Just the Facts - AKA Well, That Sucked

Short story - had a "minor" surgery, came home with a very rare, very hard to treat infection inside the surgery site.  
 


( Long story - no fun ensued! )

Everything but The Facts - My Surgeon Sucks

 So this entire experience has more than sucked.  I've been dealing with mood swings, medication side effects (did you know some antibiotics make you so dizzy you can pass out if you stand up too long?) and a lot of googling of medical research papers about this disease.  Thanksgiving, Joshmas, and New Years were all sidelined while I dealt with it.

I would not recommend this surgeon EVER and likewise, I'll not be using this hospital again for anything serious.  Until they figure out HOW this got into me, I wouldn't trust that surgery theater with castrating a dead dog.  Its obvious it came from the surgery, not from the outside.  The abscess formed in a pocket under my skin, not on the incision line.  That healed up fine.  Additionally, the timelines point to a day of surgery infection.  It takes 3 weeks or more for this thing to start showing symptoms and there I was, on day 21 with a fever.

My primary care doctor has been good to me for years but this surgeon and this surgery theater can shove it.

For one, she has a positively Victorian approach to pain management.

I don't know if she's gotten smacked for giving out too many opioids or what but my first surgery, she sent me home with enough pain meds for 48 hours if I took them as recommended.   For an abdomen surgery with a 4 inch incision.  Yes, I was cutting those things into halfs and quarters to take the edge off for longer.

Second surgery, during which both she AND the various nurses all warned me that I'd be in a lot more pain for a lot longer, well, she sent me home with enough pain meds for 30 hours.  At two different points while I was in the recovery room, nurses warned me not to "tough it out" and to stay on my pain meds for at least 3 - 4 days.  When I laughed and ask how that math worked, given that I was being sent home with 10 pills, both nurses looked up my doctor and apologized, saying "oh, X won't give you more.  You're going to have to do the best you can with OTC, I'm sorry".  Yes, the 2nd surgery hurt a lot more than the first.

Then there's her bedside manner.  I'm in her office on the 11th, in pain, reporting a fever (that conveniently broke again right before my appointment) and racing heart and she's acting like I'm some whimp who can't handle a little discomfort, shoving her fingers into my very swollen abdomen and acting like I'm making the whole thing up for attention.  It wasn't until I pulled up my Garmin heart rate monitor report that she seemed to take it seriously, by take it seriously I mean go "Oh, I can't deal with that as an out patient procedure.  Go to the ER".

Likewise, when she decided to take the drain out, she's yanking & poking at the damn thing  (which was about 5 inches long and curved around the bottom of my incision) without even numbing the skin first .  I'm flinching cause it's snagged and her honest to god response was to say "stop moving!  You really are a whimp, aren't you?". 

Ah, no, I'm not a whimp, I'm a patient who you infected with a rare bacteria and that shit HURTS!   The entire area around the drain hole bruised thanks her removal "style".

Finally, despite me being her patient and all, she apparently hasn't even bothered to google the disease I got under her knife.  I mentioned to her the expected duration of treatment (6 months or more) and she scoffed, acting like I was making it up.  She very firmly stated I'd only be on antibiotics for a few weeks.  Next day, infectious disease specialist confirmed that we're looking at 6 months or more of treatment, which goes with the medical recommendations I could find online.  You'd think if you had something exotic show up in your surgery theater, you'd be researching the hell out of it but apparently that's asking too much from her.

At this point, I'm trying to get in to Mass General, which has a mycobacterium center and a specialist on soft tissue infections but I haven't made much progress.  In theory, my referral paperwork has been sent but I haven't gotten an appointment with them yet.   I've been calling every few days but still no luck. 

I am so damn angry about all of this. 

I was supposed to be back on my feet in two weeks, not dealing with a super rare infection that doesn't seem to be clearing up despite two powerful antibiotics that are hitting me with all sorts of side effects.   I can't have dairy in any real amount, I can't take antacids, I can't expose my skin to the sun for more than a few minutes at a time, my short term memory is fucked and I am constantly slightly dizzy like I've been fasting for a few days.  





Like one of my friends said, minor surgery is surgery other people get to have.