compensation? I say $10K because a radical prostatectomy is about $20K....I don't know what a couple of drain tubes would have cost, maybe $5 max???
Enlightened responses welcome!
Bleeding and restless in Atl., the city *still* too busy to hate!
Hubert |
